Timeline Nigeria
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Nigeria is home to some 250 ethnic groups. The Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani and Ibo are the main ethnic groups. The capital is Abuja. Daily crude oil production was 2.2 million barrels per day in 4/03. The total reserve base was about 21 bil barrels. That’s about 30 years worth. In 2001 Nigeria was the world’s 12th largest oil producer.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A11)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
Nigeria is 369,507 square miles, twice the size of California, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. As of 2000 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states practiced Sharia law.
(AP, 4/19/03)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.44)
The core of the Sokoto Caliphate lies within the boundaries of present day Nigeria. It once covered an area of 250,000 square miles (650,000 square kilometers) and stretched as far as Nikki in Benin, Ngaundere and Tibati in Cameroon and much of the southern part of the Niger Republic.
(AP, 6/18/04)
Yoruba masters created decorative masks, headdresses, figures and other objects of art from this area and Benin.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
The Wodaabe nomads, numbering about 40-50,000, moved constantly across the Sahel between Niger, Mali and Northern Nigeria. They are of Fulani origin, a race scattered all over West Africa.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.40)
2000BC The Ikom monoliths in Nigeria, phallic-shaped pieces of volcanic rock largely ignored for centuries, were said to date back to about this time. In 2007 they were added to the World Monuments Fund's (WMF) list of sites in danger and are on the "tentative" list for possible inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage Site list.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
500 In Nigeria evidence of urbanization at the Yoruba city of Ife dated back to about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
700 The empire of Kanem began forming about this time under the nomadic Tebu-speaking Kanembu and spanned bits of Chad, Cameroon, southern Libya, Niger and Nigeria. By the 15th century the intermarriage of the Kanembu and Bornu peoples created a new people and language, the Kanuri.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanem-Bornu_Empire)
700-900 In Nigeria the Yoruba-speaking kingdom of Ife began to develop as a center of trade and weaving and bead manufacture.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
1200-1400 In Nigeria the Yoruba-speaking kingdom of Ife reached a peak of artistic expression during this period.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
1767 English slave traders captured 2 native nobles, Little Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin Robin John on the west coast of Africa and took them in chains to Dominica. They soon escaped but were resold into slavery in Virginia. Some 4 years later they were taken to England and again resold and returned to Virginia. They later made it back to their home on the Calabar River (SE Nigeria) and became slave merchants themselves. In 2004 Randy J. Sparks authored “The Princes of Calabar."
(WSJ, 5/21/04, p.W4)
1771 Sep 10, The Scottish explorer Mungo Park (d.1806) was born. He settled the question as to the direction of flow of the Niger River as he traced the northern reaches of the African river in the 1790s. Park was one of the first explorers sponsored by England's African Association. He died in 1806 on another expedition to determine if the Niger linked with the Congo River. He reportedly drowned while fleeing attackers near Bussa, which is in present-day Nigeria.
(HNQ, 6/6/98)
1823 British Major Dixon Denham and Captain Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) entered Northern Nigeria from the north, crossing the desert from Tripoli.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Clapperton)
1827 Apr 13, Hugh Clapperton, Scottish traveler and explorer of West and Central Africa, died in Sokoto, Nigeria, of dysentery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Clapperton)
1851 German traveler Heinrich Barth discovered the Royal Chronicle or Girgam, which described the history Kanem-Bornu Empire. It existed in Chad and Nigeria from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanem-Bornu_Empire)
1875?-1958 Yoruba sculptor Olowe lived during this period. He carved a lintel in a sacrifice motif of grisly elegance: birds plucking the eyes from human faces.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.4)
1895 Jan 29, A massacre occurred in Nembe over palm oil. Koko Mingi VIII (1853-1898), king of the Nembe people, led a pre-dawn raid on the headquarters of the Royal Niger Company, a British firm that had monopolized the palm-oil trade in the Niger delta. The British sent gunboats in response and kept their monopoly intact.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)(Econ., 10/3/20, p.37)
1885 Feb 26, The General Act of the Conference of Berlin was signed. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.
(http://tinyurl.com/h22gpfq)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference)
1897 Jan, In Nigeria seven British trade delegates were killed as a small party approached Edo. Britain soon retaliated with a over 5,000 men from the British Royal Marines and the Niger Coast Protectorate. They packed up the oba's vast collection of ivory and brass objects and razed his palace. The 16th century brass plaques were looted from the royal palace and sold to the British Museum. In 2014 a fabled ibis bird and the traditional monarch's bell -- were given back to the Oba (King) of Benin City, Uku Akpolokpolo Erediauwa I, at a ceremony attended by royal officials and local dignitaries. As of 2020 most of the Benin Bronzes were in Western museums and private collections.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.D8)(AFP, 6/22/14)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.67)(AP, 9/12/20)
1898 Nigeria, under British control, began to develop a railway system.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.50)
1899 The charter of the Royal Niger Company was revoked, an act seen as partly a consequence of the short war in the Niger delta with Nembe King Koko Mingi VIII.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1900 Jan 1, The Royal Niger Company sold all its possessions and concessions in Africa to the British government for £865,000, considered to be a very low price.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1903 Mar 15, The British conquest of Nigeria was completed, 500,000 square miles were now controlled by the U.K.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1914 Nigeria was cobbled together by British colonialists. Over 200 ethnic groups were brought together into one country.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1923 The Baptist Boys High School at Abeokuta was founded by American missionaries.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1930 Nov 16, Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist and poet, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe)
1934 Jul 13, Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright, was born.
(HN, 7/13/01)
1937 Mar 5, Olusegun Obasanjo was born in Abeokuta.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)
1937 The Royal Dutch Shell Group began working in the Nigerian oil fields.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-11)
1943 Sep 20, Sani Abacha was born in the northern state of Kano.
(WSJ, 6/9/98, p.A15)
1945 There was a general strike in Nigeria.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1949 Nov 18, Colonial police, made up of Nigerians and Europeans, shot striking workers demanding better working conditions at the Iva Valley coal mine in south-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 21 miners and injuring many others. The incident led to further strikes mostly in southern Nigeria and some argue it helped galvanize support for the burgeoning anti-colonial movement that led to independence 11 years later.
(BBC, 1/18/21)
1950s Nigeria passed legislation that became known as the “Four Obnoxious Bills." The laws ensured that revenues from natural resources were collected at the center and doled out to the rest of the 36 states without proportion to their role in generating the wealth.
(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)
1951 The MacPherson Constitution centralized power in Nigeria. That power has been monopolized by the northern Hausa-Fulani, a predominantly Muslim group that also dominates military leadership.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1952 The evangelical Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2005 the organization began building its North American headquarters near Greenville, Texas. The church’s goal was to establish parishes within five minute’s driving distance of every family in every city and town in the US.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A17)
1952 Wole Soyinka (b.1934), later Nobel Prize winner, helped found the Pyrates Confraternity at Nigeria’s elite University of Ibadan. Splinter groups soon emerged in a variety of cults and were later used by military leaders to confront pro-democracy movement. In 2004 Rivers State outlawed cultism, but with little effect.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.50)
1954 Areogun (b.1880), Yoruba sculptor, died. He was a native of the Ekiti region of Nigeria.
(www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/11/sfg/ht11sfg.htm)
1956 In Nigeria Shell became the first company to strike oil at Oloibiri (later Bayelsa state).
(AP, 6/1/06)
1957 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became Nigeria's first and only prime minister. He held the position until January 1966 when he was assassinated in the country's first military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
1958 Chinua Achebe of Nigeria authored the novel "Things Fall Apart." It was about the Igbo tribe's efforts to guard its way of life against English colonialism and was made into a theater production in 1997. It sold millions of copies worldwide and was voted Africa's best book of the century. In 2004 Achebe rejected a Nigerian national honors award, protesting conditions in the West African nation and saying renegades were trying to turn his home state into "a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom."
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.4)(P, 10/18/04)
1960 Oct 1, Nigeria gained independence from Britain (National Day). Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966) became the first prime minister and continued to 1966. At this time Nigeria was composed of just three regions.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abubakar_Tafawa_Balewa)(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-1)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.42)
1960 Nov 16, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the 1st governor-general of Nigeria. He was a member of the southern Ibo people.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1962 Feb, An organization of African states was established by leaders of 20 nations meeting in Lagos, Nigeria.
(PCh, 1992, p.983)
1963 Oct, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the 1st president of Nigeria and proclaimed a republic.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1963 Gulf Oil began oil production in Nigeria.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8)
1964 The documentary film “Give Me a Riddle" was made by David Schickele in Nigeria after his service in the Peace Corps.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C6)
1966 Jan 15, Nigeria’s PM Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (b.1912) was assassinated in the country's 1st military coup.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abubakar_Tafawa_Balewa)
1966 Jan, In Nigeria Emeka Ojukwu (1933-2011) came to power as governor of the predominantly-Ibo Eastern Region.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
1966 Jul 29, In Nigeria northern troops led by Major Theophilus Danjuma and Captain Martin Adamu led a military coup that ended civilian rule.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)(AFP, 8/29/10)(AFP, 11/26/11)
1966 Aug 1, In Nigeria Gen'l. Yakuba Gowon (b.1934) was named head of state and ruled until 1975.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakubu_Gowon)
1966 In northern Nigeria about 10,000 people died in riots following a failed coup led primarily by Igbo army officers. Many fled back to eastern Nigeria ahead of secessionist leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declaring the region and much of Nigeria's oil-producing southern delta its own nation.
(AP, 3/19/12)
1967 May 29, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu declared the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.
(http://flagspot.net/flags/ng-biaf.html)
1967 Jul 6, The Biafran War erupted. The war, which lasted more than two years, claimed some 600,000 lives. The Republic of Biafra was proclaimed when the eastern region of Nigeria, the homeland of the Igbo people, seceded. This was followed by civil war. The federal troops of Nigeria held most of rebellious Biafra by the end of 1968 but the Igbos attempted to hold out in a small and crowded area. The war broke out when the Igbos, led by Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of the Nigerian army, launched a rebellion to form a separate state following allegations of ethnic cleansing, neglect and marginalization against federal forces.
(AP, 7/6/97)(HNQ, 5/27/98)(AFP, 1/10/07)
1967 Sep 19, Nigeria began an offensive against Biafra. [see Jul 6]
(MC, 9/19/01)
1968 Sep 15, The Organization of African Unity condemned the secession of Biafra.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1969 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of Nigeria visited California for 10 months.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1970 Jan 12, In Nigeria the 30-month civil war ended. The Biafran forces surrendered after nearly a million ethnic Igbos died mostly of hunger and disease. Emeka Ojukwu had led some 40 million Igbos in secession. In 2008 Nigeria paid the pension of Ojukwu and 63 other former rebels as part of efforts to heal wounds. In 2007 Pres. Obasanjo declared Jan 15 as “Armed Forces Remembrance Day" in honor of the soldiers that died in the war.
(HNQ, 5/9/00)(AFP, 1/15/07)
1970 The federal government passes a law that gives all mineral rights to the federal government.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1971 Feb 11, Whitney Young Jr. (b.1921), National Urban League director, drowned in Nigeria.
(www.answers.com/topic/whitney-moore-jr-young)
1971 Dec 20, Ten French physicians created a team that later became known as "Doctors Without Borders" (Medecins Sans Frontieres) to help the people in the Nigerian region of Biafra. They formed in frustration with the neutrality of the Int'l. Committee of the Red Cross. Bernard Kouchner (1939), later French foreign minister, was among the co-founders.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A17)(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Kouchner)
1972 AgipPetroli S.p.A., an Italian oil firm, began oil operations at Akaraolu.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
1973 Nigeria created a National Youth Service Corps to promote national unity in a country with more than 150 ethnic groups and to help reconcile the people after a 31-month civil war claimed as many as 1 million lives. It called for a mandatory yearlong assignment for all Nigerians who graduate from university before the age of 30.
(AP, 4/23/11)
1975 May 25, ECOWAS Treaty1 was signed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was formed in Nigeria with 15 members that included: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
(www.sec.ecowas.int/sitecedeao/english/achievements.htm)
1975 Gen'l. Murtala Muhammad staged a coup after Gen'l. Gowon postponed a return to civilian rule.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)
1976 Feb 3, In Nigeria Gen. Murtala Ramat Muhammed (1938-1976) proclaimed Abuja as the new federal capital. It was founded to replace Lagos and became the official capital in 1991.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A28)(www.datelineafrica.org/stories/200802130370.html)
1976 Feb 13, In Nigeria Gen'l. Murtala Ramat Muhammad (b.1938) in the ruling junta was killed in a coup attempt and his deputy, Gen'l. Olusegun Obasanjo, was named president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olusegun_Obasanjo)(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)
1976-1979 In Nigeria Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo ruled as head of state. He relinquished the presidency after an election and was jailed by Abacha in 1995 for treason.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)
1977 Feb 18, Soldiers from the army of Gen'l. Obasanjo raided Kalakuta, the communal home of singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Fela's mother (77) was thrown from a 2nd-story window and later died from her injuries. The compound was burned and a fire brigade was prevented from reaching the site. Fela wrote the song "Coffin for Head of State" to describe how he and his followers carried her coffin to present it to Gen'. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1,10)
1977 The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was established. In 2007 Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua planned to replace it with 5 new companies.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.51)
1978 Nigeria’s military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo opened the Ita Oko Island prison outside Lagos, which he later described as a work farm. Later military ruler Muhammadu Buhari turned the prison into a massive holding cell for political prisoners.
(AP, 5/11/12)
1979 Oct 1, Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo (b.1937), head of Nigeria, relinquished the presidency after civilian elections. He was jailed by Abacha in 1995 for treason. Shehu Shagari became the civilian Second Republic president until 1983.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)
1979 Nigeria outlawed gas flaring, to be phased out over 5 years. The law was not enforced and in 2008 some 20 billion cubic meters of year were flared, out of a global total of 150 billion.
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.50)
1980 In Nigeria Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine, an Islamic scholar, was killed in the Kano insurrection. He was originally from Marwa in northern Cameroon. After his education he moved to Kano, Nigeria in about 1945, where he became known for his controversial preachings on the Koran. His dissent was disliked by the government, and he was exiled to Cameroon in the early 1960s. Maitatsine uprisings continued to 1985.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Marwa_Maitatsine)
1982 Gen’l Emeka Ojukwu, secessionist leader of Biafra during Nigeria's civil war, was pardoned and returned home from exile.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
1983 Dec 29, In Nigeria Pres. Shehu Shagari announced austerity measures. The country was already suffering from high unemployment rates and general disillusionment after the oil boom of the '70s.
(AP, 12/29/18)
1983 Dec 31, In Nigeria the military again ousted the civilian government. Gen’l. Muhammadu Buhari (b.1942), a Muslim from the Hausa tribe (Fulani), took power in a coup. He soon launched a “war on indiscipline" and continue to rule for 18 months.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammadu_Buhari)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.58)
1983 Chinua Achebe authored the manifesto “The Trouble With Nigeria." His novels included “Things Fall Apart."
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
1983 A Nigerian court decision showed that politicians and others cannot demand the arrest of individuals who slander, libel or defame them.
(AP, 2/2/11)
1984 Jan, In Nigeria Arthur Judah Angel (21) was beaten and thrown behind bars when he went to visit a friend who had been taken into custody at a neighborhood police station. He failed to pay a bribe and was sentenced to death. During his time in prison he made drawings and witnessed the hangings of over 450 fellow inmates. After a series of appeals he was released in February 2000. Rights groups from around the world have used his surviving 51 death row works to lobby for the abolition of the death sentence.
(AP, 12/30/08)
1984 Nigeria set up its Sars police unit. In 2020 the agency was disbanded after thousands of Nigerians took to the streets to protest against police brutality.
(BBC, 10/16/20)
1984 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of Nigeria was convicted on "spurious" charges of currency violations and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was released after 2 years.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1984 Standard Oil of California (Socal), under George M. Keller (1923-2008), purchased Gulf Oil and its extensive operations in Nigeria and changed its name to Chevron.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8)(SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B1)
1985 Newswatch was founded while the country was under the military regime of Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida. Sani Abacha was the deputy head of state and set new standards in the brutality the state was willing to use to limit criticism.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A13)
1985 Aug 27, In Nigeria Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida began his rule. He gave up power in 1993.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1986 The Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Wole Soyinka of Nigeria.
(WSJ, 10/15/96, p.A16)
1986 In Nigeria a new government came to power and singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was released from prison.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1986 Nigeria’s State Security Service was created by military ruler Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to monitor domestic dissent.
(AP, 8/30/12)
1987 Chinua Achebe authored the novel "Anthills of the Savannah."
(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.4)
1988 In Nigeria a newspaper expose forced officials to close the Ita Oko Island prison. Local authorities later reopened it for what appeared to be a failed $1 million effort to rehabilitate the gang members who dominate Lagos' streets.
(AP, 5/11/12)
1990 Nigeria founded a drug agency and was soon in scandal as the top people were found to be involved in trafficking.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.56)
1990 In Nigeria 109 children died after taking paracetamol laced with a compound similar to diethylene glycol and also used in engine coolants.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
1991 Jul 11, A Nigerian Airlines jet carrying Muslim pilgrims crashed at the Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, int'l airport, killing all 261 people on board. The plane was a Canadian-chartered DC-8.
(AP, 7/11/97)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1991 The city of Abuja, Nigeria, officially replaced Lagos as the new capital.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A28)
1991 Ken Saro-Wiwa organized the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. It demanded $10 billion for environmental damage and royalties from the federal government and Royal Dutch/Shell Corp., and it threatened to secede from Nigeria.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1992 Sep 26, A Nigerian military transport plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 163 people aboard.
(AP internet, 9/26/97)
1992 Kenneth Nnebue, a Nigerian trader based in Onitsha, shot a film called “Living in Bondage" to help sell a large stock of blank videocassettes that he had purchased from Taiwan. The film sold 750,000 copies and prompted imitators and the growth of a Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood. By 2006 Nigeria’s film industry employed about a million people.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.58)
1992 Commercial creditors forgave much of Nigeria’s debt.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.80)
1993 Jun 12, Chief Moshood Abiola, a Yoruba, was elected to the presidency but the election was annulled by the ruling Hausa and the country plunged into turmoil. Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida cancelled the elections. The northern Hausa and Fulani tribes tended to dominate the military governments.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1993 Aug 27, Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida ended his rule over Nigeria.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1993 Sep 5, Seven Nigerian soldiers were killed in a militia ambush in Somalia as they went to the aid of other UN peacekeepers surrounded by a stone-throwing mob.
(AP, 9/5/98)
1993 Gen. Sani Abacha seized power after nullifying an election that Moshood Abiola, a rich businessman, appeared to have won.
(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A-10)
1993 Shell Oil stopped pumping oil in the Ogoni Province, but continued to use pipelines that pass through it. The Ogonis are a 500,000-strong community in southwestern Nigeria. They maintain that oil production has polluted their land, destroying their livelihoods of fishing and farming. Shell canceled several community development projects. It had earlier agreed to spend $29 million per year on such projects. In 2011 a UN report said it could take 30 years and at least $1 billion to rid the poisoned mangroves of a black carpet of crude.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-11)(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.46)
1994 Feb 5, Ben Enwonwu (b.1917), Nigeria's most celebrated 20th Century visual artist, died in Lagos.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Enwonwu)(AP, 10/9/20)
1994 Feb, Nigerian and Cameroon forces clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1994 May, Four Ogoni political leaders, accused of collaboration by the youth wing of the MOSOP, were murdered.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1994 Jun, A ban began on the Nigerian paper “Punch" and lasted until Oct 1995.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.67)
1994 Dec, In Nigeria Gideon Akaluka, a Christian Igbo trader, was arrested over allegedly defacing the Quran in Kano. Rioters broke into jail, beheaded him and carried his head around the city on a spike.
(http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2010/may/270.html)
1994 Opposition leader Anthony Enahoro was detained for several months after the military crushed a pro-democracy strike.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-10)
1994 Moshood Abiola was imprisoned by Sani Abacha on charges of treason for declaring himself president.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1994 Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize winning author, fled Nigeria to avoid arrest on treason charges by Gen’l. Abacha. He returned in 1998.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C4)
1995 Mar 20, In Nigeria General Sani Abacha appointed Dan Etete as Minister of Petroleum.
(http://tinyurl.com/mvzrpu7)
1995 Mar, Retired Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of state, was arrested by the military junta on suspicion of complicity in an alleged coup. He was released in 1998.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)
1995 Jun 22, Nigeria’s former military ruler Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and his chief deputy were charged with conspiracy to overthrow Gen. Sami Abacha’s military government.
(HN, 6/22/00)
1995 Nov 10, In Nigeria the execution by hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People was supervised by military govt. Col. Dauda Musa Komo. This prompted the threat of economic sanctions by the US and the EU. A government tribunal had sentenced environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and three others to hang for murder. He denied the charges and led protests against oil activities and pollution in the Ogoniland region.
(WSJ, 11/1/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1995 Nigeria’s Pres. Sani Abacha initiated the construction of a natural gas complex.
(WSJ, 6/21/04, p.A3)
1995 Beko Ransome-Kuti, an opposition figure, was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to make public trial transcripts of an accused coup plotter.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
2005 In Nigeria soldiers arrested Moses Akatugba (16) for allegedly stealing three cellphones. He was delivered to police officers who tortured him, including tearing out his finger and toe nails with pliers, until he signed confessions admitting to armed robbery. He was condemned to hang and spent 10 years in prison before being pardoned in 2015.
(AP, 6/1/15)
1995 Nigeria had about 100 million people and $40 billion in external debt. It was the fifth largest oil producer in OPEC, and the US imported about 40% of its oil. Per capita income was $230.
(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A-10)
1995-2002 In 2003 French prosecutors alleged that some $180 million in illegal payments were made over this time to Nigeria by the TSKG consortium in connection with a $4.9 billion natural gas project at Bonny Bay. The US Halliburton Corp. had a 25% stake.
(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A1)
1996 Jan, The son of Nigeria's military ruler was killed in a plane crash with 13 others. An unknown group claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 16, Voter turnout was heavy in municipal elections, the first step in a return to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 3/18/96, A-1)
1996 Mar 30, The military ruler fired the chiefs of the army and air force amid a high profile visit by a UN delegation evaluating a promised return to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 4, Nigerian and Cameroon forces again clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 13, Bopp van Dessel, Shell’s former head of environmental studies reported in a taped interview that the company broke its own rules and inter-national standards in Nigeria and caused widespread pollution. He resigned from his post in protest in late 1994.
(SFC, 5/13/96, p.C-12)
1996 Jun 4, In Nigeria Kudirat Abiola, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Moshood Abiola, was shot and killed by 6 gunmen near her home in Lagos. In 2011 Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, right-hand man of dictator Sani Abacha, faced trial for ordering a security agent to kill Kudirat. Al-Mustapha denied taking part in her machine-gun killing, saying he was tortured into a false confession.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)(AP, 8/9/11)
1996 Aug 15, In Nigeria 27 of the 30 governors were sacked by Abacha. The other 3 were transferred to other states.
(WSJ, 8/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 19, It was reported that police clashed with demonstrators last week and 10 people were killed in the city of Kaduna. The crowd was protesting the arrest of their spiritual leader on charges of broadcasting material that could incite unrest.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 7, Flight 086, a Boeing 727 belonging to the Aviation Development Corp., crashed near Epe, east of Lagos, and 141 people died.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.A18)
1996 Wole Soyinka published in exile “The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crises."
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)
1996 Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky, a radical Shiite preacher, was detained by the government for inciting the public against the military government.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1996 In Nigeria Pfizer Inc. tested, Trovan, an unapproved drug on children for an often deadly strain of meningitis. In 2006 Nigerian medical experts concluded that Pfizer violated international law and was never authorized by the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug Trovan to nearly 100 children and infants at a field hospital in Kano, where they were being treated.
(Reuters, 5/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trovafloxacin)
1997 Mar 12, Wole Soyinka, exiled Nobel Prize winning author, was charged with treason along with 11 others.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 27, Villagers occupied a 7th oil installation on the Niger Delta in protests over local government elections. Tribesmen last week seized 6 Shell sites. This shut down 10% of Nigeria’s oil production.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 2, Nigerian naval vessels opened fire on Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 8, Amos Tutuola, folk writer, died at age 77. Born in Abeokuta his novels included “The Palmwine Drinkard" and “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1997 Jul 31, Nigeria was named the most corrupt country in the world by business people in a report released by the German-based Transparency Int’l.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.B3)
1997 Aug 2, In Nigeria Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (b.1938), pop superstar, died of AIDS. He was a saxophone player who fused rock with African rhythms into a blend known as "Afrobeat." His albums included: "Zombie," "Army Arrangement," and "Vagabond in Power." He recorded more than 50 albums in the 1970s and 1980s and his 27 wives mourned his death. In 2003 Michael Veal authored "Fela: the Life and Times of an African Lion."
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/04, p.E6)
1997 Nov 20, In Nigeria the government of Gen’l. Sani Abacha gave 5 political parties $637,000 each to campaign in elections to restore civilian rule. Opposition groups called politicians of the 5 parties government stooges. 18 parties had applied for recognition but only 5 were deemed suitable.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1997 Nov, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, a managing editor of Tell news magazine, was abducted from his Lagos home. Tell under Kola Ilori has managed to maintain publication since 1993 on a weekly basis by printing in secret on presses all over the country.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A13)
1997 Dec 20, There was an alleged coup and Gen’l. Donaldson Oladipu Diya and 11 others were arrested.
(SFC, 12/24/97, p.A6)
1997 The military moved the tribal boundary between the Itsekiri and Ijaw granting more land to the Itsekiri in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A14)
1998 Jan 12, An underwater pipeline from a Mobil Oil production platform broke and released 40,000 barrels of oil into the Niger delta.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A26)
1998 Mar 21, Pope John Paul II arrived in Abuja and began urging the military government to respect human rights and release political prisoners.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A2)
1998 Apr 1, A boat enroute to Gabon with 300 passengers sank in the Bight of Bonny off Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom state. 280 were missing and feared dead.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A23)
1998 Apr 19, Police shot dead at least 3 Shiite Muslims, supporters of Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky, and wounded many more in Kaduna in clashes over 2 days.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 20, The last of 5 government-sanctioned parties agreed to back Sani Abacha in the presidential elections. The government gave each party $250,000 for its convention.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 28, A military tribunal sentenced 6 men to death for plotting a 1997 coup against Gen’l. Abacha. Gen’l. Oladipo Diya, former deputy head of state, maintained that he was framed by officers close to Abacha who fabricated the plot.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A10)
1998 May 1, In Nigeria police in Ibadan fired into a crowd of 5,000 people demanding the ouster of Sani Abacha and witnesses said 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A9)
1998 May 8, Olisa Agbakoba, a lawyer and leader of the Unite Action for Democracy, was arrested.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 May 29, Two activists were killed by the Nigerian Mobile Police on Chevron’s Parabe oil production platform. The police were flown in on Chevron helicopters following 4 days of protests. In 2009 a federal judge upheld a San Francisco jury’s verdict that cleared Chevron of wrongdoing in the shootings.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8,9)(SFC, 3/5/09, p.C1)
1998 Jun 8, Nigeria’s Gen’l. Sani Abacha (54) died of a heart attack in the arms of 2 Indian prostitutes and a local virgin. Gen’l. Abdulsalam Abubakar, the defense chief of staff, was quickly named the new head of state.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A11)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.62)
1998 Jun 12, Security forces broke up a planned mass protest organized to mark the 5-year anniversary of the annulment of the last presidential elections.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 15, Nine prominent political prisoners were released.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 18, Six more political detainees were released.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B7)
1998 Jun 25, Nigeria released 17 more political prisoners.
(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 27, It was reported that a plague of “army" worms was ravaging grain fields in the northern states of the country. The worms could lay 500 eggs in 3 days.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 2, UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan announced that at least 250 political prisoners would soon be released including Moshood Abiola.
(SFC, 7/3/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 7, In Nigeria opposition leader Moshood Abiola (60) died of a heart attack while still in prison and his death sparked rioting in Lagos that left at least 19 people dead. Gen’l. Abubakar dissolved his cabinet, inherited from Abacha, but left intact the Provisional Ruling Council. He called the death a tragedy and appealed for calm.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 9, Nigeria’s junta commuted the death sentence of Gen’l. Oladipyo Diya and five other men convicted of plotting to overthrow Abacha. The rioting continued and the death toll was raised to 60. Northern Hausa Muslims were fighting Yorubas.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 7/10/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 20, Abubakar announced that elections would be held in 1999 and power passed to a civilian president on May 29.
(SFEC, 7/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 1, Elections were planned and Gen’l. Sani Abacha was to have run unopposed.
(WSJ, 4/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 11, Gen’l. Abubakar named a new electoral commission and gave it 2 weeks to plan elections to restore civilian rule by May 29.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 18, Authorities dropped charges against Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and 14 others. Gen’l. Abubakar had asked that the charges be dropped and said that he was seeking a national reconciliation.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 23, Transparency Int’l, an int’l. good-government advocacy group, said that Cameroon is viewed as the most corrupt of the 85 countries rated. Nigeria, Tanzania, Honduras and Paraguay filled out the bottom five. Denmark, Finland and Sweden were seen as having the cleanest political systems.
(WSJ, 9/23/98, p.B17)
1998 Oct 6, In Nigeria attacks by Niger Delta protesters shut down the Shell and ENI pipelines. Anger over pollution of cropland and fishing grounds was growing.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 17, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion near the town of Jesse killed some 700 people. Authorities believed that scavenger’s tools sparked the explosion.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)(AP, 10/17/08)
1998 Oct 22, In Nigeria 6 people died in clashes between the ethnic Ijaw and Itshekiri youths in the oil town of Warri.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 2, In Nigeria the military government uncovered a $2 billion fraud by members of Abacha’s family involving overpayment to Russia for a steel project.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 6, It was reported that 14 people died in poll-related violence.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Nigeria’s petroleum minister Dan Etete awarded block OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company established just days before with no employees or assets. There was a signature bonus of $20 million for which Malabu only paid $2 million. In 2011 Shell and Eni paid $1.3 billion for the block. The government helped direct most of the money back to Malabu.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.63)
1998 In Nigeria a dip in the price of oil forced 28 banks to close. Another dip in 2009 caused ten more banks to close.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.58)
1999 Jan 4, Chevron received word of an attack on its Searrex oil rig in Nigeria. Soldiers dispatched to the rig allegedly fired on Opia village from a helicopter and 2 villagers were killed. 2 more villagers were killed a short time later at Ikenyan. A day later Chevron was invoiced $109.25 for the services of the soldiers.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A4)
1999 Jan 9, Gubernatorial elections were scheduled.
(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 14, In Sierra Leone the rebel alliance was prepared for a cease-fire after Nigerian led forces took control of Freetown.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A15)
1999 Feb 9, An oil worker was kidnapped.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 14, A British oil worker and his son were kidnapped in the southern delta region.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 15, In Nigeria Gen'l. Olusegun Obasanjo (61) won the nomination for president by the People's Democratic Party.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 20, In Nigeria National Assembly elections were scheduled. 469 seats in a bicameral legislature were vied for by 3 parties. 360 members were for the House of Representatives and 109 were for senators.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A20)
1999 Feb 21, In Nigeria the People's Democratic Party, led by Gen'l. Obasanjo, won 169 of 360 seats in the House. Lola Abiola-Edowar won a seat in the House of Representatives. She was the daughter of Moshood Abiola, the billionaire politician who died in military detention in 1998.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A10)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 27, Presidential elections were held. Also it was reported that some 1,200 soldiers had died in fighting the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, In Nigeria retired Gen'l. Obasanjo led the presidential vote with 62%. Serious concern over vote-rigging was expressed.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 1, A gasoline bombing of 2 police stations left 2 people dead including one policeman and 4 injured. The attack was blamed on a group called Odudua, which wants a separate country for the Yoruba tribe of southwest Nigeria.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C4)
1999 Mar 3, In Nigeria 8-14 people were killed in post-election violence.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C4)
1999 Mar 4, In Nigeria the outgoing military government freed 47 political prisoners including Gen'l. Oladipo Diya.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 30, Olusegun Obasanjo, pres. elect of Nigeria, met with Pres. Clinton and vowed to build democracy.
(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 1, In Nigeria the NV George, a wooden vessel, capsized on the St. Bartholomew River several dozen people were presumed drowned. The death toll was raised past 100 after 50 bodies were found in a sunken hull.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1999 May 5, Gen’l. Abubakar signed a new constitution designed to smooth the transition to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, It was reported that the military was plundering the treasury prior to the upcoming transfer of power. The foreign reserves were said to have decreased by $3 billion since Jan.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A12)
1999 May 29, In Nigeria Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo took office. He suspended contracts awarded by his predecessor. In the oil region 56 people were killed in ethnic unrest in the Niger Delta between the Ijaw and Itsekiri. Ijaw tribe fighters beheaded 3 elderly Itsekiri people.
(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A17)(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A14)
1999 May 30, Fighting broke out among members of the Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ijaw tribes in the Niger River delta.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Jun 2, In Nigeria troops were deployed to the Niger Delta where the death toll from tribal clashes had reached 200 after 4 days.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C4)
1999 Jun 10, In Nigeria Pres. Obasanjo forced 122 top officers from the military over the last 2 days and seized hundreds of millions of dollars from associates of the late dictator Gen'l. Sani Abacha.
(SFC, 6/11/99, p.D2)
1999 Jun 25, In Nigeria representatives of the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic groups agreed to end ethnic strife and pursue a lasting peace through dialogue.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A16)
1999 Jun 28, In Nigeria it was reported that armed members of the group Enough is Enough had seized 5 workers of Royal Dutch/Shell in Rivers State.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 8, Activists in southern Nigeria claimed to have captured and shut down 61 oil wells operated by Shell Co. Shell workers were also ejected from wells in the states of Egbema East and Egbema West.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 Jul 10, Clashes began between the Yorubas, mostly Christians, and Hausas, northern Muslims, that left at least 60 people dead in the southwestern city of Sagamu.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 17, In Nigeria fighting erupted when a Hausa woman was caught watching a Yoruba ritual. Over the next days hundreds of Hausa tribe’s people fled Shagamu to escape fighting with their Yoruba neighbors.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C2)
1999 Jul 25, Ethnic fighting killed at least 70 [40] people in Kano over the weekend.
(WSJ, 7/27/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/99, p.)
1999 Jul, Fighting flared between members of the Ijaws and Ilajes over land long disputed in the southwest of Ondo state.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 7, It was reported that floodgates were opened on the Niger River at 2 dams, Jebba and Shiriro, to prevent Shiriro Lake from overflowing its banks. 400 villages were submerged leaving 300,000 people homeless and some 500 people were estimated to have been drowned.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C2)
1999 Oct 19, In Nigeria US Sec. of State Albright recommended that US aid to the country be increase 4 times the current level. The extradition of drug lords as also discussed with Pres. Obasanjo.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct, Swiss authorities first announced that they froze bank accounts belonging to the late dictator Sani Abacha and his family members. The accounts totaled some $550 million. Pres. Olusegun said documents proved that Abacha and associates had diverted some $2.2 billion over a 4-year rule.
(WSJ, 12/15/99, p.A17)
1999 Oct, A joint venture between Shell, Agip of Italy and TotalFinaElf of France opened a $4 billion liquid natural gas plant.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
1999 Oct, In Nigeria hundreds of civilians were killed by soldiers in Benue. In 2002 Pres. Obasanjo acknowledged that he ordered the military operations.
(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A4)
1999 Nov 3, Armed Itsekiri tribal youths raided the Nigerian Gas Co. in Ekpan and left 30 people injured. They protested the firm's decision to pay levies to mainly Urhobo community groups.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 15, In Nigeria fighting began in the city of Warri in a dispute over the distribution of pipes donated by Dutch Oil. At least 40 people were killed.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D2)
1999 Nov 22, In Nigeria officials reported that 43 people had been killed in the Niger Delta including 8 soldiers after some 2,000 soldiers were sent to restore order in Odi village in southern Bayelsa state. In 2002 Pres. Obasanjo acknowledged that he ordered the military operations in Odi that killed an estimated 1000 people.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A4)
1999 Nov 25, At least 27 people were killed at a food market in Kedu when Yoruba traders, backed by members of the militant Odua People's Congress, clashed with Hausa counterparts.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B4)
1999 The Nigerian film “Saworoide" was released. It was seen as a commentary on the regime of Sani Abacha.
(Econ, 5/28/11, p.26)
1999 Nigeria’s Kano state introduced Islamic sharia law.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.50)
2000 Jan 5, In Nigeria rival youths of the Yoruba and Hausa tribes clashed in Lagos and Ibadan and some 35 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.D3)
2000 Feb 9, In Nigeria it was reported that 17 people were killed when a young man, who was not allowed to participate, lit a match at a site where people were siphoning off fuel from a pipeline in Ogwe.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.C4)
2000 Feb 21, In Nigeria Muslim and Christian youths seized parts of Kaduna in clashes over a proposal to bring Islamic law (Shariah) to the state. Over 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 23, In Nigeria residents fled Kaduna after 2 days of religious clashes left at least 200 people dead.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 28, In Nigeria ethnic violence between the Ibos and Hausas was reported from Aba in reaction to the fighting in Kuduna. At least 50 people were reported dead.
(WSJ, 2/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 1, In Nigeria Pres. Obasanjo deplored the recent killings in the southeast as the death toll passed 400.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 22, In Nigeria a pipeline fire killed 50 people siphoning off gas in Abia state.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.D2)
2000 Apr 19, Dozens of boat passengers were missing and feared dead after a boat carrying as many as 500 villagers sank on the Nembe River.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)
2000 May 22, Fresh Christian-Muslim clashes left 3 people dead in Kaduna.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, In Nigeria Christians and Muslims clashed for a 2nd day in Kaduna and the death toll mounted to 100.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C4)
2000 Jun 8, In Nigeria rioting in Lagos and a nationwide strike began after a 50% increase in fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A15)
2000 Jun 13, In Nigeria a national strike ended after the government agreed to a substantial reduction in the 50% increase to fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 19, Representatives of Nigeria said they found bank accounts in Liechtenstein with over $150 million held by family members of former dictator Gen Sani Abacha.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 10, Over 100 people, many of them children, were burned to death after a damaged gasoline pipe exploded near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court in the Niger Delta. The toll was later raised to 200.
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 16, Another pipeline blast killed over 100 people between the villages of Ifie and Ijala. The line was punctured to steal fuel.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 23, In Nigeria another pipeline fire broke out near the port of Warri and left 40 fuel scavengers dead.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A14)(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 6, In Nigeria an overcrowded boat capsized on the Atlantic coast near the Cameroon border and at least 40 people drowned. 42 survived.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 26, Pres. Clinton visited Nigeria. Pres. Obasanjo, head of 110 million people, pressed Clinton to help reduce the country’s $32 billion debt.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 27, Pres. Clinton visited the village of Ushafa in Nigeria and urged Nigerians to confront the “tyranny" of AIDS.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 5, Nigerians from Libya arrived home on repatriation flights and bore tales of a pogrom by youths resentful of economic immigrants.
(WSJ, 10/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 16, In Lagos, Nigeria, over 100 people died in clashes between Hausas and Yorubas. Most of the dead were believed to be Hausas.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/18/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Oct 17, Lagos state Gov. Bola Tinubu summoned Hausa and Yoruba leaders to peace talks.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Oct 18, The Odudua Peoples Congress, a Yoruba nationalist group, was banned and some officials of the movement were arrested.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov 5, At least 96 people were killed when an oil tanker truck slammed into a line of parked vehicles at a police check point between Ife and Ibadan.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.B2)
2000 Nov 30, Dozens were incinerated while scooping gasoline from a pipeline.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 9, 62 people were killed when a bus collided with a truck a 3rd vehicle hit the 1st two and burst into flames.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B4)
2000 In Nigeria Anambra Gov. Chinwoke Mbadinuju invited a fanatical Christian group, the Bakassi Boys, to enforce law and order after some 35 merchants were killed near Onitsha.
(SFC, 3/26/01, p.A8)
2000 In Nigeria 12 northern states declared sharia law.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.54)
2000 Nigeria was rated the most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency Int’l. By 2007 it improved to become the 32nd most corrupt.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.66)
2001 Jan 19, In Nigeria Bariya Magazu (19) was flogged 100 times for having premarital sex under Islamic law (sharia).
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 6, In Jos 30 girls died from a fire at the Gindiri Girls School. They were reportedly locked in for the night so as not to mix with boys.
(WSJ, 3/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 18, A mosque collapsed amid a downpour in a Lagos shantytown and at least 12 children were killed.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 26, Kofi Annan addressed an AIDS summit in Nigeria and called for an increase of funding against AIDS to at least $7 billion.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.D2)
2001 Apr 26, Nigeria announced an agreement with Cipla, an Indian drug maker, for drugs to treat 10,000 people with AIDS at $350 per patient per year.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A13)
2001 Apr 27, 53 African states signed a joint declaration to boost health spending to 15% to fight AIDS.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr, Dorothy Akunyili took over as head of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (Nafdac). Her main mission was to shut down drug counterfeiters.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2001 Jun 12, Clashes erupted between the Azare and Tiv communities in central Nigeria.
(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Jun 30, It was reported that some 50,000 people had been driven from their homes in central Nigeria during 2 weeks of ethnic violence in which as many as 200 people died in Nassarawa state.
(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 18, A 30-member robbery gang killed up to 22 people in the town of Awkuzu in Anambra state. They began with the house of Francis Okafor, a vigilante member.
(SFC, 7/21/01, p.E2)
2001 Jul, Over 100 people were killed in Nassarawa state in clashes between Tivs and other tribes.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 7, In Nigeria violence between Christians and Muslims erupted in Jos. Pres. Obasanjo called out the military the next day with dozens dead. Thousands fled the area and at least 70 people were killed.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 12, Fighting resumed in Jos and the death toll estimate was raised to 165. Police moved to quell the violence.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 14, Weekend anti-American protests left at least 200 people dead in Kano.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 12, The mutilated bodies of 19 abducted soldiers were found in Benue state.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)
2001 Oct 22-24, In eastern Nigeria soldiers killed up to 200 civilians and caused thousands of villagers to flee into the bush. The killings were apparently in revenge for 19 soldiers killed in Benue state. Pres. Obasanjo later acknowledged ordering the attacks and made a formal apology Jan 1, 2003.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D3)(AP, 1/3/03)
2001 Oct 23, African leaders gathered in Nigeria for the formal launch of the New Africa Initiative, aimed at reviving ailing their economies.
(WSJ, 10/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct, Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu (35) was convicted of adultery and sentenced in an Islamic court to be stoned while buried up to waist in sand. Her appeal began in Jan 2002. Hussaini was acquitted Mar 25 based on insufficient evidence.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A9)(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A6)
2001 Nov 4, In northern Nigeria Christian-Muslim fighting over the weekend left about 10 dead. It was sparked by the imposition of Muslim religious law, Shariah.
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 23, Bola Ige (71), justice minister and attorney general, was shot and killed at his home in Ibadan, Osun state. Pres. Obasanjo sent troops to Ibadan.
(SFC, 12/25/01, p.A4)
2001 In Nigeria over 100 flare stacks burned some 2 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas per day. It was estimated that 35 million tons of carbon dioxide was released annually along with 12 million tons of methane.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2001 In Nigeria Muslim-Christian fighting in Jos over the year left some 915 dead.
(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.A1)
2001 In South Africa MTN, a fledgling telecoms company, paid $285m for one of four mobile licenses sold at auction by the government of Nigeria.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.59)
2002 Jan 6, It was reported that Nigeria had a National Youth Service Corps that required participation by all university graduates under age 30.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighting broke out in Owo when members of the Odua People’s Congress approached the palace of a Yoruba tribal leader. Dozens were feared dead.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 17, In Nigeria labor leaders ended a 2-day general strike after Adams Oshiomole and other activists of the Labor Congress were arrested.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 27, In Nigeria explosions at the Ikeja military base rocked Lagos. Hundreds of people died when they fled the area and drowned in Oke Afa drainage canal. Deaths from panic later rose to 600 and then 1,000-2,000.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A5)(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A9)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 2, In Lagos fighting broke out between militants of the Yoruba and Hausa tribes. At least 55 people were killed over the next 2 days as fighting spread.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A3)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A5)
2002 Feb 5, Troops cracked down on ethnic fighting in Lagos following 3 days of clashes that left over 100 dead.
(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 14, Parliament voted to condemn Pres. Obasanjo for “ineptitude, insensitivity" and other offenses.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 23, Switzerland largest bank said it was freezing accounts containing money of the family of Sani Abacha of Nigeria, dictator from 1993-1998. The total blocked now reached $720 million.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)
2002 Apr 4, Young Ijaw men from Amatu kidnapped 10 oil workers off the southern coast. They demanded employment, oil contracts and other help.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A12)
2002 Apr 17, The Swiss government announced that the family of Sani Abacha will return $1 billion to Nigeria in an out-of-court settlement that allowed them keep $100 million.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A11)
2002 May 4, A Nigerian jet crashed in Kano. 4 of 76 onboard survived. Nigeria's EAS Airlines owned the British Aerospace twin-engine jet. The Red Cross reported 145 dead. A total of 154 people on the plane and the ground were killed.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/4/03)
2002 Jul 8, In Nigeria unarmed women, from the Arutan and Igborodo communities occupied a Chevron-Texaco oil terminal, preventing 700 workers, including Americans, Britons, and Canadians, from leaving. Their number soon reached as many as 2,000.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 15, In Nigeria women occupying a ChevronTexaco oil terminal agreed to end their eight-day siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to build schools, electrical and water systems.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 17, In Nigeria hundreds of unarmed women of the Ijaw tribe seized control of at least 4 more ChevronTexaco facilities in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 19, In Abiteye, Nigeria, unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities took two hostages in a bid to meet with oil executives.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20, In southeastern Nigeria unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities said they had freed their two hostages in return for a promise from oil executives to meet with them.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20, In Nigeria a huge fire broke out Saturday at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal, days after unarmed village women ended a 10-day siege that crippled the oil giant's local operations.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20-22, In Nigeria dozens of villagers have been killed, many hacked to death, in three days of clashes between rival political factions battling for influence in an oil-rich area of the Niger Delta.
(AP, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 25, Hundreds of Nigerian women left ChevronTexaco pumping stations in canoes and on foot following an agreement with company executives.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 29, In Nigeria presidential bodyguards opened fire on young men who were throwing stones near the rear of Obasanjo's mile-long motorcade. Some people were seen falling with multiple gunshot wounds, and at least six limp bodies were seen being hauled away.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Aug 3, In Nigeria amid political wrangling and fears of violence, President Olusegun Obasanjo said nationwide municipal elections would be postponed for the second time in six months.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 8, In Nigeria police freed 46 captives many of them chained and badly beaten in raids on five "torture centers" run by a feared vigilante group.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 13, In Nigeria the lower house called for the resignation of Pres. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 8/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 16, In central Nigeria gunmen killed Ahmad Ahman Pategi, Kwara state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and a senior official of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party, along with his police bodyguard.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 19, An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal by Amina Lawal, a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
(AP, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 26, In Nigeria an Islamic court has sentenced a couple to death by stoning for having an affair, marking the first time in Nigeria that a man has been sentenced to death for adultery.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 28, Nigeria renewed warnings that it cannot pay its debt service payments for the year because of falling oil revenue.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Lagos, Nigeria, an accidental factory fire complex fire left at least 15 dead. Thousands of rioters soon burned and looted the factory. 45 bodies were later recovered.
(AP, 9/17/02)(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 19, In Nigeria Ijaw tribe militants captured seven foreign-owned oil facilities and threatened to invade dozens more in a bid to force the government to change election boundaries they say favor a rival tribe.
(AP, 9/20/02)(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A6)
2002 Sep 30, The National Intelligence Council said China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia will have 50-75 million HIV-infected people by 2010, more than any other 5 countries.
(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 10, The United Nations' highest judicial body ruled in favor of Cameroon in a border dispute with Nigeria, giving it possession of an oil-rich peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 23, The Nigerian government said it rejects a World Court ruling that granted possession of a disputed oil-rich peninsula to neighboring Cameroon.
(AP, 10/23/02)
2002 Oct 24, Nigeria's parliament approved changes to an oil revenue-sharing law that gives state governments a share of revenues from offshore oil and gas production.
(AP, 10/25/02)
2002 Nov 8, Nigeria's Supreme Court scrapped limits on the number of political parties, opening the way for dozens of groups hoping to battle President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party in 2003 elections.
(AP, 11/9/02)
2002 Nov 12, The Nigerian navy raided a village in the swamps of the Niger Delta killing five people after attackers from the village robbed a ChevronTexaco oil boat.
(AP, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 21, In Kaduna, Nigeria, protesters set fire to cars and churches in the during demonstrations over a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet might have chosen a wife from among contestants in the Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeria. Witnesses said at least four people were stabbed and burned to death. Some 200 people died in ensuing riots and the writer of the article was forced to flee to Norway.
(AP, 11/21/02)(Econ, 4/30/11, p.72)
2002 Nov 22, In Kaduna, Nigeria, Christian youths retaliated against Muslims in the 3rd day of riots triggered by a newspaper article about the Miss World pageant. Red Cross officials said about 100 had died and 500 were injured.
(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 23, Miss World organizers moved the beauty pageant from Nigeria to London after three days of Muslim-Christian bloodletting killed 215 people. The violence was triggered by a newspaper's suggestion that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would have liked the event.
(AP, 11/23/02)(AP, 11/24/02)
2002 In Nigeria the governor of Borno state set out to destroy a conservative Muslim sect, later identified as Boko Haram, led by Mohammed Yusuf. Hundreds of members were killed.
(Economist, 9/29/12, p.51)
2002-2004 The Nigerian and Cameroon nations spent two years exchanging small areas of territory along their land border north of Bakassi until September 2004 when the peninsula itself was first due to change hands. Nigeria cited "technical difficulties" for missing that deadline, and after two years of stalemate agreed at a meeting in the United Nations on June 12, 2006, to pull out within 60 days.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2003 Feb 2, In Nigeria a powerful explosion destroyed a bank and dozens of apartments above it on Lagos Island, and relief workers reported at least 46 killed and many more trapped.
(AP, 2/2/03)(AP, 2/3/04)
2003 Feb 15, Nigerian oil workers launched an indefinite strike that could shut down crude exports in the world’s 6th largest oil exporter.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Nigeria cars and buses ground to a halt in Africa’s leading oil-producing nation, gripped by its worst fuel shortage since military rule ended four years ago. Nigeria, with a population of 120 million people, consumes 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Panic buying followed a recent strike.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 27, Semi-nomadic fighters attacked a village near Nigeria’s remote eastern border with Cameroon, reportedly leaving dozens of people, including seven policemen and a soldier, dead. Separately a large dugout canoe capsized on the Niger River, drowning at least 30 passengers.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2003 Feb 28, The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has sent an emergency mission to Nigeria to help find an undisclosed amount of missing or stolen radioactive material.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Mar 5, In Nigeria Marshall Harry, a senior member of the main opposition party, was shot and killed by gunmen who broke into his home in the capital.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Mar 7, In Nigeria the “Oba," or king, of Lagos Island, Adeyinka Oyekan II (92), died. Ritual human sacrifice was feared and a week of mourning left streets deserted.
(AP, 3/14/03)
2003 Mar 12, In Nigeria tribal fighting began between the Ijaw and Itsekiri.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 17, In Nigeria ethnic clashes left 8 people dead, including an employee of ChevronTexaco.
(AP, 3/18/03)
2003 Mar 19, Boatloads of Nigerian troops headed into the oil-rich Niger Delta on to put down days of ethnic violence that has left dozens dead and disrupted multinational oil operations.
(AP, 3/20/03)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 22, In Nigeria ethnic militants threatened to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they claimed to have captured in retaliation for military raids.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 26, In Nigeria Ijaw militants battling soldiers and tribal enemies in the oil-rich delta region called for a cease-fire after state officials agreed to support their political demands.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 29, Nigeria police shot and killed seven members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and arrested more than 20 to forestall a rally where they planned to make a symbolic declaration of independence. The leader of the failed Biafra state, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a leading opposition politician, lost in the April, 2003, presidential elections that were widely alleged to have been rigged.
(AP, 3/30/03)(AP, 3/23/05)
2003 Apr 1, In Nigeria the 12-day rampage by Ijaw extremists has cut the normal oil output of 2 million barrels a day by 40 percent. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of US oil imports.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 6, Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, died at the Esalen Inst. in Big Sur, Ca. He pioneered African music in the US with his 1959 album “Drums of Passion."
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A31)
2003 Apr 12, In Nigeria parliamentary elections took place for 469 seats in the House and Senate. 61 million voters were registered. The ruling party led legislative elections, but violence accompanying voting in the oil-rich south left at least two dozen people dead.
(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.A8)(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Nigeria elections Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler turned civilian statesman, sought a second term against some 20 other candidates. Obasanjo won 62% of 42 million votes. Opponents denounced the elections as fraudulent and claimed serious rigging in 16 of 36 states.
(AP, 4/21/03)(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.45)
2003 Apr 19, Striking Nigerian oil workers took about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil installations.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 May 2, Striking Nigerian oil workers released the first of hundreds of people they have held for days on oil rigs as part of an agreement to free all the captives.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 Jun 19, In northeastern Nigeria 30 miles north of the city of Umuahia, fuel gushing from a vandalized pipeline exploded, killed at least 105 villagers as they scavenged gasoline.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 30, In Nigeria a general strike called to protest massive fuel-price increases paralyzed the major cities. Police fired tear gas to break up mobs of banner-waving workers and roving armed gangs.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jul 8, Nigeria's main trade unions accepted a government compromise on fuel prices and ended a crippling eight-day strike.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 12, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria. They discussed the circumstances under which Liberian President Charles Taylor will live in exile in Nigeria, Wrapping up a five-day tour of Africa, President Bush said he would not allow terrorists to use the continent as a base "to threaten the world."
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/12/04)
2003 Aug 16, In Nigeria's southern oil port city of Warri, authorities imposed a nighttime curfew following gunbattles between rival tribal militias that have killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 22, In Nigeria 5 days of street battles in Warri left as many as 100 dead.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A16)
2003 Aug 29, In Nigeria crude oil spilling from a ruptured Shell Oil pipeline burst into flames near a southeastern village, scorching yam fields and spreading thick, black smoke for miles. More than one-tenth of Nigeria's exports are stolen daily by criminal rings who siphon the fuel from pipelines using everything from buckets to sophisticated pumps.
(AP, 9/2/03)
2003 Sep 8, In central Nigeria 3 buses and a truck collided, killing more than 100 people in the impact and the fiery explosion that followed.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Sep 25, In Nigeria an Islamic appeals court overturned the conviction of Amina Lawal. She had been sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.
(AP, 9/25/03)
2003 Sep 27, A Russian rocket brought two Russian and four foreign satellites, including Nigeria's first, into orbit. Nigeria's $13 million craft, to be used for taking photos, was built by a British firm.
(AP, 9/27/03)(Econ, 9/13/03, p.42)
2003 Sep 30, Nigeria lifted its fuel price cap on petrol, diesel and kerosene throwing the market open to competition and chaos ensued.
(Econ, 10/18/03, p.46)
2003 Oct 7, A ferry hit a bridge in eastern Nigeria and capsized. Dozens were believed dead.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 15, Nigerian police returned 74 child workers to Benin. As young as 4 years old, their skin broken and palms callused from months of hauling granite, they received food, clothes and medical care in the West African state of Benin after being rescued from the traffickers who sold them into heavy labor. On Sept. 27 authorities brought back 116 children who had been put to work in the granite quarries of southwest Nigeria.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 24, Nigerian health workers began an emergency drive to immunize some 15 million children against polio. Some 192 cases were currently active.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct, The Panama-registered tanker African Pride, carrying 11,300 tons of crude oil, was boarded by the Nigerian navy. The oil had allegedly been stolen by pirates in the Niger Delta. 12 Russian sailors, two Romanians and a Georgian were imprisoned in Nigeria. 2 naval admirals were prosecuted and dismissed after the Greek-owned ship disappeared following its seizure. In 2005 a Nigerian court agreed to free the sailors on bail.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2003 Nov 4, In Nigeria pirates armed with automatic rifles and dressed in camouflage fatigues ambushed a police boat in the troubled oil delta. 5 officers were missing and presumed killed.
(AP, 11/6/03)
2003 Nov 10, The US State Dept. distanced itself from a congressional push to capture toppled Liberian leader Charles Taylor in Nigeria via a $2 million reward.
(SFC, 11/15/03, p.A9)
2003 Nov 25, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo said he will surrender ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor to face a war crimes trial if Liberia asks.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Dec 2, Nigeria dismissed a human rights report that accused the government of killing opposition activists and stifling free speech, calling the charges "jaundiced and misconceived."
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 5, In Nigeria in the opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 8, In Nigeria the Commonwealth summit of 54-nations, representing nearly one-third of the world's 6 billion people, ended with Western nations blaming Zimbabwe for its own growing international isolation.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Nigeria banned trafficking in humans and set up an agency to curb it.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.45)
2003 Nigeria’s Pres. Obasanjo created a financial-crimes investigation unit. Nuhu Ribadu was appointed as the antifraud czar.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 3, Nigeria said it had routed a newly emerged Muslim militant movement fighting to create an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation. 2 weeks of running gunbattles had killed at least eight people.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 28, Nigeria said North Korea had agreed to share its missile technology. Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar reached the accord with Yang Hyong Sop, the visiting VP of North Korea's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Nigeria rejected the offer under US pressure.
(AP, 1/28/04)(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 30, A 25-30 seat passenger plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Lagos, Nigeria.
(AP, 1/30/04)
2004 Jan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank director and Nigeria’s new finance minister, promised that the civil service would be cut by 40%, and that top bureaucrats would have to pass exams.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.46)
2004 Feb 6, Nigeria ordered an investigation into allegations that a Halliburton Co. subsidiary paid $180 million in bribes to land a natural gas project (1995-2002), while US Vice President Dick Cheney was head of Halliburton.
(AP, 2/6/04)(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A6)
2004 Feb 22, An Islamic state in Nigeria that is at the heart of a spreading Africa polio outbreak declared it would not relent on its boycott of a mass vaccination program which it called a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility among Muslims.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 23, The World Health Organization launched a massive immunization campaign targeting 63 million children in 10 African countries as a polio outbreak spread from heavily Muslim northern Nigeria.
(AP, 2/21/04)
2004 Feb 24, In central Nigeria suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and bows and arrows killed at least 48 people in an attack on a farming village. Most of the victims died as they sought refuge in a church.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Mar 9, A shootout between unidentified gunmen and government troops in Nigeria's oil city of Warri killed five people, including one soldier. Separately an overturned candle ignited a fire that raged through a shantytown in Lagos.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 22, Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell said it plans to streamline its operations in Nigeria. An estimated 1,500 people, or about 30 percent of its work force of about 5,000, will be laid off.
(AP, 3/22/04)
2004 Mar 27, Tens of thousands of security forces guarded voting stations as Nigerians cast ballots in tense municipal elections.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar, In Lagos, Nigeria, a fire destroyed the 11-story food and drug administration building (Nafdac). 2 days later a Nafdaq lab in Abuja was burned. Criminal gangs linked to drug counterfeiters were suspected.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A5)
2004 Apr 22, In Nigeria rival militias threatened to escalate an ethnic conflict in Nigeria's oil delta, where 10 people were killed this week in an attack on a boat full of market vendors.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 Apr 23, In Nigeria a speedboat full of gunmen attacked a boat carrying oil workers in the delta region. 2 Americans and 4 others were killed.
(AP, 4/24/04)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.A3)
2004 May 2-2004 May 4, In Nigeria Tarok fighters, a predominantly Christian tribe, attacked Yelwa, a town dominated by Hausa, a rival Muslim ethnic group, razing homes and mosques and killing 500-600 people in 2 attacks over the last 3 days.
(AP, 5/6/04)(SFC, 5/7/04, p.A9)
2004 May 6, In Nigeria lawmakers in the mostly Islamic Kano state approved a law calling for Muslims to be whipped and Christians to be jailed if they are caught drinking alcohol.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2004 May 11, In Nigeria angry young Muslim men attacked "nonbelievers" with machetes in Kano, while others burned cars, stores and apartments in apparent revenge for last week's killings of hundreds of Muslims by a Christian group.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 May 12, In Nigeria Muslim mobs in Kano attacked Christians and as many as 30 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/13/04, p.A10)
2004 May 18, Nigeria's Pres. Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in a troubled central state on, invoking sweeping powers in a bid to halt religious and ethnic bloodletting. Obasanjo sacked Gov. Joshua Dariye and dissolved the legislature in the central state of Plateau.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 May 27, The Nigerian state of Kano abandoned its moratorium on polio vaccinations.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.A3)
2004 May 31, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said that his country's 30-billion-dollar external debt was "burdensome, unsustainable and unpayable" and appealed for leniency from its creditors.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 Jun 4, Nigerian troops killed 17 armed bandits in oil-rich Delta state, as military operations intensified to disarm criminals engaged in oil theft and piracy in the Niger delta.
(Reuters, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 9, In Nigeria unions representing millions of workers launched a general strike over fuel price hikes.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, In Nigeria Christians battled Muslims in Abuja, burning homes and places of worship in a dispute over construction of a mosque near a Christian tribal leader's palace. Police confirmed nine deaths and witnesses put the toll at more than 50.
(AP, 6/10/04)
2004 Jun 11, In Nigeria labor groups representing millions of workers abandoned a crippling three-day general strike.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun 12, At least 14 people were killed in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state as vigilante mobs hunted down suspected armed robbers, soaked them in petrol and then set them alight.
(Reuters, 6/15/04)
2004 Jun 18, West African defense chiefs agreed to create a 6,500-strong multinational force to respond to "crisis and threats to peace" in the war-ravaged region. The announcement followed a 2-day meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, involving defense chiefs of staff from the 15 member nations of ECOWAS.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jun 30, From Nigeria it was reported that Alhaji Dokubo-Asari head of an ethnically diverse mix of fighters who chiefly worship Egbesu, the traditional god of war for ethnic Ijaw, was trying to wrest the oil-rich Niger Delta away from multinational oil giants and the government, and put it into the hands of "the people."
(AP, 7/1/04)
2004 Jul 11-14, Security forces raided five villages in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, leaving 15 people dead and homes ransacked and burned.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Aug 4, Police in eastern Nigeria discovered skulls and corpses of at least 83 people in shrines where a secretive cult was believed to have carried out traditional ritual killings. 30 shamans were arrested in a part of Anambra state called “the evil forest."
(AP, 8/5/04)(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.A1)(CP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 12, In northeastern Nigeria flash floods have submerged houses and farms, drowning at least 23 people as they slept and forcing more than 1,000 to flee their villages.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Nigeria an oil tanker truck went out of control and plowed into a bustling Nigerian market in Kano, killing 17.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 24, The Nigerian Senate ordered Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to pay 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) compensation for damages caused by nearly 60 years of exploration in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 8/25/04)
2004 Sep 9, Nigerian troops battled militia forces in the mangrove swamps of Africa's leading oil region, the Niger Delta. The offensive has forced refugees to stream into the Port Harcourt.
(AP, 9/9/04)
2004 Sep 16, In Nigeria an oil pipeline exploded near Lagos as thieves tried to siphon oil from it, sparking a fire that killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 21, In northern Nigeria Islamic militants fighting to create a Taliban-style state launched their first attacks since January, assaulting two police stations in the northeast and killing six people.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, In northern Nigeria a gunbattle between security forces and Islamic militants fighting to create a Taliban-style state left 29 people dead, most of them militants.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 27, In Nigeria militiamen trying to wrest control of the oil-rich Niger Delta threatened to launch a "full-scale armed struggle" on petroleum-pumping operations in Africa's largest crude oil producing nation.
(AP, 9/28/04)(WSJ, 9/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 28, Virgin Group boss Richard Branson has signed an agreement with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to launch a new airline out of the west African nation that will be majority owned by Nigerian investors.
(AP, 9/28/04)
2004 Sep 29, Nigeria reached a truce with Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, head of an ethnically diverse mix of fighters, that threatened a war in the Niger Delta.
(WSJ, 9/30/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/2/04, p.45)
2004 Oct 8, In northeast Nigeria Islamist rebels attacked a major police patrol taking a number of hostages in a remote area near the Cameroonian border.
(AFP, 10/9/04)
2004 Oct 11, In Nigeria a nationwide strike to protest fuel price hikes shut down Lagos.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 14, Nigerian unions called off a general strike which had jeopardized oil supplies from the world's seventh largest exporter for four days.
(Reuters, 10/14/04)
2004 Oct 26, In Nigeria a 2nd day of peace talks on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region broke off after rebels called for more time to prepare proposals for a long-term political resolution to the conflict.
(AP, 10/26/04)
2004 Oct 27, Nigeria's state-owned news agency reported that an outbreak of measles in a remote Nigerian village had killed a dozen people. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 500,000 deaths from measles every year.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 28, Five policemen working for Nigeria's anti-drug enforcement agency were among 7 people killed by a mob that mistook them for armed robbers in a remote northern village.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Nigeria unions declared the top oil multinational here, Royal Dutch/Shell, "an enemy of the Nigerian people" and called a Nov. 16 nationwide strike.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Nov 10, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria threw out a death by stoning sentence against a pregnant 18-year-old girl who had been condemned for adultery.
(AP, 11/10/04)
2004 Nov 12, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to calm labor discontent ahead of a planned general strike, saying he would order the reduction of kerosene prices.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 15, Nigeria ordered immediate cuts in domestic fuel prices, trying to avert a looming general strike.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 15, Nigeria's main labor union indefinitely suspended a looming countrywide strike that had threatened to shut down the oil industry.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria, a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004 Nov, In Nigeria thugs burned down the main government building in the state capital of Anambra and shot at the governor.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.45)
2004 Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region, shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 7, Nigerian villagers lifted their blockade of three oil pumping stations in the volatile Niger Delta after energy giants Shell and ChevronTexaco agreed to discuss funding local development projects.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 13, In Nigeria the first face-to-face working meeting between Sudan government and Darfur rebel negotiators began. Cease-fire violations were on the rise in Sudan's bloodied Darfur region and the fighting was "poisoning" peace talks.
(AP, 12/13/04)
2004 Dec 22, Thieves stealing fuel from a pipeline in Nigeria set it ablaze as they fled from police, and at least 20 people died in the fire.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Charles Soludo, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, ordered banks to raise their minimum capital base 12-fold.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.71)
2005 Jan 1, Nigeria was forecast for 2.6% annual GDP growth with a population at 139.8 million and GDP per head at $380.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.94)
2005 Jan 8, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo flew to Sudan's troubled Darfur region to assess the crisis there following talks with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2005 Jan 10, Canada and Nigeria agreed to terms under which the Canadian International Development Agency is to provide 24.9 million Canadian dollars (20.4 million US) for health projects in the west African country.
(AP, 1/11/05)
2005 Jan 12, Nigeria made public plans to build a second $6-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the southwestern state of Ondo.
(AFP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 19, In Nigeria a fuel tanker crashed into two buses and burst into flames on a road in Lagos, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 30, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at a summit of the 53-member African Union in Abuja, Nigeria, urged pan-African cooperation to resolve conflicts.
(AFP, 1/30/05)
2005 Jan 31, In Nigeria African leaders pledged to send more peacekeeping troops to conflict zones, especially the western Sudan region of Darfur, and to boost their role in world affairs.
(AP, 2/1/05)
2005 Feb 4, The Nigerian army quelled a demonstration at one of Nigeria's main oil export terminals, while activists accused the soldiers of killing four protesters.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 10, Togo turned away a plane carrying Nigerian peacemakers, drawing threats of sanctions and accusations from Nigeria that it was blocking efforts to resolve a crisis widely condemned as a military coup.
(Reuters, 2/11/05)
2005 Feb 19, Nigerian soldiers, sailors and police descended on Odioma to hunt down a local militia leader and black magic guru who was accused of murdering 12 people from Obiaku. 28 people killed and Odioma was burned down by government troops.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Feb 23, In northern Nigeria hunters burning land to flush out game set fire to a munitions dump, triggering a string of explosions which damaged military buildings and spread panic in the city of Kaduna.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, African Union (AU) chairman, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, met Sudan's first vice president Ali Taha over the bloody crisis in Darfur region.
(AFP, 2/28/05)
2005 Mar 3, In Nigeria thousands of rioters wielding sticks and broken bottles burned down a police station in Makurdi, protesting the police killing of a bus driver who apparently refused to pay a bribe equivalent to 14 cents.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 7, Authorities said Nigerian police have rescued more than 100 children from child traffickers over the last 3 days, including 56 discovered at a checkpoint in a frozen food truck.
(Reuters, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 8, The parliament of Nigeria, Africa's most-indebted nation, passed a nonbinding resolution demanding Nigeria stop repaying its $35 billion foreign debt.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 21, It was reported that measles in Nigeria had killed 529 people this year.
(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 22, Nigeria’s Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo fired his education minister, Fabian Osuji, accusing him of bribing lawmakers including the Senate leader Adolphus Wabara and a string of other named senators of taking bribes totaling $398,550.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 Mar 28, Tafa Balogun, Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, was arrested. He was later charged with numerous counts including embezzling $93 million from police funds.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.37)(www.efccnigeria.org/)
2005 Mar 29, It was reported that China’s influence in Africa was expanding rapidly. Chinese projects included the rebuilding of Nigeria’s railroad network; the paving of roads in Rwanda; ownership of copper mines in Zambia; timber operations in Equatorial Guinea; and supermarket operations in Lesotho.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 8, ChevronTexaco Corp. said it has awarded a $1.7 billion contract to build Nigeria's third natural gas-to-liquids plant to a consortium including Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 11, Britain imposed a year-long ban on delivering first-time visas to Nigerians aged 18 to 30, citing a backlog of applications, most of which are rejected.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 May 3, ChevronTexaco's Nigerian subsidiary said it would overhaul its aid projects in the country's oil-rich south after finding much of the tens of millions of dollars spent yearly was fueling violence and wasted by corruption.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 5, President Bush met with Nigerian Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo. They discussed oil and Obasanjo said he would explore how to address US concerns that former Liberian President Charles Taylor be brought to justice.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 10, A UN resolution backed by the US urged Nigeria to hand Charles Taylor to a court in Sierra Leone on the grounds that Taylor had violated his terms of asylum.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.52)
2005 May 17, In southeastern Nigeria hundreds of youths stormed a police station and set fire to cars after a protester was fatally shot by a police rifle.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May, In Nigeria Mike Amadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting up a Web site that offered juicy but phony procurement contracts. Amadi was caught by an undercover agent posing as an Italian businessman.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Jun 4, Hundreds of activists gathered in southern Nigeria to rally support for an opposition conference, backed by the Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka, to end ethnic and political violence in Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Nigeria 5 men and one woman were shot dead in the poor Apo neighborhood Abuja. Police initially said they were armed robbers caught in the act, but an inquiry established that they were unarmed. In Dec Nigeria apologized to the families of the people who were shot dead and offered them 3 million naira ($22,600) each, setting a precedent in a country where police brutality is a fact of daily life.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Jun 15, A militant group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region kidnapped 2 German and 4 Nigerian workers of a contractor firm providing service for Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 18, Militants in southern Nigeria released six oil workers taken hostage by a group demanding $20 million from Shell for local communities.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9 north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 12, French company Technip SA said it has been awarded an $800 million contract by Chevron Corp. to develop its largest Nigerian oil project.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 16, In Lagos a court convicted Amaka Anajemba, a Nigerian woman, of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the country's biggest international fraud case. She was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to give up $25.5 million in cash and assets. Banco Noroeste of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was reportedly fleeced of some $242 million over seven years until 2001.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 24, In northern Nigeria a long-haul passenger bus skidded off a bridge and tumbled into a river after the driver fell asleep, and 56 people were killed.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 26, A boat ferrying passengers between remote villages sank in a southwestern Nigerian river, killing at least 18 people.
(AP, 7/28/05)
2005 Jul 30, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., received $100,000 at the Ritz-Carlton in Arlington, Virginia, to use for bribing Abubakar Atiku, vice-president of Nigeria. Vernon Jackson, a Kentucky businessman, later admitted to paying over $400,000 in bribes to secure deals for his telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries. Documents released in 2005 said an FBI informant recorded a video of the transaction.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A3)
2005 Aug 1, In Nigeria protesting Akabuka villagers demanding more jobs for their community forced the Nigerian branch of Total SA to shut down the Obagi onshore oil field.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 3, The FBI raided the Maryland residence of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar as part of a probe into whether a US congressman made or approved payments to officials in West Africa.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 18, Nigerian media quoted Pres. Obasanjo as saying police violations "ranged from extra-judicial killings to torture and unlawful detention." He singled out an incident in June in which policemen in the capital, Abuja, allegedly killed six people returning from a night outing after branding them armed robbers. Six policemen were charged in the killings. Among those accused is Danjuma Ibrahim, the second-ranking policeman in the city.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 25, African ministers and international donors unveiled a 1.1-billion-dollar (894 million euro) strategy to boost catches, build fish farms and develop the seafood sector after a high-level meeting of the New Partnership for Africa’s Redevelopment (NEPAD) Fish for All Summit, in Abuja, Nigeria.
(AP, 8/25/05)(www.nepad.org/)
2005 Aug, In Nigeria Amaka Anajemba was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to return $25.5 million of the $242 million she helped to steal from a Brazilian bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Sep 5, Nigerian unions dropped a threat to hold a nationwide general strike but instead vowed to launch a series of mass street rallies to protest against rising petrol prices.
(AFP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 15, British police arrested Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, leader of the oil-rich southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa, as part of a money laundering investigation.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 20, In Nigeria dozens of soldiers and police arrested Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, the main militia leader in Nigeria's south, at his office in the oil city of Port Harcourt. A militia with a history of violence in Nigeria's oil-rich south threatened to blow up oil installations if the government did not release its arrested leader.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Sep 22, In Nigeria police said Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, a separatist militia leader, will be charged with treason, a capital offense. His arrest set off tense protests in the oil heartland. Dokubo-Asari said his Ijaw ethnic group and the other people of the Niger delta should break away from Nigeria and take control of the billions of dollars of oil flowing from their land.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 22, Boatloads of Nigerian guerrilla fighters armed with rifles, machetes and dynamite launched a drive to hijack oil installations in the waterways of the Niger Delta, after a judge jailed their leader.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 28, In Nigeria 2 oil workers, one Briton and the other from Ireland, were kidnapped in the southern delta.
(Reuters, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 4, In Nigeria at least 3 civilians were killed in crossfire and a Lagos police headquarters was burned down after a dispute between armed police and soldiers erupted in street fighting. Witnesses said that brawling broke out after an army officer tried to prevent a police patrol extorting an illegal 20 naira (seven cent) toll from a motorcycle taxi driver.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 8, Nigeria's financial crimes agency said it had returned $4.5 million last month seized from scammers to an 86-year-old Chinese woman.
(AP, 10/8/05)
2005 Oct 12, A build up of pollution from factories and old cars caused a wave of smog that enveloped much of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 15, Nigeria and Cameroon discussed a new program for Nigeria to withdraw from the disputed Bakassi peninsula, but failed to set a new deadline after two days of talks in Abuja.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 20, The Paris Club announced and agreement to cancel 60% (about $18 billion) of Nigeria's foreign debt. This fueled optimism among anti-poverty campaigners, but corruption and requirements imposed by the West overshadowed the future. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, was rated the sixth most corrupt nation in the world in a survey released earlier this week by Berlin-based Transparency International.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 22, In Nigeria a passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos, killing all 117 on board.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 23, Stella Obasanjo (59), the wife of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, died after undergoing liposuction surgery in Spain. In 2009 A court in Malaga convicted plastic surgeon Antonio Mena Molina of negligent homicide. He was given a suspended sentence of a year in jail, barred from practicing medicine for three years, and ordered to pay euro120,000 ($175,000) in damages to the woman's son.
(AP, 10/23/05)(AP, 9/22/09)
2005 Oct 27, Nigerian security forces said they have detained three of the country's most powerful militant leaders, as part of an apparent crackdown on the separatist forces threatening to tear the country apart.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 30, Nigeria reported that its inflation rate rose to 15.5% in the 12 months ending in August, up 14.2% from the month before according to the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS).
(AP, 10/30/05)
2005 Oct, Oando, a Nigerian energy group, became the first company from another African country to be listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE).
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.72)
2005 Nov 12, Africa Union leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal met in Abuja for a 2-day summit titled: "Africa and the challenges of the global order: Desirability of union government," with the leaders discussing the broad principles of integration.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 14, It was reported that India's top oil exploration firm, Oil & Natural Gas Corp., and the world's largest steel maker, the Netherlands-based Mittal Group, planned to build an oil refinery in Nigeria. They offered to invest another $6 billion in building a power plant and railroads there.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 14, In northern Nigeria 12 children were trampled to death as panicked pupils fled what they thought was a fire in their school at Kaduna.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 21, British authorities said Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (1953), the governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich state Bayelsa, has skipped bail and returned home. He had been arrested and charged in Britain for laundering millions.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 23, In Nigeria a Bayelsa state government spokesman said an impeachment notice has been filed against Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who skipped bail in London, accusing him of money laundering, holding illegal foreign bank accounts, corruptly enriching his family and misappropriating public funds among other offenses.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 28, In Nigeria hundreds of troops armed with rocket launchers and machine guns manned check points in the oil-producing Bayelsa state as protesters staged rival rallies over the impeachment of the state governor.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Nov 29, A Sudanese Darfur rebel faction said it attacked a town in West Darfur state, killing 37 soldiers and police, to push for its inclusion in peace talks due to open in the Nigerian capital Abuja later in the day.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Dec 2, In Nigeria rebel leaders from the western Sudanese region of Darfur rejected an African Union draft agreement on power-sharing between their forces and the government in Khartoum, pushing the sides' seventh session of peace talks close to stalemate.
(AFP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 5, In southeastern Nigeria Separatist protesters demanding authorities release their leader shut down businesses and banks, and an activist said security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing three people.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 6, Separatist radicals faced off against heavily-armed Nigerian police in eastern cities as a protest to demand an independent homeland for the 40-million-strong Igbo people entered its second day.
(AFP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 9, In Nigeria Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the governor of the oil-rich state of Bayelsa who skipped bail in Britain to escape trial there for money-laundering, was arrested by 200 armed policemen, after lawmakers removed his immunity from prosecution.
(AFP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 9, In Nigeria police broke down the gate of a huge housing complex to oust thousands of civil servants and their families in the third mass eviction by the government this week in the commercial capital of Lagos. The move followed a decision by the government to sell off several publicly owned housing blocks for civil servants in a privatization scheme. Authorities have not provided the estimated 8,000 residents with other accommodation.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 10, Nigeria’s Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 carrying 110 passengers crashed while landing during a storm in the southern city of Port Harcourt. Some 107 people were killed including 71 children. The runway lights were off because the airport had not bought a generator.
(AP, 12/10/05)(AFP, 12/12/05)(WSJ, 10/1/07, p.A1)
2005 Dec 18, Nigeria grounded Boeing 737 planes across the country for safety checks, stranding thousands of travelers after two deadly accidents in two months.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 20, The impeached governor of a Nigerian oil-exporting state faces charges of stealing $55 million in public funds, according to a charge sheet produced in court by Nigeria's anti-corruption agency.
(Reuters, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 20, In southern Nigeria attackers blew up a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline carrying crude oil across, killing at least eight people and cutting crude production in Africa's oil giant.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 21, In Nigeria Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell announced the closure of a third flowstation, following the alleged sabotage of a pipeline, bringing a loss in crude oil production to 180,000 barrels per day (bpd).
(AFP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 29, Authorities said Mohammed Marwa, a former official in Nigeria's junta, has been detained as part of a corruption probe in what was the first arrest and questioning of a top official in the former ruling military regime.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 The CD "I Go Chop Your Dollars," penned by Nigerian artist Osofia, became a hugely popular hit in Lagos. It also became the anthem of Nigeria’s 419 internet scam artists.
(LAT, 10/20/05)
2005 In Nigeria an Air France flight ploughed into a herd of cows on the runway way at Port Harcourt.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.42)
2005 Nigeria’s 1st world-class shopping mall, the Palms, opened in Lagos.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.60)
2006 Jan 6, Nigeria’s government anti-AIDS agency said it will double the number of centers where AIDS patients can get free drugs in the next three months as part of a major drive to widen access to treatment.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 8, Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas company Nigeria NLNG said it had shipped the first cargo of gas from its fourth production plant to the US.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Nigeria gunmen stormed an offshore oil platform run Royal Dutch Shell and kidnapped four foreign oil workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. The four were freed nearly three weeks later.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)(AP, 1/11/07)
2006 Jan 14, Sadatu Abubakar Rimi, the wife of a senior Nigerian opposition figure, was hacked to death in the early hours by suspected hired assassins.
(Reuters, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 15, Separatist gunmen shot dead several Nigerian troops and overran an oil plant run by the Anglo-Dutch Shell, amid fears for the safety of four kidnapped foreign workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. MEND told Shell to pay $1.5 billion to the state of Bayelsa for pollution it said Shell has caused.
(AFP, 1/15/06)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)
2006 Jan 19, Nigerian kidnappers said their US hostage was gravely ill and threatened to kill three other foreign oil workers held captive if he died.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nigeria, a police spokesman said 14 suspects have been arrested following clashes in Lagos earlier this week in which three people were killed.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Port Harcourt, Nigeria, an armed gang dressed in police uniform attacked the offices of Agip oil company, a unit of Italy's ENI, and at least 9 people were killed.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 30, In Nigeria 4 foreign oil workers were released after being held hostage for more than two weeks by a militia demanding that residents in southern Nigeria benefit more from its energy wealth.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 8, The World Organization for Animal Health said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria, the first reported outbreak in Africa. Researchers later reported that 3 different strains of bird flu had entered Nigeria and most closely resembled those identified in Egypt, Mongolia and Russia.
(AP, 2/8/06)(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 9, Health authorities imposed a quarantine on poultry farms across northern Nigeria. 2 more states reported cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
(AP, 2/9/06)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 18, In Nigeria armed militants carried out a wave of attacks across the troubled Niger delta, blowing up oil and gas pipelines and seizing nine foreign oil workers: 3 Americans, a Briton, 2 Egyptians, 2 Thais and one Filipino. Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados terminal after militants bombed the tanker loading platform.
(Reuters, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Nigeria militants in southern Nigeria destroyed an oil pipeline and blew up a boat in violence that has cut about 20 percent of crude production in Africa's oil giant.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Christian mobs rampaged through the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha, burning mosques and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Nigeria at least 20 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the eastern Nigerian city of Onitsha. Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city as the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at least 93.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Reuters, 2/22/06)(SFC, 2/23/06, p.A13)
2006 Feb 23, Christians in the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha burned Muslim corpses and defaced wrecked mosques, showing little repentance after days of sectarian violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 24, Christian youths armed with machetes, stones and clubs attacked Muslims in the southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu. A Reuters witness saw a mob beat one man to death. Sectarian violence spread to three more Nigerian cities, claiming at least seven lives and pushing up the death toll in days of killings to at least 127.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, A Nigerian court ordered Royal Dutch Shell PLC to pay southern communities $1.5 billion (1.2 billion euros) in compensation for environmental pollution and degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell appealed against the court's decision.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In northern Nigeria 35 were killed and five were injured when two buses collided head-on and caught fire at Kwarna-Jagga in Jigawa state.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 28, Nigerian separatist militants stormed a tanker ship working in the Niger Delta and took a large sum of cash, 12 days after they kidnapped nine foreign oil workers from another vessel. The insurgent spokesman said the tanker captain had parted with 500,000 naira as a "goodwill token" during the encounter, although a shipping industry source put the sum at two million naira (15,500 dollars / 13,000 euros).
(AFP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, In Nigeria militants released six foreign oil workers, including a diabetic Texan celebrating his 69th birthday, taken captive last month to press fighters' demands for a greater share of oil revenues generated in this restive southern state.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 5, Nigerian militants threatened to halve the country's oil output by cutting another one million barrels a day this month in their campaign to gain more autonomy for the southern delta region.
(Reuters, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 6, Nigeria unveiled details of spending plans in its record 14.8-billion-dollar (12.3-billion-euro) federal budget and made ambitious predictions for strong economic growth.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, A four-year-old Indonesian boy became the latest suspected human casualty of bird flu as the virus spread in Nigeria and Poland. A Russian virus expert warned that a human pandemic was highly likely and told the government to get ready.
(AFP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Nigeria government sources said the head of the Nigerian military in the oil-producing Niger Delta has been removed from his post on suspicion of involvement in the theft of crude oil. Militants killed at least 5 soldiers in a firefight during an attack by the army in the southern Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 3/9/06)(AFP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 13, In Nigeria and official report said ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and communal conflicts have driven more than three million Nigerians from their homes since the return to democracy in 1999.
(Reuters, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 17, Liberia said it has asked Nigeria to hand over former Pres. Charles Taylor, who is living there in exile and wanted on war crimes charges for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 21, Nigeria launched its first census for 15 years. Residents remained indoors on government orders on the first day of the controversial census.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Nigeria heavy winds ripped away much of the top nine floors of a fire-weakened building in Lagos, raining debris on mostly empty streets and leaving people on lower floors waving frantically for help.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 22, A ferry carrying 150 passengers sank off the coast of Cameroon, and 23 people were rescued. The rest were feared dead. The ferry was bound for Gabon from Nigeria with passengers from Burkina Faso, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
(AP, 3/23/06)(SFC, 3/24/06, p.A12)
2006 Mar 23, Human rights campaigners said Nigerian separatists have attacked census officials with acid and machetes in a violent campaign for the southeastern region to boycott the headcount. A violent start to Nigeria’s first census in 15 years left at least 10 dead and scores of others injured.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 25, Nigeria said it will send back to Liberia exiled ex-president and one-time warlord Charles Taylor, wanted for trial on war crimes by a UN-backed court.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 25, Nigeria announced a two-day extension of a controversial census to allow for everyone in Africa's most populous nation to be counted despite delays caused by poor organization and violence.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 27, In Nigeria a weeklong census ended as workers scrambled to tally everyone across Africa's most-populous nation, but many remained uncounted in the exercise, marred by violence and the lack of forms, census takers and money.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Militants demanding control of revenues from Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta released their last remaining foreign hostages, two Americans and a Briton, but the group threatened to continue attacks on oil installations.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 28, Officials said former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans. Taylor was arrested trying to cross the border into Cameroon. He then was flown back to Liberia.
(AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Nigeria at least a dozen people drowned when an overcrowded dugout canoe capsized in a remote creek in the delta region. 5 employees of a contractor to US oil company Chevron were among the dead. Nigerian newspapers said at least 20 people died, adding 12 bodies had been recovered.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10-2006 Apr 12, About 25 people were killed in three days of skirmishes between two Nigerian tribes over ownership of land in the central state of Plateau.
(Reuters, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 18, Nigeria said it plans to build a $1.8 billion highway and create jobs to address the crises in the Niger Delta. Militants dismissed the efforts as insufficient.
(WSJ, 4/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 19, Nigerian militants killed two people in a car bomb attack on an army barracks in the southern city of Port Harcourt, extending a four-month onslaught against the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 27, In Nigeria President Hu Jintao said China wants a "strategic partnership" with Africa, seeking to add a new political dimension to a blossoming economic romance. China agreed to commit $4 billion for infrastructure in exchange for 4 oil drilling licenses.
(Reuters, 4/27/06)(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 29, A car bombing in the Nigerian oil city of Warri destroyed at least five tanker trucks. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the southern delta's oil wealth, said it had used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of dynamite in the bombing.
(Reuters, 4/30/06)
2006 May 10, In southern Nigeria a gunman riding a motorcycle shot to death an American oil worker on his way to the office.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in the southern city of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 12, In southwestern Nigeria a ruptured pipeline exploded as villagers rushed to collect oil gushing from it and a local TV station said up to 200 people were feared dead. Militants threatened to destroy NLNG, a $13 billion natural gas export plant.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 16, The Nigerian Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for a third term in office in 2007.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 19, Nigeria sold to a state-owned Chinese group licenses to explore four oil blocks, underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources. In exchange for the drilling rights, China agreed to invest two billion dollars in northern Nigeria's Kaduna refinery. The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), rejected the claim and described the allocation as a "bribe".
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 21, In Nigeria rock star and activist Bono told African finance ministers that the recent goodwill of wealthy industrialized countries toward Africa could dissipate unless the continent tackles corruption.
(Reuters, 5/21/06)
2006 May 29, In southwestern Nigeria a truck hauling iron rods lost control and crashed into several roadside buses as passengers were boarding, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May, In Nigeria 30 men stormed the headquarters of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons in Abuja, destroying filing cabinets and boxes of documents. The same month, an investigator was murdered.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Jun 1, In southern Nigeria a major oil spill forced Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to cut production by 50,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig operating off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six British, one American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked during the night.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 4, In Nigeria 8 foreign oil workers, kidnapped on June 2, were released. Police declined to say whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was responsible for the hostage-taking.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 7, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped five South Koreans in an overnight raid on a gas plant owned by Shell. 10 soldiers were killed in the raid.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, In Nigeria militants released one Nigerian and five South Korean gas workers after a plea from the jailed militant leader in whose name they were abducted.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 16, In southeast Nigeria at least six people were killed in the city of Onitsha when a feud between a separatist group and a transport union degenerated into street battles.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2006 Jun 19, In Onitsha, Nigeria, 204 prison inmates were set free by the "hoodlums" who invaded the building at around 2:00 am. The attack on Onitsha prison came less than 24 hours after troops were deployed and a curfew imposed on the troubled city. Clashes between the banned Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), a separatist group, and police were reported to have left several people dead at the weekend.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 20, Two Filipino oil workers were kidnapped near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt in the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 21, Nigeria’s Pres. Olusegun removed Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the finance ministry and installed her as the foreign minister.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.46)(http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/16262.html)
2006 Jun 25, Two Filipino oil workers, kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil delta, were released after five days in captivity.
(AP, 6/25/06)
2006 Jun 26, Nigerian authorities re-arrested Gbenga Arulegba, the presenter of a political TV program, and charged him with sedition over a show critical of the president.
(Reuters, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 6, In Nigeria a Dutch oil worker was kidnapped by armed men from a Royal Dutch Shell gas plant. He was released July 10.
(AP, 7/6/06)(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 12, In Nigeria 2 explosions hit oil installations belonging to an Italian oil company along two Agip pipelines in Baleysa state.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a deal with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available to fight the disease.
(AFP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 19, In Nigeria a 4-story apartment building collapsed overnight in Lagos. Red Cross officials confirmed that at least 24 people were killed.
(AFP, 7/20/06)
2006 Aug 4, In southern Nigeria 3 Filipinos working for a US construction firm were kidnapped, a day after a German was abducted in the same region.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 10, In southern Nigeria gunmen in military fatigues seized two foreign oil workers. A Belgian and a Moroccan were abducted as they traveled through the city of Port Harcourt taking to at least 10 the number kidnapped in the past week.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August 12 UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said they would resist a handover to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a state of flux for another five years before it will be finally handed over to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Nigeria Ayo Daramola, a member of the country's ruling party and a potential candidate in Ekiti state, was found stabbed to death in his home, the third killing of a potential gubernatorial candidate in recent weeks. Armed men kidnapped four more foreign oil workers in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, but released 3 Filipinos abducted more than 10 days ago.
(AFP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers being held hostage in Nigeria were freed as the government promised to crack down on a surge in unrest in Africa's largest oil producer.
(Reuters, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 18, Nigeria’s military launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of kidnappings.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Nigeria government troops arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected of taking oil industry workers hostage in the petroleum-rich south.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, At least 11 people were killed when militants engaged Nigerian troops in a fierce gun battle in the restive Niger Delta. Local press reports said 12 people, 10 militants, a Shell worker and a soldier, were killed during the shootout.
(AFP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Nigeria soldiers stopped cars at checkpoints and arrested 60 people in the third day of a crackdown on militants in the volatile oil region.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 25, Nigerian soldiers in Port Harcourt burned hundreds of slum houses located close to the compound of an Italian oil company where at least one Italian worker was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed overnight.
(Reuters, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 30, Nigerian officials and the UN refugee agency appealed to some 6,000 recalcitrant Liberian refugees to go back home, warning that time and hospitality were fast running out for them.
(AFP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug, In Nigeria Transcorp acquired NITEL, the state-run telecommunication company. Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo was widely believed to have a large stake in Transcorp. In 2009 the government voided the sale.
(AFP, 6/2/09)
2006 Sep 14, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks in Tokyo on the start of a trans-Pacific trip.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 17, A Nigerian military transport aircraft, traveling from Abuja to the southern town of Obudu, went down in the southeast with a group of military officers on board. 12 of 17 people were killed and most were senior military personnel.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 20, The town of Dutse, capital of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state, was recovering after 1,000 people fled their homes in the latest in a series of inter-communal flare-ups that analysts warn could escalate in the coming months. This fall 16 churches were burned in Dutse and thousands made homeless in rioting.
(http://badgals-radio.com/?p=745)(Econ, 2/3/07, p.50)(http://tinyurl.com/22xej3)
2006 Sep 25, In Nigeria an inauguration ceremony in Lagos featured new bailiffs, a corps of 30 men and women, all graduates, in uniforms of black trousers, ash-colored shirts, yellow badges and cowboy hats and handcuffs on their belts. Former Lagos bailiffs had converted their role as enforcer of court judgments on property into an extortion racket.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 28, Nigeria's vice president Atiku Abubakar was suspended by his party for three months because of corruption allegations, preventing him from running for president on the party's ticket.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 30, In northwest Nigeria families were swept away in a torrent of water and scores were feared dead in flooding from a dam collapse outside Zamfara state's capital city of Gusau. About 40 people were feared dead and 500 houses were washed away.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, Dozens of militants abducted 25 Nigerian oil workers in an attack on their convoy in the southern delta region. 5 soldiers were killed and 9 left missing when militants sank two boats used to guard a Shell convoy.
(AP, 10/3/06)(WSJ, 10/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 3, OPEC President Nigeria called on its fellow OPEC countries to make deeper output cuts as prices tumbled to an 8-month low below $59 a barrel and the tide showed no sign of turning.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 4, In Nigeria militants freed around 25 kidnapped oil workers but five abducted expatriates were still missing in another part of the Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 6, ECOWAS leaders met for summit talks in Nigeria.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 7, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda met President Olusegun Obasanjo for talks on plans to manufacture cheap software in Nigeria, fight HIV/AIDS and alleviate poverty.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 8, Liberia’s presidency said ECOWAS leaders, who met in Nigeria on Oct 6, had agreed for an extension of the term of office of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo by 12 months, paving the way for presidential and general elections there.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 10, Nigeria charged six people, including men from Ireland, Israel and Romania, with illegally obtaining classified defense documents. Nigerians with assault rifles overran a navy base, taking several troops hostage, and occupied a nearby oil facility belonging to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
(AP, 10/10/06)(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, Edmund Daukoru, Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president, said OPEC has agreed to trim global oil production by 1 million barrels a day to boost prices, and its members were discussing how to share the cut. Nigerian security sources said armed youths have released dozens of Nigerian employees of the oil company Shell and its subcontractors, but around 15 workers were still being held at a flow station in the restive Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/11/06)(AFP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Nigeria legislators in southwest Ekiti state voted to remove Gov. Ayo Fayose on after finding him guilty of siphoning state funds into personal bank accounts and receiving kickbacks.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency in a troubled southwest state where he said the impeachment of the governor by the local legislature violated the constitution. Thirty-one of Nigeria's 36 state governors are being investigated for corruption, according to the country's financial crimes agency.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Nigeria police said all seven foreign oil workers who were being held hostage in the southern Niger Delta have been released and are in good health.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 25, In Nigeria angry villagers seized three Shell oil platforms in the volatile Niger Delta, forcing production to be shut down at each.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Oct 29, In Nigeria protesters demanding jobs and aid took over an oil pumping station run by an Italian oil firm in the southern delta region, forcing the company to shut the flow of oil. Output of 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was cut when armed protesters forced the closure of a flowstation belonging to Italy's Agip company in the Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Oct 29, A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people, including the man regarded as a spiritual leader of Nigeria's Sunni Muslims, crashed in a storm after taking off from the airport in Abuja. Most of those on board were feared dead. 9 people survived. The Nigerian pilot of the plane did not heed air traffic controllers' advice to not depart in stormy weather.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 30, Nigeria and China signed an 8.3 billion dollar contract for the construction of a railway line from the economic capital Lagos to Kano, the largest commercial city in the north.
(AFP, 10/30/06)
2006 Nov 1, In Nigeria a court of appeal in Ibadan, capital of the southwestern Oyo state, declared unconstitutional the removal earlier this year of governor Rasheed Ladoja by local lawmakers. Ladoja was impeached by a faction of the state parliament on January 12 for alleged corruption and abuse of office and was replaced by his deputy, Adebayo Alao-Akala.
(AFP, 11/4/06)
2006 Nov 2, Authorities in Nigeria named Muhammadu Sada Abubakar III (50), an army colonel, as the country's top Muslim leader, replacing his brother Muhammadu Maccido, the Sultan of Sokoto, who died in a plane crash last weekend. Armed gunmen seized two expatriate oil workers, an American and a Briton, during a raid on a Norwegian oil services ship off Nigeria's southern coast.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Nov 6, Nigeria signed a deal with British firm Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) to build an earth observation satellite.
(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, In Nigeria an American and a Briton kidnapped from a ship mapping petroleum deposits off the oil-rich southern coast were released.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 9, In Nigeria at least 6 hostages escaped from an oil facility where they had been held along with dozens of other people since armed men raided the Italian-run pumping station earlier this week.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 13, In Nigeria Joshua Dariye (49), the beleaguered governor of troubled Plateau State, was impeached by state legislators after being accused of corruption. Nigeria's anti-graft commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), issued a statement saying it was seeking both Dariye and Ayodele Fayose (46), the impeached former governor of southwest Ekiti State. The EFCC said recently that it was investigating 31 state governors out of a total of 36 for corruption.
(AFP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 15, In Nigeria 11 armed men attacked a southern oil facility owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC Wednesday, leaving two attackers dead.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, Nigeria's opposition called for an investigation into a 12-billion naira (93-million dollar) scandal that hit the front pages with allegations of government involvement. Several Lagos newspapers reported that Starcrest was only a firm "on paper" and that it had been founded in May by several figures in government including President Olusegun Obasanjo's electoral campaign fundraiser Emeka Ofor.
(AFP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 20, Armed men attacked the offices of a Nigerian aid group in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, killing one person and wounding another. The dead man had offered to help find Ateke Tom, a militant wanted by the Nigerian government in connection with a string of kidnappings and bank robberies.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 22, In Nigeria a Briton was killed and one Italian injured when a group of armed men fleeing in a boat with their seven foreign oil worker hostages exchanged fire offshore with a navy patrol in the southern Rivers State. A rescue attempt freed the 6 remaining hostages and left 2 kidnappers and a soldier dead.
(AFP, 11/23/06)(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A40)
2006 Nov 27, A three-story bank under construction collapsed in the main Nigerian city of Lagos, and two people were unaccounted for and believed trapped inside the rubble.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Nov 28, A Nigerian court voided a report of the country's anti-graft agency which indicted Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a business associate of corruption. Amnesty International said Nigerian police and soldiers are using rape to intimidate restive communities and "as means of torture to extract confessions from suspects in custody."
(AP, 11/28/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 30, Nigeria opened the first ever summit of African and South American leaders. Participants called for greater control by the two continents over their vast reserves of raw materials. The inaugural gathering also set to tackle issues ranging from the conflict ravaging the Darfur region of Sudan to the boosting of inter-continental trade.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Nigeria OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said that he expects the OPEC oil export group to cut its output quota by at least half a million barrels per day when it meets on December 14.
(AFP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, In Nigeria press reports said Abubakar Audu, a former governor of Nigeria's central state of Kogi (1999-2003), has been charged in a high court with corruption and money laundering. Audu was slammed with 80 counts of corruption and money laundering during his tenure.
(AFP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gunmen attacked a southern Nigerian oil installation belonging to a subsidiary of Italy's Eni SpA, taking three Italians hostage and killing another person.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, A Nigerian court ruled that Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s suspension from the dominant political party was unconstitutional, potentially clearing the way for him to run for president on the party's ticket in the upcoming election.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 9, Nigeria’s governing party suspended gubernatorial primaries in at least two of 36 states following candidate protests and violent clashes.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Nigeria armed men who seized control of a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil complex overnight fled, taking three Nigerian hostages, shooting a man and forcing the oil giant to halt production at the site.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 17, Nigeria's ruling party chose a reclusive Muslim state governor, Umaru Yar'Adua, to be its candidate to succeed Olusegun Obasanjo as president of Africa's most populous nation in elections next year.
(Reuters, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 18, In southern Nigeria near-simultaneous blasts tore through two oil company facilities. The region's main militant group claimed responsibility, saying it had planted car bombs.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 19, Nigeria's former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate of one of the country's main opposition parties, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
(AFP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 21, In southern Nigeria armed militants in speedboats have killed three policemen in an overnight attack on a residential facility belonging to French oil company Total. Shell, began relocating staff dependants after a bomb blast.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 23, A spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said long queues for gasoline were “just in the spirit of the season." An explosion occurred near the headquarters of Rivers State government in the oil capital of Port Harcourt, moments after militants said they were about to detonate two car bombs in the region.
(Reuters, 12/23/06)(AFP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 24, Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar's new party, the Action Congress (AC), slammed President Olusegun Obasanjo's declaration that his former deputy's office was now vacant as unconstitutional.
(AFP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 26, In Nigeria a ruptured gasoline pipeline burst into flames as scavengers collected the fuel in Lagos, killing 269 people. Witnesses said thieves had broken into the pipeline after midnight and hundreds of men, women and children had been collecting leaking fuel in plastic buckets, cans and bags for hours before the explosion. 2 different armed groups lifted sieges of two oilfield stations, releasing more than 20 local workers. Shell resumed production at its Nun River facility. 4 oil workers were still being held hostage by a different armed group after an attack on Agip's Brass River export terminal on Dec 7.
(AP, 12/26/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 29, New census figures said Nigeria's population had nearly doubled to an estimated 140 million people since the last count in 1991. Nigerian medical authorities announced that the death toll in the oil pipeline fire in Lagos had risen to 284 after 15 more people succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel Prize winning writer (1986), authored “You Must Set Forth at Dawn," a memoir that followed up on his childhood memoir “Ake."
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.M3)
2007 Jan 3, A Nigerian militant group said it had seized $545,000 sent by Italian oil firm Agip to obtain the release of 4 foreign workers kidnapped on Dec 7 but had kept the men hostage.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has repaid 1.4 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros) to the so-called London Club of private creditors and that the rest of the debt will be cleared by March. At least 3 people were killed in violent clashes between farmers and nomads in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A 4th died in hospital the next day.
(AFP, 1/4/07)(AFP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 5, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped five Chinese workers fixing overhead telephone lines.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 8, The Nigerian government withdrew a suit seeking to sack Vice President Atiku Abubakar for defecting to a party other than the one in which he was elected.
(AFP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, Nigeria started paying more than 1,000 Biafran police pensioners, 37 years after the west African country ended a bloody civil war.
(AFP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 10, Militants kidnapped nine South Korean oil workers and one local worker in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria, bringing the total number of foreigners currently held hostage there to 18.
(AFP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, The Nigerian military said it has recovered the body of an officer who was abducted last week in the country's southern oil producing region.
(AFP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 12, In Nigeria 9 South Korean pipeline workers and a Nigerian kidnapped in southern Nigeria were released with the help of a youth group.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 13, Suspected avian influenza was recorded in northern Nigeria's Sokoto State, a day after the disease reportedly infected 5,000 birds in nearby Kastina state.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 14, In Nigeria 12 chiefs from various delta communities were killed overnight when assailants attacked their boat.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 16, Royal Dutch Shell evacuated staff from two oil installations in southern Nigeria and the military boosted troop levels in the volatile area after a dozen village elders were killed in a riverboat attack.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 17, In Nigeria rebels released 5 Chinese telecommunications workers and an Italian oil worker abducted in the southern delta region. A female (22) in Lagos died from bird flu. This was Nigeria’s first confirmed fatality from Avian Influenza. Tests on 3 other deaths were inconclusive.
(AP, 1/18/07)(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 19, The EU said it has donated an additional 3.95 million euros ($5 million) to support the implementation of the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary demarcation project.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 23, In southern Nigeria unidentified assailants seized oil engineers, an American and a Briton, in the latest kidnapping.
(Reuters, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 25, In southern Nigeria gunmen stormed the local offices of a major Chinese oil company, abducting seven Chinese employees and stealing a large amount of cash.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 25, Nigeria divested 24.87% of its equity in the ailing Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN), while the French government also conceded to shed 30% interest in the company, which was turned over to ASD Motors Nigeria.
(AFP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 26, Officials at Davos, Switz., said Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, now depends 100 percent on imports of petroleum products due to the closure of its three refineries and canalization of pipelines.
(AFP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, A Belgian man working for a building materials company was murdered in the oil city of Warri, in Nigeria's Niger Delta. 2 suspects were arrested. Carjackers with AK-47s shot dead two women in a US embassy vehicle in Nairobi's western outskirts. Police killed two of the fleeing gunmen during a shootout in the nearby bush.
(Reuters, 1/27/07)(Reuters, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 28, Some 50 Nigerian rebels attacked a city centre police station in the Niger Delta and freed George Sobomabo, a top commander, arrested earlier that day. Militants released 125 inmates when they stormed the police station in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 29, A truck crashed in northern Nigeria's Yobe state killing at least 35 people and seriously injuring another 37. A burst tire caused the truck loaded with cement as well as 72 people to veer off the road.
(AFP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 30, Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of buying arms to suppress unrest in the oil-rich Niger delta rather than pacifying the region with development.
(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, A human rights group said its study of one of Nigeria's oil-producing states found that officials squandered or stole public money, some hospitals required patients to bring their own beds, and schools were running out of chalk.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, A Nigerian oil worker abducted 2 days earlier from a facility operated by Addax Petroleum in southern Nigeria was found dead.
(AFP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Nigeria officials said 9 Chinese oil workers, abducted last month by militants in an armed attack in the southern delta, were released.
(Reuters, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 7, Gunmen seized a French oil worker in Nigeria's restive southern petroleum-producing region. Kidnappers there also seized a woman from the Philippines. Kidnappers released a British oil-worker after the man taken in a raid last month fell ill. President Olusegun Obasanjo called for a high-level meeting to address the violence.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Benin, Nigeria, and Togo formed a new regional body aimed at fast-tracking the integration of their economies. The body, known as the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone (COPAZ), was formally inaugurated following a mini-summit of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, Benin’s President Boni Yayi and Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Nigeria gunmen released 24 Filipino sailors taken hostage in the lawless southern oil-producing region.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 17, Nigerian hostage takers released an American oil worker in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen seized three Croatian workers. The men were abducted in the region's main city of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 20, Nigeria's court of appeal ruled that President Olusegun Obasanjo had no legal power to sack of his deputy president for having joined an opposition party.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, In Nigeria a Lebanese hostage abducted along with three Italians in southern Nigeria was freed after being held for more than 10 weeks. MEND said the men guarding Saliba had been bribed to allow his escape. Two of the Italians abducted with Saliba were still being held by MEND. The third was freed on January 18 because of health problems. Gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded a third in the southern Niger delta.
(AFP, 2/21/07)(AP, 2/22/07)(AFP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a Lebanese engineer and kidnapped two Italians in two separate incidents in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
(Reuters, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Nigeria riot police were deployed to quell communal clashes that have claimed several lives in the southern oil-rich Ogoniland.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Nigeria at least 50 people were feared dead when a ferry sank on the Nun River in the southern state of Bayelsa.
(AFP, 3/2/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Michigan Thomas Katona, a former county treasurer of a Lake Huron vacation community, was ordered to stand trial on charges that he looted $186,500 in public funds for a Nigerian investment scam. Katona was treasurer of Alcona County from 1993 until his dismissal late in 2006.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Nigeria 7 people were shot dead and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 7, A Nigerian court cleared Vice President Atiku Abubakar to take part in next month's presidential poll, overturning a decision by the electoral commission to disqualify him.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 9, The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said Nigerian police routinely torture suspects, shooting them in the legs, beating them and hanging them from the ceiling for long periods. Royal Dutch Shell said that it has successfully contained a major oil spill in a production facility in southern Nigeria but yet to regain output loss of 187,000 barrels per day.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AFP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Nigeria’s oil region hostage takers released 3 European captives. 2 Croatians and one Montenegrin seized Feb. 18 in Port Harcourt were in good health after their release to state officials.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 15, Nigeria’s electoral commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from crucial elections, omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates. In southern Nigeria militants released two Italian oil workers who were kidnapped more than three months ago.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 16, Frenchman Gerard Laporal, kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil capital Port Harcourt more than a month ago, was released.
(AFP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Nigeria retired general Adetunji Olurin, who runs Ekiti State, warned he could invoke State of Emergency Laws against politicians bent on causing violence as April general elections draw near. Newspapers next day reported that he threatened to have troublemakers shot on sight to curb political violence. In central Nigeria 2 Asians and one Nigerian were kidnapped.
(AFP, 3/18/07)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Nigeria a senior veterinary official said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus is spreading among poultry farms around Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 21, A Nigerian Senate committee ruled that President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, acted "illegally" in the management of a petroleum fund and recommended them for prosecution. 5 people were killed in clashes over land in Ikare-Akoka in the southwestern state of Ondo.
(AFP, 3/21/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped three foreign construction workers, including a Dutch national, in two separate incidents.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 25, In Nigeria a diplomatic source said an Indian and a Lebanese man kidnapped in volatile southern Nigeria last week amid disputes over oil revenues have been released.
(AFP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, In northern Nigeria at least 89 people burned to death in Kaduna when a tanker lorry caught fire as they were stealing fuel from it.
(AFP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Nigeria Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell confirmed that the federal government had charged it with the alleged loss of some "radioactive tools" belonging to one of its contractors. Shell denied reports that it had been involved in any dumping of toxic waste in Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 31, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a British oil worker from an offshore oil rig.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Apr 2, Gunmen in Nigeria's southern Bayelsa State kidnapped two Lebanese nationals.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar lost an appeal against a decision by the electoral commission to bar him from this month's presidential election. Two courts issued competing rulings on the disqualification, setting up a legal showdown just weeks before an election meant to solidify civilian rule in the country.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 4, Hostage takers in southern Nigeria released four foreign workers held captive in the oil-rich region. The British High Commission and an industry source said a Briton and a Dutch national held hostage in volatile oil-rich southern Nigeria have been released. Gordon Gray was kidnapped March 31 from an offshore rig in the Niger delta. The Dutch man was kidnapped March 23 from Port Harcourt. 2 Lebanese nationals working for a construction firm, Setraco, were also released.
(AFP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 6, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped two Turkish engineers from their car in Port Harcourt.
(Reuters, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, In Nigeria 5 people, including a senior police officer, were killed in clashes between rival cult gangs in the southern oil-rich state of Rivers.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 13, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a radical Muslim cleric in his mosque and fired on the congregation, killing two more people, in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 14, Voters went to the polls in Nigeria to choose their state officers in the first of a pair of elections meant to solidify civilian rule. PDP gunmen beat up opponents, snatched ballot boxes and stuffed them with pre-marked ballots. Gunmen killed seven policemen in raids on two police stations in Port Harcourt. Some later judged the polls to be the most rigged in the country’s history.
(AP, 4/14/07)(AFP, 4/14/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.56)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.12)
2007 Apr 15, Nigeria's mass daily newspapers reported that dozens of people died during state elections, as results began to emerge from state elections that were marred by rigging and violence.
(AP, 4/15/07)(Reuters, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nigeria's Supreme Court ruled that the country's electoral commission unlawfully disqualified a top opposition politician once allied with the president from running to replace his former mentor.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, Nigeria's electoral commission said it would comply with a Supreme Court ruling that the vice president be placed on the ballot for this weekend's presidential elections, as sporadic violence was reported around the country. 18 Nigerian opposition parties threatened to boycott the presidential and legislative elections if the April 14 regional polls were not cancelled. 12 Nigerian police were killed when an unknown armed group stormed their station in the northern city of Kano.
(AP, 4/17/07)(AFP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 18, Nigeria's government rejected an opposition call to postpone the presidential election following widespread abuses in state polls last weekend. Nigerian soldiers killed at least 25 Islamic militants, in the second day of violent clashes in Kano.
(AFP, 4/18/07)(Reuters, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 20, In Nigeria the opposition said that troops have intercepted a truck-load of already completed ballots a day before the presidential election, heightening fears the vote will be rigged. A Nigerian navy helicopter crashed in the country's south, killing its three crew members. 7 policemen on election duty were ambushed and shot dead near Karu town in central Nassarawa State.
(Reuters, 4/20/07)(AFP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 21, A truck bomb aimed at Nigeria's electoral commission headquarters ran into barriers and failed to explode. Polls opened despite the attack for a presidential vote already shadowed by charges of fraud and a last-minute ballot hitch. Voting in Nigeria's parliamentary elections was suspended in most of central Lagos, the economic capital, because of errors on the ballot papers.
(AP, 4/21/07)(AFP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, The two main opposition parties denounced the conduct of Nigeria's presidential elections. An influential, homegrown observer group called for a cancellation of the vote meant to cement civilian rule in Africa's top oil producer.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 23, Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria's ruling party was declared winner of a presidential poll rejected by the opposition and condemned by observers as a "charade."
(Reuters, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, The Nigerian government accused Bola Tinubu, the governor of Lagos, of operating foreign accounts contrary to his oath of office.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, Nigeria's main opposition party said it will not recognize or cooperate with any government formed as a result of last weekend's presidential election, which was won by the party of outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 27, Nigeria's Supreme Court voided the removal of Joshua Dariye, a Plateau state governor, who fled London on money laundering charges in November 2004. In Nigeria police said 5 gunmen and two police officers were killed during an attempt to kidnap two foreign oil workers in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 28, In Nigeria ballot papers were stolen and voters intimidated as polls were re-staged for hundreds of state and federal legislators' seats after elections widely condemned as fraudulent. Oil officials said Nigeria is currently losing 600,000 barrels of oil per day in the oil rich Niger Delta as a result of the activities of militants in the region.
(AP, 4/28/07)(AFP, 4/28/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of people gathered in heavily guarded squares and stadiums in Nigeria's main cities to protest last month's flawed presidential election. Dare Folorunso, a Nigerian journalist of the state-owned radio-television station, was beaten unconscious by policemen at workers rally in Akure in southern Ondo state. MEND militants kidnapped six foreign oil workers, including four Italians, in an attack on a floating storage vessel off the coast of southern Bayelsa State. A Nigerian sailor was killed.
(Reuters, 5/1/07)(SFC, 5/2/07, p.C2)(AFP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 2, A company spokesman said US oil giant Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its Funiwa facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 3, In Nigeria at least 21 workers, most of them foreigners, were kidnapped in separate attacks in the oil-rice delta region. 8 foreigners and a Nigerian were later freed.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 5, In southern Nigeria armed men kidnapped a Briton overnight from the Trident 8 oil rig. Unknown gunmen in Port Harcourt kidnapped a Russian woman who worked for a catering company.
(AFP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 7, Nigeria's next president Umaru Yar'Adua departed on a tour of seven African countries, his first foreign trip since being elected in April. Oil major Chevron said it had temporarily shut down its Ebite flow station in southern Nigeria because of a community protest.
(AFP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 8, In southern Nigeria militants staged coordinated attacks on 3 pipelines in the wetlands region, the most damaging assault on the country's vital oil infrastructure in over a year. MEND claimed responsibility for the bombings, which forced Italian oil giant Eni to halt production of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) feeding its Brass export terminal. Militants released 3 South Koreans and 8 Filipinos kidnapped last week at a Daewoo construction site in the oil-rich south.
(Reuters, 5/8/07)(AFP, 5/8/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated in the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its lucrative business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 10, Nigeria's Senate cleared outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption in the management of a multi-billion-dollar oil fund but indicted his deputy. In Port Harcourt gunmen wearing military fatigues jumped from their vehicles and killed two police officers.
(AFP, 5/11/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 11, Only around half of 45 oil exploration blocks Nigeria put up for auction attracted bids, with foreigners wary of political uncertainty ahead of a government change.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 12, In Nigeria Lora Kabir, a Russian woman, set off with 50 volunteers on a 225-kilometer (140-mile) walk from polio-endemic Nigeria's most populous city Kano to raise public awareness among parents of the dangers of polio.
(AFP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 13, Nigeria's central labor union called for a two-day mass protest against last month's elections, which have been roundly criticized by both local and foreign observers for fraud. In southern Nigeria at least 30 people were killed when three vehicles burst into flames after colliding on a road.
(AFP, 5/13/07)(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, A Chinese rocket blasted a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an expansion of China's commercial launching services for foreign space hardware. The NIGCOMSAT-1 ceased functioning on November 11, 2008, due to a power failure.
(AP, 5/14/07)(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 May 14, In southern Nigeria's Rivers State unidentified gunmen snatched a Nigerian working for Italian oil giant Agip.
(AFP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, Royal Dutch Shell Plc. said protestors have occupied an oil facility in southern Nigeria forcing daily production cuts of 170,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, Nigerian militants used dynamite to blow up a home of vice president-elect Goodluck Jonathan, killing two police officers.
(AFP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, In Nigeria labor leaders called a two-day nationwide strike coinciding with the May 29 inauguration of the new government to protest what they said was a fraudulent election.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 19, In southern Nigeria gunmen dynamited the front gate of a residential compound and kidnapped three Indians in an attack that left one Nigerian dead.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, Officials said Nigeria's largest state has sued US drug firm Pfizer for allegedly using 200 children as "guinea pigs" for a drug test in 1996 that led to multiple deaths and deformities. In 2010 a leaked WikiLeaks cable said Pfizer hired investigators to unearth evidence of corruption against Nigeria’s former attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to persuade him to drop legal action over the company’s experimental antibiotic, Trovan.
(AFP, 5/20/07)(SSFC, 12/12/10, p.A4)
2007 May 24, Nigeria's powerful oil unions began a strike at its state-owned oil company and threatened to target exports in hopes of reversing the sale of government refineries.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 25, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a group of foreign oil workers, including three Americans and four Britons.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 26, Nigeria's oil unions said they have suspended a two-day-old strike after the government met their demands over the proposed sale of two state-owned oil refineries.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 29, Umaru Yar'Adua (56), a former governor hand-picked by departing President Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in as president in Nigeria’s first transfer of power from one elected government to another. Gun battles between rival gangs in Nigeria's southern oil-producing state of Rivers erupted in violence linked to a change of governor, killing 15 people.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, In southern Nigeria 4 American oil workers abducted three weeks ago were released.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 1, Nigeria’s national dailies reported that nearly 2,000 students sitting university entrance exams in have been caught using mobile phones to cheat. Gunmen disguised as riot police abducted four foreign workers from the residential compound of oil services giant Schlumberger in Nigeria's oil city Port Harcourt. The four hostages were citizens of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Pakistan. Gunmen kidnapped three senior expatriate management staff and four family members from the residential compound of chemical company Indorama.
(AFP, 6/1/07)(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 2, Southern Nigeria's most prominent armed group released six foreign oil workers held captive for four weeks and announced a month-long moratorium in attacks on petroleum facilities.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped six foreign staff of United Company RUSAL after blowing up their apartment with explosives in the southeastern town of Ikot Abasi.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Nigerian police said military troops stormed a hideout in Ebonyi state and freed one of two Chinese workers abducted by unknown gunmen on Mar 17.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A senior official said Nigeria's anti-graft agency has summoned 15 former governors over corruption charges involving millions of dollars and they are due to appear before investigators.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 6, Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won Britain's Orange Prize for fiction by women for her book “Half of a Yellow Sun," becoming the first African to take the award in its 12-year history.
(AP, 6/6/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.54)
2007 Jun 11, Hostage takers in Nigeria's restive oil heartland released 13 captives, including three Americans.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, In London Chinua Achebe (76), a Nigerian novelist, won the Booker Int’l. Prize for fiction, awarded every 2 years for a body of fiction. He is best known for his 1st book “Things Fall Apart" (1958).
(SFC, 6/13/07, p.E5)
2007 Jun 14, Nigerian separatist leader Mujahid Asari Dokubo, whose detention on treason charges since 2005 has sparked kidnappings in the oil-rich Niger Delta, was provisionally freed on health grounds. Militants freed 10 Indian hostages, including 2 women and 2 children.
(AFP, 6/14/07)(AFP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Nigeria military and industry sources said gunmen have kidnapped several foreigners in the main oil-producing region of southern Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 18, Nigeria's main labor organizations said they had called a general strike for June 20, two days later than originally planned, threatening key oil exports.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 19, In Nigeria a top militant leader freed on bail said that armed groups in the restive south will halt attacks on oil installations to give the new government a chance to deal with the region's problems.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 20, Nigerian stocks dipped 1.74% as a general strike called by the country's two main labor movements over a 15-percent hike in petrol prices took its toll. Nigerian health officials said an outbreak of measles in a village in the northern state of Borno had killed 20 children and caused a further 100 children to be hospitalized.
(AFP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 21, In Nigeria police used tear gas on strikers manning a barricade in Lagos as the second day of a general strike brought parts of Africa's largest oil producer to a standstill. Two Nigerian employees of Italian oil company Agip were killed when troops stormed an oil facility to free hostages in the Niger delta. A total of 20 people were killed in the operation, including 15 militants.
(AFP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun 22, Nigeria's crippling general strike entered a third day with labor leaders and government officials deadlocked after all-night talks ended in failure.
(AP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Nigeria labor unions called off a strike aimed at overturning a government fuel-price hike, ending a four-day work stoppage that shut down most major economic activity in Africa's biggest oil producer. Labor officials said they accepted a government proposal to hold off on raising fuel prices for a year, while accepting an earlier offer to halve the price increase that had sparked the strike. Kidnappers released four foreign oil workers seized weeks ago.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 25, In Nigeria 2 youth activists were killed in a clash between two rival groups in southern Nigerian Rivers State.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jun 26, A seven billion dollar (5.2 billion euro) lawsuit pitting the Nigerian government against the world's biggest pharmaceutical company Pfizer opened with the US giant demanding the court dismiss the charges.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 28, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar'Adua revealed personal wealth of $5 million, saying public financial disclosures should be standard practice amidst official corruption. Torrential rain brought Lagos virtually to a standstill as streets flooded with more than 50 centimeters (20 inches) of water, in places blocking traffic.
(AFP, 6/28/07)(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 2, Nigerian university lecturers called off a more than three-month strike to press for improved working conditions.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern Nigeria armed men kidnapped five foreigners, the same day the country's most prominent militant group announced it would end a truce with the government.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Nigeria kidnappers snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as she was being taken to school.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents, who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Nigeria gunmen attacked two southern oil installations, kidnapping two senior Nigerian employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and two foreigners.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by militants to kidnap workers at a Korean firm in southern Rivers state, killing one insurgent and injuring several others. Police said several people were injured and many houses and vehicles were destroyed in two days of fighting between two rival cult gangs in southern Ogoniland.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency arrested two former governors who had refused to present themselves for questioning.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Nigeria the 3-year-old son of town chief Eze Francis Amadi was grabbed by gunmen who smashed a window of his father's SUV in the fourth child kidnapping in the oil-rich south in less than two months. The boy was returned the next day.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a key oil supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has affected the company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six villages whose residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, A top Nigerian lawyer accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption and asked the anti-graft commission (EFCC) to investigate his financial activities while in office. A Nigerian oil official said the economy has lost more than one billion dollars a month and hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude a day since 2006 due to unrest in the Niger Delta. In northern Nigeria a radical Sunni Islamic preacher was shot dead near a mosque. Sunni Muslims in Sokoto said they suspected members of the rival Shiite community.
(AFP, 7/18/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, Nigeria filed a new lawsuit against US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claiming some 6.5 billion dollars in damages for deaths allegedly stemming from drug trials. In Sokoto, Nigeria's main Islamic city, mobs burned down houses in Shiite neighborhoods in apparent reprisal for the murder this week of a radical Sunni Muslim cleric. In northern Nigeria at least one person died and about 100 were detained in a series of dawn raids following sectarian clashes sparked by the killing of a popular Sunni cleric In southern Nigeria Gunmen killed a Lebanese businessman in his home. Later in the day attackers tried to ambush a truck carrying several foreign workers in what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt.
(AFP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 21, In southern Nigeria armed men seized the son (30) of a local chief near Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 23, Nigerian police said at least 10 people were killed over the weekend and dozens sustained burns in the southern Delta state after adulterated kerosene they were using in their stoves exploded. In southwest Nigeria at least six people were killed and several trapped when a three-storey building under construction collapsed.
(AFP, 7/23/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the government of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by his predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of the speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, The Nigerian government filed suit against three leading tobacco companies, seeking more than 40 billion dollars (29 billion euros) in damages for the cost of treating smoking-related diseases.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Jul 26, A court in Nigeria sentenced Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelso state governor, to two years in jail on charges of corruption and money laundering and ordered him to forfeit millions in property and cash. Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, the new head of the navy, told a parliamentary commission about the suspected illegal bunkering on ships under naval guard and how the ex-officers allegedly dipped into the lucrative trade.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was about to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Nigeria 18 men were arrested in remote northern Bauchi state, where they were found with women's apparel as they prepared for a gay wedding. They faced charges of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court. They were accused of lesser crimes in court but angry crowds reacted violently. Three weeks later they were rearrested and charged with more severe crimes including indecent acts and faced 10 years in jail if found guilty.
(AP, 8/10/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.49)
2007 Aug 6, Nigerian police said that they have arrested 17 people over the past two months on suspicion of carrying out kidnappings in the oil-rich south of the country. At least 17 people were killed in flooding in central Nigeria's Plateau state while more than 200 houses were washed away.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Nigeria kidnappers released a British and a Bulgarian hostage in the southern oil region, while the young son of a local legislator was seized in a separate incident and gunbattles raged for a third day.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 10, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped an American manager from oil services firm Hydrodive as he traveled to work in Port Harcourt, where gunfire rang out across the region’s main city for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southern Nigeria a foreigner taken hostage amid increased lawlessness died of an illness while being taken to a hospital.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 14, Gunmen in southern Nigeria abducted the mother of a state lawmaker, the latest in a spate of kidnappings targeting the children and elderly parents of local politicians.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 17, Nigerian authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Port Harcourt after security forces and gang members clashed in battles that left dozens dead.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 27, Gunmen in southern Nigeria set free Peter Agwuna, a Nigerian supervisor for the Elf oil group, who was seized in Port Harcourt about a month ago.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 3, In southwestern Nigeria at least 20 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel tanker.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Nigeria’s national news agency said Nigeria will spend 950 million naira (7.3 million dollars/ 5.3 million euros) to resettle nationals living in the disputed Bakassi Peninsula ceded to Cameroon last year.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Nigeria 5 people, including two policemen, were shot dead in a failed attempt to rob a bank in Lagos.
(AFP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 11, In Nigeria journalist Tope Abiola was beaten unconscious by prison guards and police as he photographed the bodies of some of the inmates killed by police who used live bullets to foil a jail break attempt at Agodi prison. At least eight inmates were killed and another 14 seriously injured in the riot.
(AFP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 14, Eight members of Nigeria's ruling party seized by gunmen in the southern oil-producing state of Ondo last weekend were released.
(AFP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 18, The Nigerian navy said that over the past 3 years it had seized 236 ships, tugboats and barges used for smuggling crude oil and petroleum products in the high seas and Niger delta.
(AFP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 20, A Nigerian government spokesman said Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala has sacked the entire 34,000-strong workforce in his Oyo state for refusing to heed a call to suspend their one-month-old strike over pay.
(AFP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 21, Sources said the presumed head of the Nigerian armed group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who goes under the name of Jomo Gbomo, has been arrested in Angola.
(AFP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, Nigeria suspended a deal by a previous government allowing the private sector to run the country's federal government-owned "unity" schools.
(AFP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 26, Dr. Judith Asuni (60), A US aid worker, was arrested in the oil-rich Niger Delta along with German nationals Florian Orpitz (35), and Andy Lehmann (26), and one Nigerian, Danjuma Saidu. Asuni was said to have facilitated the Germans' visit to Nigeria and helped them enter the petroleum installation to film. Asuni was granted bail on Oct 23.
(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Sep 27, In Nigeria gunmen disguised as soldiers killed a Colombian oil worker and abducted two other foreigners in a raid on the construction yard of oil services company Saipem.
(Reuters, 9/27/07)
2007 Oct 3, Local media said police in southwest Nigeria have arrested five politicians for allegedly raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The suspects, all members of the west African giant's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), were arrested for the offence in Ilesha. An opposition Action Congress (AC) spokesman said the rape victim was among eight supporters of the party who were abducted two weeks ago in the town. At least 38 people were killed and 48 reported missing after two ferries collided on a river in northern Nigeria's Kebbi State.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 3, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria banned a play written by a civil rights activist which satirizes the implementation of Sharia law in 12 mainly Muslim states. The upper Sharia court in the Tudun Wada neighborhood of the northern city of Kaduna issued the order restraining Shehu Sani from selling or circulating his play, "Phantom Crescent."
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 4, Officials said the Nigerian central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate MPR from eight to nine percent because of rising inflation.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Nigerian electoral court annulled the election of Ibrahim Idris, the governor of the central Kogi State, following a complaint by his opponent, Abubakar Audu, that he had been unfairly excluded from the April vote.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, A World Health Organization official said 69 children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following vaccination against the disease. Peter Eriki indicated that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the vaccination campaign. The new outbreak was caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.
(AFP, 10/12/07)(AP, 8/14/09)
2007 Oct 14, Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the first state visit by an Indian premier to the oil-rich west African state in 45 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16, India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN Security Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation agreements on day two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 21, Shell officials said gunmen in speedboats attacked an offshore oil field in the volatile Niger Delta, kidnapping three foreign workers and four Nigerians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 24, Nigeria's top corruption investigator said that up to six former governors will be charged by the end of the year, a sign the country's new leadership is making good on pledges to stamp out graft in one of the world's most corrupt nations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25, In southwest Nigeria 17 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with an oncoming truck on a road.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In south Nigeria armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy's ENI and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian. The 6 foreign workers were released on Oct 30.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Patricia Etteh, the speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, resigned, just hours after saying she would step aside temporarily to enable lawmakers to debate a report indicting her over a contract scam. A panel's report found Etteh did not follow due process before awarding contracts worth several million dollars to equip and renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, In southern Nigeria one navy officer was killed and four other naval personnel injured in an overnight attack on a vessel protecting a Shell oilfield.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 2, A Nigerian court sentenced Omoniyi Sanlola (25), a university student, to 34 years in jail for forging US Postal Service money orders. The judge handed him one-year terms for each count, to run concurrently.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 7, The country's top prosecutor said Nigeria will drop criminal charges against an American peace worker, her Nigerian associate and two German film makers who had been accused of endangering national security.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 12, A Nigerian official said security agents have arrested several men who allegedly had materials for making explosives. Evidence has linked them to the al-Qaida terror network.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, An unknown armed group killed 19 Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, a border region handed back to Cameroon by Nigeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, Royal Dutch Shell said a major pipeline feeding one of its two main oil export terminals in southern Nigeria was attacked and ruptured by unknown assailants.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Nigeria’s northern Kano state supporters of rival political parties clashed over the results of local government elections, leaving six people dead and dozens behind bars.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Nigeria pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger Delta, killing a crew member and injuring another.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 11, In southeast Nigeria 20 people were killed and several injured when the driver of a truck lost control and rammed into a crowd by the roadside in Awka, Anambra state.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, The former governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, James Ibori, was arrested on corruption and money-laundering charges. His state salary was less than $25,000 per year. In August a court in London ordered a freeze on $35 million of his worldwide assets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)(AP, 7/2610)
2007 Dec 13, In south-west Nigeria at least 17 people burned to death when four vehicles burst into flames in a crash.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Ayo Fayose of southwestern Ekiti state gave, a Nigerian former state governor, turned himself in to police after more than a year on the run, vowing to defend himself in court against allegations of corruption. High Chief Ekpemupolo, an influential rebel commander in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, ordered the suspension of peace talks with the government because of military incursions and the arrest of another commander.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nigeria's main militant group urged all armed factions in the restive southern oil heartland to join together and cripple Africa's biggest petroleum industry.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 24, A Nigerian court ordered the arrests of three of the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Nigeria reported that Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was being forced to resign in order to attend a one year course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies at Jos.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007-2009 In Nigeria more than 17,000 people died in about 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria between this period.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2008 Jan 1, In Nigeria armed men killed 13 people over New Year in Port Harcourt when they attacked two police stations and a hotel. The Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, led by Ateke Tom, claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 1/2/08)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 11, In Nigeria MEND, the prominent militant group in the oil-rich Niger Delta, said it planted an explosive device that set a tanker on fire in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 12, In Nigeria a speeding fuel tanker crashed and spilled its cargo in Port Harcourt, and as many as three dozen people were feared dead in the resulting fire.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Nigeria a civilian was killed and two policemen injured in an overnight attack on the convoy of a port authority official in the oil hub city Port Harcourt. Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell said that local people were hampering efforts to repair the sabotaged pipelines at the Forcados export terminal in southern Nigeria.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 21, In southern Nigeria a major oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip caught fire and a tanker truck exploded in separate incidents.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Nigeria fighters from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked a military houseboat stationed at the Shell Petroleum Tora manifold in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. The attack killed three soldiers.
(AFP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 6, In Nigeria armed men killed a policeman in an overnight attack and kidnapped the wife of a prominent politician in Port Harcourt. She was released 2 days later.
(AFP, 2/6/08)(AFP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, A presidential statement said Nigeria has approved a new policy requiring gas producers to direct a part of their output to the domestic market, rather than exporting it.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 10, In Nigeria 6 people, including three policemen, were killed in a gun battle with robbers in Nigeria's commercial city Lagos.
(AFP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 11, Gunmen killed a Nigerian naval officer and forced several others to dive for their lives into the water in oil-rich southern Rivers State.
(AFP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least seven people were killed and several more were trapped when a four-storey building collapsed in Lagos.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Angola extradited Henry Okah, the alleged leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to Nigeria.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 26, A Nigerian election tribunal upheld the president's declared victory in last year's disputed election.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 28, The presidents of resource-hungry China and oil-rich Nigeria met ahead of the planned signing of energy deals in Beijing's latest overture to an African nation.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 29, In Ghana 9 Nigerians were sentenced to 5 years each for faking e-mails and letters, including one from the Ghanaian president, to dupe a Frenchman out of $185,000.
(AFP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 11, Nigerian soldiers hunting Niger Delta gang leader Ateke Tom said they had found a huge cache of arms and ammunition, along with an illegal pipeline used to tap stolen oil, in a raid on one of his bases.
(AFP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 15, Officials said the main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has launched mobile services in Nigeria, becoming the fifth operator there.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Nigeria a Wings Airline 19-seater aircraft went missing shortly after leaving Lagos for the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state. On Aug 30 hunters found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of its three crew members.
(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 29, In southwestern Nigeria 5 employees of Express Oil were seized by angry youths in Ondo state over the company's failure to pay royalties for its operations in the area.
(AFP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Nigeria unidentified gunmen kidnapped an 11-year-old boy in Port Harcourt, wounding his mother and killing the family's police guard and their driver.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, Nigeria's government filed graft charges against the daughter of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and two ministers sacked last month.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 13, The Saudi Arabia beheaded two Nigerian men convicted of smuggling cocaine into the kingdom. 42 people have been beheaded this year, according to an AP count.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 21, A rebel group from Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta said it attacked two major oil pipelines there in what it called a message to the United States to stop supporting "injustice" in the troubled region.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22, Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell reported output loss of 169,000 barrels per day following the sabotage of its key supply pipelines in southern Nigeria.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Nigeria members of a white-collar union working for Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), an affiliate of US oil group ExxonMobil, began an indefinite strike over pay and working conditions. MEND fighters sabotaged a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in southern Rivers State.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 May 2, Nigeria’s high court ruled that former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, currently in hiding, must face corruption charges.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 3, Rebels in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta blew up three oil wells operated by Royal Dutch Shell, their fifth attack in recent weeks against the petroleum industry.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 6, Niger Delta rebels said that former US President Jimmy Carter had agreed to act as a mediator if invited by Nigeria's government, and the group promised to declare a ceasefire if talks went ahead.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, Nigeria announced it was suspending import duties and other taxes on rice while launching a raft of other measures to head off a food crisis in Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 10, Oil major Royal Dutch Shell said it was losing the equivalent of 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day because of recent attacks against its installations in Nigeria.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, In southern Nigeria unknown gunmen raided a police station in the oil-rich state of Bayelsa killing two police officers. The gunmen also stole arms and ammunition during the attack at Okiki in Ogbia area of the state.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Nigeria unidentified gunmen in the restive south hijacked an oil-services vessel carrying 11 crew members demanding about $250,000 for their release. The crew members were released on June 25.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AFP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 14, US federal prosecutors said Willbros Group Inc., a Houston-based oil services company, agreed to pay $32.3 million in criminal and civil penalties to settle charges that it bribed officials in Nigeria and Ecuador to get contracts between 2003-2005.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.B2)
2008 May 15, In Nigeria a huge explosion was triggered when an excavator accidentally pierced an oil pipeline. The Nigeria Red Cross said some 100 people were killed in a blaze that lasted more than a day. A local government official put the death toll at 15.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 21, In northern Nigeria 46 soldiers, who just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, were killed in a road accident. 10 people drowned and six were rescued when their boat capsized in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Dozens of men on horseback armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed Nigerian peacekeepers serving with the joint UN-African Union force in Darfur. No casualties were reported.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 26, Rebels from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said they had blown up a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and killed 11 soldiers in a firefight, but the army denied losing any men.
(Reuters, 5/26/08)
2008 May 31, In Nigeria a senior health department official for the federal capital said smokers in public places in the capital of Abuja will be arrested and prosecuted from June 1.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May, In southeast Nigeria 20 teenage girls were rescued at the hospital in Enugu in a police swoop on what was believed to be one of the largest infant trafficking rings in the country. Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Jun 2, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar-Adua arrived in South Africa for a four-day state visit to forge closer ties between Africa's most populous country and its biggest economy.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 3, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised its lending rate (MPR) to 10.25 percent from 10 percent to tame high inflation triggered by rising global food prices.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 9, Militants attacked an oil security vessel off the coast of Nigeria and seized eight navy personnel and a local Cameroon official. 3 soldiers escaped. On June 15 Cameroon military headquarters said authorities searching for the six people found five mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies buried in the mangroves.
(Reuters, 6/9/08)(Reuters, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 10, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe said official records show that 23,584 Nigerians are in prisons abroad for immigration offences. 9 Nigerian navy members were killed and four civilians injured in a second attack in as many days on a security vessel in the volatile oil-rich south.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Nigeria a pay strike by teachers brought schools to a standstill after talks with the government ended in deadlock.
(AFP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 14, In Nigeria a union leader said teachers have ended their three-day strike after the government agreed to heed their demand for a pay rise.
(AFP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 17, Nigerian police stormed the hideout of the kidnappers of Eunice Gideon, the wife of a senior Bayelsa state official and freed her. She was abducted two weeks ago and was freed in neighboring Rivers state after a gunbattle with the kidnappers.
(AFP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 19, Nigeria's most prominent militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on Shell's main offshore oilfield and said it had kidnapped a US oil worker. The attack shut down a tenth of the country's oil output in a rare attack on a deepwater facility. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said US captain Jack Stone from oil services company Tidex was freed in the afternoon.
(AFP, 6/19/08)(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, Nigerian militants blew up a key oil supply pipeline operated by Chevron, in the latest attack targeting the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry. The breached pipeline prompted Chevron to shut down its onshore oil production.
(AFP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 22, Militants in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta, whose campaign of sabotage has sharply cut the country's oil output, announced a ceasefire but stopped short of agreeing to participate in peace talks.
(Reuters, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 23, The Nigerian senior oil workers union, PENGASSAN, launched a strike against Chevron. Company officials said the next day that oil production had not been affected.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, Ibrahim Gambari said Nigeria will seek a 90-day truce in the oil rich Niger Delta before holding a summit on peace in that region. Gambari was appointed to chair a summit.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 25, Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics said the inflation rate rose in May to 9.7 percent from 8.2 percent the previous month, driven by increases in the cost of food and household items. Witnesses said at least six people have been killed over four days of fighting between rival militant gangs in southern oil-rich Bayelsa state.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun, Nigeria's anti-drugs agency seized 80 ton of cannabis in its largest ever single haul, in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
(AFP, 11/16/08)
2008 Jun, Nigeria’s 144 prisons, with an official capacity of 25,000, currently held almost twice that number.
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 1, The Nigerian Senate passed a resolution barring the anti-graft agency EFCC and other security agents from arresting witnesses who appear before parliament. The lawmakers passed the resolution following the arrests of an Austrian contractor and two former ministers on the floor of the Senate shortly after testifying before a parliamentary hearing on the aviation sector.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, The Nigerian government charged two former aviation ministers with misusing a $165-million fund set up to improve air safety after three airplane accidents.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Nigeria hundreds of soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers in Liberia, went on the rampage in southwestern Akure in protest against the military authorities' refusal to pay their allowance. On April 27, 2009, a Nigerian court-martial sentenced 27 former UN peacekeepers to life in prison after they were convicted of mutiny following their protests. On Aug 29 the army commuted the life sentences to 7 years.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 4/28/09)(AFP, 8/29/09)
2008 Jul 5, Nigerian officials said radioactive materials in abandoned mining fields in central Nigeria's Plateau state pose a serious health hazard to two million people. Police said Nigeria has deployed troops in the remote southeastern state of Ebonyi after 14 people were killed and scores of buildings destroyed in clashes between rival groups feuding over land.
(AP, 7/5/08)(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 10, Nigeria's main militant group said it would resume attacks in the country's oil-rich river delta region because of Britain's recent pledge to back the government in the conflict there. UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari resigned as chairman of a planned peace summit for the oil-rich Niger Delta following opposition from regional leaders.
(AP, 7/10/08)(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, A senior military official said the Nigerian navy has arrested 15 Filipinos after intercepting a vessel carrying a significant quantity of stolen crude oil off the coast of the Niger Delta. Gunboats intercepted the MV Lina Panama in the waters off Brass, home to a major oil export terminal in the southern state of Bayelsa. One security source said the vessel was thought to be carrying tens of thousands of tons of stolen oil.
(Reuters, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck drivers strike to protest soaring fuel prices entered its 2nd day. At least 17 people died at a prayer meeting in rural Nigeria after apparently breathing noxious fumes from their power generator while asleep. Their bodies were discovered on July 15.
(AFP, 7/12/08)(Reuters, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, In Nigeria about 30 armed men in speedboats attacked a navy vessel that was guarding key oil facilities in southern Rivers state. Three militants, a naval serviceman and a civilian were killed. MEND said it was not involved.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 23, Nigeria's main militant group threatened to destroy the nation's major oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal with the government to protect them.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Nigeria a petrol tanker burst into flames main in the main city of Lagos, killing at least 12 people and leaving several others with severe burns. 5 eastern European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish boat in the Niger delta. The 5 Russian oil workers were released on July 26.
(AFP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Nigeria two oil workers, one Nigerian and one Filipino, were kidnapped in the Niger delta.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Nigeria unidentified men in a speed boat seized eight foreign oil workers at gunpoint in the Niger delta. They were released later in the day.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 28, Militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta said they had blown up two major oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, forcing the firm to halt some production and helping push world oil prices higher.
(Reuters, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nigerian security officials said rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least four people.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Nigeria gunmen seized 2 French oil workers from a bar in Onne near the oil hub of Port Harcourt. The 2 were released on Sep 5.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Nigerian presidential panel on oil and gas sector reform recommended that the state oil company be transformed into an "independent limited liability company."
(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Nigeria police arrested the head of a federal agency charged with developing Nigeria's impoverished southern oil region after allegations the man spent millions of dollars on a witch doctor in hopes vanquishing a rival.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 12, Nigerian militants claimed they had destroyed a pipeline supplying gas to a key oil refinery in southern Rivers state.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 13, Nigerian officials said flocks of quelea birds have invaded farmlands in northern Borno state, destroying crops that were due for harvest in two months' time.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, Nigeria relinquished control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon despite fears the handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups who oppose it.
(Reuters, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, Twelve Nigerian militants and a naval officer were killed in a gunbattle near a Royal Dutch Shell natural gas plant in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 20, Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua named new military chiefs dropping nearly all appointees he inherited from his predecessor. MEND, the most prominent armed group in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, accused the military of carrying out extra-judicial executions of 22 captured insurgents in the region. The insurgents had been captured the previous day.
(AFP, 8/21/08)(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental experts said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, The "Benue", a Nigerian ship with eight crew members, was hijacked. It was owned by service and repair firm West African Offshore Ltd (WAO).
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Nigeria Rashid Ladoja, ex-governor of Oyo state (2000-2007), was arrested for embezzling some 16 million dollars (11 million euros).
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, Iran’s Junior trade minister Mohammadali Zeyghami said Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west African powerhouse boost electricity generation.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, Nigeria's main militant group claimed that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region. The group reported that six of its own fighters were also killed in the clashes.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Sep 3, Albert J. Stanley (65), former Halliburton executive, pleaded guilty in Houston to orchestrating over $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian government officials from 1995-2004 for the construction of liquefied natural gas facilities. The bribes began when Stanley worked for M.W. Kellogg, a unit of Dresser Industries that was acquired by Halliburton in 1998, when Dick Cheney served as CEO. Stanley also pleaded guilty to taking $10.8 million in kickbacks from a consortium of construction firms involved in the LNG contracts.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 5, Nigeria said it has set up a 40-member technical committee on peace talks to end the crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 9, Militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta hijacked a vessel with five expatriate and eight Nigerian oil workers on board. Robin Hughes from St Margaret's Bay, Kent, was among 27 oil workers kidnapped by militants when their vessel was hijacked. Hughes (59) was freed on April 19, 2009.
(AFP, 9/10/08)(AFP, 4/20/09)
2008 Sep 13, A MEND statement said the armed forces of Nigeria had begun a full scale aerial and marine offensive on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) positions and neighboring Ijaw communities in Rivers state.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 14, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in Nigeria's southern oil region, declared a state of war after two days of clashes with government forces, launching reprisal raids and raising the specter of more conflict in Africa's biggest oil producer.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 15, Nigerian militants attacked a Shell-operated oil facility, killing two and forcing the evacuation of nearly 100 staff, in a third day of fighting with security forces in the Niger Delta. Police in northern Nigeria arrested a Muslim preacher who claims 86 wives and 107 children, charging him with breaking Islamic laws governing marriage.
(AP, 9/15/08)(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Nigeria militants destroyed the Orubiri flow station operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Rivers state. The next day MEND said it killed all the soldiers on guard at the facility and took their weapons.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Armed Nigerian militants, who have declared an "oil war" in the restive south of the country, claimed to have blown up a major pipeline in their latest attack on oil installations in the region. A spokesman for Nigeria's state oil company said that militant attacks are now cutting the country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, 40 percent of what the country produced before the militant campaign began three years ago.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 18, MEND militants in southern Nigeria, as part of their "oil war," claimed to have destroyed a major oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the fifth attack on the company in less than a week.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 19, Nigerian militants destroyed another major oil pipeline in the Niger Delta after a week of the most intense attacks against Africa's biggest oil and gas industry for years.
(Reuters, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 21, In southern Nigeria MEND declared a ceasefire following a week of attacks on oil industry targets.
(AFP, 9/21/08)
2008 Oct 5, MEND, the main militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, said it had released around 19 Nigerian oil workers kidnapped last month but was still holding two Britons and a Ukrainian.
(Reuters, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 6, A Nigerian UN peacekeeper was killed when up to 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell Anglo-Dutch group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a key demand of armed rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling was given some months ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, Pirates in southern Nigeria seized eight fishing vessels with a total of 96 crew and later threatened to seriously harm them if ransom is not paid.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 21, Amnesty International criticized major failings in Nigeria's criminal justice system and called on the government to immediately put in place a moratorium on capital punishment.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 23, Nigeria's Supreme Court deferred ruling on challenges to President Umaru Yar'Adua's April 2007 election victory but did not set a date for handing down its final judgment. Nigerian troops killed two militants in a river clash with insurgents in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta. 2 AK 47 rifles and ammunitions were recovered from the militants.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)(AFP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 25, Pirates stormed and ransacked a French vessel in Nigeria's restive oil-rich south but there were no casualties.
(AFP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 29, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua dropped 20 government ministers out of a total of 44 in a cabinet shake-up.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Cameroon militia leader said one of the 10 hostages seized by a local militia off Cameroon's coast last week was killed in a failed rescue attempt by Nigerian marines.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Nigeria at least six navy personnel were killed in a gun battle between two rival gangs in southern oil-rich Bayelsa state.
(AFP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In southern Nigeria armed rebels killed a Nigerian sailor during an overnight attack on US giant Chevron's oil facility.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, An environmentalist group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in the Netherlands, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up oil spills in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 11, A Nigerian appeal court sacked the governor of the southern state of Edo following complaints of vote irregularities and declared his opponent the winner.
(AFP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Nigeria 22 Filipinos were arrested by a joint army-navy patrol on the Warri River with the vessel MT Akuada laden with its cargo of 12,500 metric tons of crude oil. On Feb 20, 2009, 13 Filipinos were sentenced to five years each or a fine of one million naira (6,800 dollars) for stealing crude oil from the Niger delta.
(AFP, 2/21/09)
2008 Nov 16, Officials said Nigeria's anti-drugs agency had seized 30,000 kilograms of cannabis contained in 5,923 bags in southern Edo state earlier this week. In June, the agency seized 80 ton of cannabis in its largest ever single haul, in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
(AFP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group Chevron suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian production after a militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said it was declaring "force majeure" until December 31 following the Nov 14 attack on the pipeline which carries supplies to its Escravos terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Abuja, Nigeria, MTV launched its first-ever music award program for Africa, with acts from across the world's poorest continent nominated for prizes in the capital.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 25, Nigeria’s state media said the country has signed a $780 million (605 million euros) loan agreement with the World Bank to finance three projects.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 26, Nigeria's food and drug control agency NAFDAC said 25 children have died in the last fortnight after taking a teething mixture discovered to contain a harmful substance. Laboratory tests on the drug found out that it contains a killer element known as diethylene glycol. The agency shut down the premises of the Nigerian manufacturer. The death count soon rose to 34 as more children lost their lives after being given "My Pikin" teething syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol, blamed for causing kidney failure.
(AFP, 11/26/08)(Reuters, 12/3/08)
2008 Nov 28, Clashes erupted in Jos, Nigeria, after a local election dispute, leaving at least three people dead and prompting the military to send troops into city streets to restore order. Over the next 3 days at least 300 people were killed and 7,000 displaced. In southern Nigeria gunmen abducted a Scottish oil industry worker.
(AP, 11/28/08)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.64)
2008 Nov 29, In Nigeria witnesses said hundreds of people have been killed in the central city of Jos as Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. The violence began following a rumor that the mostly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the election to the mainly Christian federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Over 10,000 people were displaced from their homes and sought refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Nigeria residents delivered more bodies to the main mosque in the central Nigerian city of Jos, bringing the death toll from two days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs to around 400 people. In July, 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said more than 700 died in clashes in Jos, and urged the prosecution of members of security forces it accused of "arbitrary killings."
(AP, 11/30/08)(AFP, 7/20/09)
2008 Dec 1, In Nigeria some two thousand angry youths stormed a mosque in the riot-torn city of Jos as a top parliament official appealed for an end to religious troubles that have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Nigeria authorities in central Plateau state announced the arrest of 16 alleged "mercenaries" from neighboring Niger. Isa Ibrahim, the Nigerien Ambassador to Nigeria, said that those arrested had been living in Jos for several years as water vendors.
(AFP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, In the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom one person was killed during an attack on a convoy of Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), a subsidiary of US oil group ExxonMobil.
(AFP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Pirates attacked an oil-services vessel before dawn off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped two foreign workers.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 12, Nigeria's Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua vowed to speed up electoral reforms after overcoming a legal challenge to his election and receiving a report on problems with the country's electoral laws. The Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to dismiss a suit by opposition leaders, but conceded that widespread irregularities had occurred in his 2006 election.
(AFP, 12/12/08)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 13, In southern Nigeria 5 aides of the governor Edo state were killed when their car collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle on a road.
(AFP, 12/14/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Nigeria's Niger Delta gunmen in speedboats attacked three oil services ships and kidnapped at least two Russians in separate incidents. The pair escaped on foot from a militant camp on Feb 15 and were found by naval personnel on patrol on Feb 19.
(AP, 12/20/08)(AP, 2/19/09)
2008 It was hoped that natural gas production would make the burning of natural gas into the atmosphere obsolete by this time.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2009 Jan 2, In southern Nigeria an oil pipeline was blown up with dynamite.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.
(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 6, In southern Nigeria armed men robbed an offshore oil platform operated by a subsidiary of US oil giant ExxonMobile although the attack did not disrupt oil production.
(AFP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Nigeria leaders of ECOWAS, West Africa's regional economic body, suspended Guinea's membership following a military coup in the country.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, Two Nigerian soldiers were killed and one wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen in the restive oil-rich Niger Delta. Police said the attack might be connected with the police seizure of a vessel, the Sandra Valleta, which was carrying stolen crude oil.
(AFP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Nigeria Susanne Wenger (93), Austrian-born sculptress, died. She had been initiated as a Yoruba traditional priestess and was responsible for towering works of art in one of Nigeria's two World Heritage sites.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Pirates attacked a Norwegian cable ship off the coast of Nigeria but failed to seize the boat despite gunfire, leaving the crew of 52 unhurt.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 18, Nigerian militants attacked a loading vessel, a tanker and a tug boat at a crude oil platform operated by Shell in Bonny and took 8 crew members hostage. One person was killed in the attack. Nigerian rebels holding two British oil workers said they had moved 3 British hostages to another location after what it claimed was a botched rescue attempt by government troops.
(AFP, 1/18/09)(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Dubai said it has reached a deal with Nigeria to invest in the African nation's conflict-ravaged oil industry and other sectors of the economy.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Nigeria the best-known militant group in the Niger Delta said one of its allies carried out an attack on a tanker in southern Nigeria in which one Romanian crewman was taken hostage. He was soon released. The MT Meredith, loaded with 4,000 tons of diesel, was attacked by gunmen in speedboats and sustained "massive damage" during the attack.
(AFP, 1/21/09)(AFP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 26, Halliburton said is has agreed to pay $559 million to the US to settle charges that one of its former units bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a gas plant.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 29, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a Nigerian boy (9) in the oil city of Port Harcourt, shooting dead a domestic worker who was taking him to school.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, Nigerian militants called off a cease-fire after clashing with government forces.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 5, In Nigeria a private security official said unidentified gunmen have attacked an oil-industry vessel off the coast of Nigeria and killed its captain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 6, Nigeria’s government reported that 84 infants and children have died after swallowing My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, a teething syrup laced with diethylene glycol. A failed bid to smuggle a bus filled with rice into Nigeria from Niger left seven people dead including two customs officers set ablaze with petrol.
(SFC, 2/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 10, Nigerian union officials said a 2-day-old strike by freight and forwarding agents to protest high charges was worsening cargo congestion in Lagos, the country's main seaport.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 13, Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said it has declared force majeure on shipments from its main Nigerian terminal because of increased attacks by insurgents on key facilities. Force Majeure (French for "superior force") is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties.
(AP, 2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure)
2009 Feb 17, In southern Nigeria gunmen attacked two oil facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell. A local militant leader claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter and threatened further violence. A Nigerian appeal court sacked the governor of the southwestern state of Ekiti after complaints of vote irregularities and ordered a fresh poll within three months.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen in a midnight raid attacked a compound housing ExxonMobil staff in the Niger Delta but were repulsed after a fierce battle with Nigerian troops.
(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 20, Nigeria ordered its customs service and security and environmental agencies to clamp down on illegal imports of potentially toxic electronic waste.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central Nigeria rioters burned homes, churches and mosques, when violence flared after Muslims parked their cars in front of a church in Bauchi. The clashes followed an argument between Christians and Muslims the previous day. Authorities in northern Nigeria have deployed troops and imposed a curfew following clashes between Christians and Muslims which left at least 11 people dead.
(AP, 2/21/09)(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Nigeria 2 days of clashes between rival gangs in the southern state of Edo left at least eight people dead.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Nigerian teachers in the country's southwest launched an indefinite strike to press demands for better pay.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Nigeria a source close to negotiations said US drug giant Pfizer has agreed to settle a multi-billion dollar damages case with 200 alleged victims of a drugs trial in Kano. Pfizer and families of the victims of the drug trial reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in principle and agreed to meet in Rome in March to put the deal in writing.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Nigerian military raided and destroyed a militant camp in the volatile Niger Delta as part of its drive to end unrest in the oil-producing region.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, The UN Children's Fund said 53 million children are being targeted by a mass immunization drive against polio in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Some 844 polio cases were reported in the 8 countries in 2008, 95% of them in Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 4, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized two passengers from a ferry near the Bonny Island gas terminal. 19 others were released shortly after the ferry was seized.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 11, US authorities deported 60 Nigerians accused of theft, credit card scams and drug-related offences.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, In southern Nigeria an attack took place on Chevron Nigeria Limited’s 16-inch Makaraba-Utonana pipeline. The attack forced Chevron cut its crude oil production by 11,500 barrels per day.
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 21, Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it was hunting down owners of an Indian business group, Vaswani Brothers, for allegedly defrauding the country of three billion naira in unpaid taxes. The brothers were deported from Nigeria in 2003 after a probe into their operations, but were allowed back into the country in 2007.
(AFP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 28, In Nigeria police s outside Lagos freed a Lebanese hostage after a shoot-out in which six of his captors were killed. The man was seized March 23 by gunmen from a waterfront construction site in Lagos' upmarket residential and business area.
(AFP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 3, In Nigeria a source close to negotiations said Pfizer has agreed to pay $75 million compensation over a 1996 drug trial that caused the death of 11 children in northern Nigeria. Kano state confirmed the settlement on May 14.
(AFP, 4/3/09)(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 Apr 5, In southern Nigeria gunmen killed a policeman as they kidnapped a Scottish oil-services worker in Port Harcourt. The British worker was released on April 25.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 8, Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua dismissed top managers across the board of the state Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 9, Nigeria's Central Bank cut its benchmark lending rate to 8% from 9.75% and announced measures aimed at boosting liquidity in the market.
(AFP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 12, In Nigeria fire broke out on the Trans-Niger Pipeline. All the feeder flowstations outside Ogoniland (in Rivers State) adjoining it were shut down to allow for repairs.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 13, In southern Nigeria gunmen riding in 18 boats attacked a military houseboat outside an oil facility and commandeered a naval vessel. The clashes left nine militants and one naval rating dead.
(AP, 4/13/09)(AFP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 15, Nigeria set up a panel to probe a multi-million dollar cash-for-contract scandal embroiling US giant Halliburton and reportedly implicating three former presidents.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, In northern Nigeria a Canadian woman was seized in the city of Kaduna where she had been attending an international conference. Julie Mulligan (45) was freed unharmed in the northern city of Kaduna on April 29.
(AP, 4/18/09)(Reuters, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 20, Nigerian pirates attacked the Aleyna Mercan ship about 50 nautical miles off Onne port, near the oil city of Port Harcourt. The vessel was delivering equipment to French oil group Total. On April 22 the kidnappers released the Turkish captain and the chief engineer.
(AFP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 21, In Nigeria officials said a strike by petrol truck drivers has caused a scarcity of fuel in the commercial capital Lagos, leading to long queues at petrol stations. The strike began at the weekend following a dispute between the tanker drivers and officials of the Lagos state traffic management authority LASMA. Gunmen in Nigeria attacked an oil tanker off the coast of the Niger Delta, kidnapping the ship's captain and an engineer. The Turkish vessel Ilena Mercan, chartered by French oil company Total, was attacked on its way to Onne port in Nigeria's southeastern Rivers state.
(AFP, 4/21/09)(Reuters, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Nigeria 7 high-ranking officials from the country's electricity regulatory commission were charged with "criminal diversion" of state funds. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused chairman Ransome Owan and six of the agency's commissioners of diverting for their private use about five billion naira ($33 million/26 million euros).
(AFP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 23, In Nigeria unknown gunmen kidnapped Peter Ademokhai, a retired army general, from his farm in the southern state of Edo.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 May 8, In Nigeria the governor of southern oil-rich Rivers state signed a law making life jail terms mandatory for kidnappers in the area.
(AFP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 13, Nigerian MEND rebels hijacked an oil industry ship and held 15 Filipino sailors hostage. They demanded that all oil workers leave the southern Niger Delta by May 16.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Nigeria the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared "all-out war" in the southern oil-producing region. The Nigerian military rescued 10 hostages from militants in the southern oil region and destroyed the camp where the victims were being held.
(AFP, 5/15/09)(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, Nigeria's main militant group said it destroyed two oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, the latest attack amid the worst outbreak of violence to hit the region in months. MEND accused government troops of killing a second unnamed hostage and said two bodies would be handed over to the Red Cross. An army spokesman said Nigerian troops have freed three more Filipinos held hostage by militants in the Niger Delta, bringing the total number of the Asians rescued in the past two days to nine.
(AP, 5/17/09)(AFP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, Nigerian university teachers decided to go on strike to demand the implementation of a pay agreement with government. After two-and-a-half years of negotiations, the government had yet to implement the agreement on pay rises and upgrading of facilities in the universities.
(AFP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 22, Nigeria's foreign minister said that the military has rescued 12 hostages, eight Filipinos and four Ukrainians, from militants being targeted by the armed forces in the southern oil region. The military said a dozen troops had gone missing in the region.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 24, The Nigerian army said that over the last 2 days it freed a total of six Filipinos held hostage in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
(AFP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 25, In Nigeria militants sabotaged major crude pipelines in the chaotic oil region, further trimming crude production as the military widened an operation to uproot the fighters. Chevron in Nigeria reported a 100,000 barrel-per-day oil output cut after a militant attack the day before on one of its pipelines in the southern Delta state. The militants said they had released three Filipino hostages seized this month.
(AP, 5/25/09)(AFP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 26, The Nigerian army said it destroyed a militants' camp in the restive Niger Delta as it kept up operations to stem the violence and kidnappings of soldiers and foreigners in the oil-rich region.
(AFP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 27, In Nigeria Ken Niweigha, a gang leader from the restive oil-rich Niger Delta, was killed in southern state of Bayelsa, a day after being arrested. Niweigha was accused of being behind the 1999 shooting of several police officers in Bayelsa that led to the town of Odi being razed by the security forces in reprisal.
(AFP, 5/27/09)
2009 Jun 1, In Nigeria MEND, main militant group in southern Nigeria said, it will release Mathew Maguire, a British hostage it has been holding for the past nine months. They noted that today was Maguire birthday. The next day MEND said "Mr Mathew Maguire has declined the gift of a release from captivity with an argument that he is now an advocate for change in the region and an honorary member of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta." Nigeria's navy killed seven militants in a gunbattle in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/1/09)(AFP, 6/2/09)(AFP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 4, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua made a new offer of amnesty to militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta, after earlier rejection by armed opponents.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 6, Somali pirates released the Yenegoa Ocean, a Nigerian tugboat they hijacked 10 months ago on Aug 4, 2008. A Dutch navy ship escorted it to a safe harbor.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Nigeria MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) set a pumping station of US oil giant Chevron on fire. Government troops killed seven civilians in a waterway at Kangbene community in Delta state according to a MEND claim on June 12. The military denied the incident.
(AFP, 6/10/09)(AFP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Nigeria MEND rebels breached Chevron’s Makaraba-Utonana-Abiteye pipeline and started a fire at the Makaraba Jacket 5 facility in Delta State. MEND also released a British oil sector worker who had been held for nine months.
(AFP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 15, Armed militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta claimed more attacks against facilities run by US oil giant Chevron and warned FIFA against letting the country host the under-17 World Cup tournament.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 15, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and China's state oil firm SIPEC said they have discovered crude oil in Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua made a fresh amnesty offer in Abuja to militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta and promised that an amnesty centre would be set up.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 17, In Nigeria a Ukrainian plane made an emergency landing due to technical problems in the northern city of Kano. Eighteen crates of mines and ammunition, destined for Equatorial Guinea, were found aboard the aircraft. The crew and a Nigerian collaborator were detained and soon transferred to Abuja for questioning.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 17, Royal Dutch Shell said it had deferred shipments of crude oil from its Nigerian Forcados exports terminal for two months due to delays in repairing a key pipeline damaged by vandals.
(AFP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 18, Nigeria's main militant group said it had destroyed a major crude oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell as it fights a campaign against foreign oil companies.
(AFP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 19, Nigeria's main militant group said it had destroyed a major pipeline supplying crude oil to Italian oil group Agip's Brass exports terminal.
(AFP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jun 21, Nigeria's main militant group said it had attacked a Shell offshore facility, the third attack against the Anglo-Dutch company's facilities in Nigeria in one day. The company denied the incident, saying the alleged incident was part of the attack on two other Shell oil pipelines in southern Rivers state earlier in the day.
(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 24, The Nigerian government met with militants from the oil-producing states of the Delta to make an amnesty offer for fighters who cease hostilities in the south of the country. President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of the leader of a militant group from the oil-rich Niger Delta. Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, head of the Niger Delta People's Volunteers Force (NDPVF), was arrested the previous evening on returning from a medical exam in Germany.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 24, Russia’s Pres. Medvedev arrived in Nigeria to sign gas and nuclear energy pacts, becoming the first Kremlin leader to visit Africa's most populous and energy-rich nation.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 25, Nigerian rebels said that they carried out a pre-dawn attack against Royal Dutch Shell facilities in a warning to Russia not to invest in the country's oil and gas industry. Later in the day the main militant group blew up a well-head in a Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) oil field in Delta state, hours after President Umaru Yar'Adua announced an amnesty offer for gunmen.
(AFP, 6/25/09)(Reuters, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 26, Four Nigerian militant factions accepted in principle an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar'Adua, giving a boost to his efforts to end years of unrest in Africa's biggest oil industry. The amnesty will take effect from August 6.
(Reuters, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 28, In Nigeria at least eight people were killed in the collapse of a three-story building in Lagos, the capital.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 29, Nigerian rebels announced a new raid against a Shell oil facility and said they had killed at least 20 soldiers in a gun battle, a claim denied by the security forces.
(AFP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 1, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua extended an amnesty offer to the jailed rebel leader Henry Okah, detained on treason charges for over 18 months.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 3, Algeria, Niger and Nigeria signed an accord to build a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.
(AFP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 4, Nigeria's rebel group MEND threatened to thwart a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe. The army vowed to protect the project. Rebels Sichem Peace oil tanker and its six crew members. The ship and crew were freed July 21 after spending 18 days in captivity in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 7/4/09)(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 5, Nigerian rebels announced they had launched a fresh attack on an oil facility run by the Anglo-Dutch group Shell in the restive Niger Delta. The militants destroyed a Chevron oil pipeline junction in the latest attack on Nigeria's key money earner since the government offered an amnesty.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 8, Nigerian MEND militants said they blew up two key oil pipelines as they stepped up attacks in response to a government amnesty offer.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 9, In Nigeria Henry Okah, a key militant in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta detained since September 2007, accepted President Umaru Yar'Adua recent offer of unconditional amnesty. Armed robbers killed six police officers as they fled after a raid on a commercial bank at Idi-Iroko, a Nigerian border town with Benin.
(AFP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 10, Nigerian militants claimed to have blown up for a second time a recently repaired oil pipeline operated by US petroleum giant Chevron.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 12, Nigerian rebels took their battle with the government into the country's main city, targeting an oil tanker loading facility in Lagos harbor in an unprecedented attack there.
(AFP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, Nigeria's main militant group declared a 60-day truce, effective July 15, in its "oil war" with the government after the release of its leader Henry Okah under an amnesty deal.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Nigeria Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel laureate in literature, slammed Nigeria's handling of the crisis in the oil region and urged the government to adopt a "holistic" approach in tackling it. Excerpts of the news conference were reported the next day on private Channels television.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, In northern Nigeria Islamist militants attacked a police station in Bauchi. Police killed over 50 militants and arrested more than 150 others. The fundamentalists, known as Boko Haram (education is prohibited) in the local Hausa language, clamored for the prohibition of western education in Bauchi and Yobe states. In 2010 Nigerian police said 32 of its men were murdered in the Bauchi attack.
(AP, 7/26/09)(Reuters, 7/26/09)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.44)(AFP, 7/29/10)
2009 Jul 27, In Nigeria Residents of Gamboru-Ngala in Borno state said heavily armed members of a Nigerian Taliban sect stormed the town and went on the rampage, burning a police headquarters, a church and a customs post. Police put the death toll in weekend religious clashes at 65, including 5 police officers.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, Nigerian authorities imposed curfews and poured security forces onto the streets of several northern towns after a two-day wave of Islamic militant attacks against police killed dozens of people.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 29, In northern Nigeria troops struggled to crush an Islamist sect as the death toll from four days of clashes surged past 300. Thousands of people were forced from their homes. Militants attacked security forces in Yobe state. Police said that 43 sect members were killed in a shootout near the city of Potiskum. The government, which blames the Boko Haram sect for instigating days of violence in the mostly Muslim region, shelled and stormed the group's mosque and headquarters in Maiduguri. Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed.
(AFP, 7/29/09)(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 29, Drug maker Pfizer Inc. confirmed that it has resolved a long-running legal dispute with the Nigerian government over allegations that children there were harmed in a 1996 Pfizer study of an experimental antibiotic during a meningitis outbreak. The settlement reportedly called for a $75 million payment by Pfizer.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, In northern Nigeria security forces hunted door-to-door for Islamic militants after killing more than 100 of them by storming the sect's compound. A top rights group said innocent people were getting executed in the process. Mohammed Yusuf (39), the leader of the Boko Haram movement, was shot dead while in police detention. In February, 2011, seven suspects accused of killing Yusuf were arraigned in a federal court. Abubakar Shekau took over Boko Haram following the death of Yusuf.
(AP, 7/30/09)(Reuters, 7/31/09)(AP, 7/19/11)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.54)
2009 Jul 31, Nigeria's national police claimed victory over a radical Islamist sect after its leader was killed by security forces. Experts warned revenge attacks could occur and a leading human rights group demanded a probe into the killing. At least 300 people were killed in violence that erupted in several states around northern Nigeria since July 26.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 1, In Nigeria robbers hijacked the bus on Sagamu-Benin expressway in Ogun State and forced passengers to lie on a road at gunpoint as they ransacked their bus. 20 people were crushed to death as a truck ran into them.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 2, Red Cross and Nigerian defense officials said more than 700 people were killed during a 5-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in the north. Over 700 dead bodies were given mass burial in Maiduguri town alone, as a search for bodies continued.
(Reuters, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 4, The Lithuanian ministry said that the Lithuanian-flagged refrigerator vessel Saturnas, with a crew of 14, was attacked by unidentified perpetrators off the coast of Nigeria. Five crew members were said to have been taken hostage. The attackers did not seize the vessel itself but left in a high-speed boat with the hostages. The 5 Lithuanian sailors were reported freed on Aug 14, ending their 11-day ordeal.
(AFP, 8/4/09)(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 6, Nigeria began a 60-day amnesty for militants fighting in the country's oil-rich Delta region, a government official said, but the main militant group said it would not participate. A cache of weapons and ammunitions was uncovered at an arms depot owned by Niger Delta militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 6, Nigeria's northern Kano state withdrew a landmark criminal and civil suit against US drug group Pfizer over a 1996 drug trial that left 11 children dead and 189 others deformed. The withdrawal of the suit followed a 75-million dollar (52 million euros) out-of-court settlement between the two parties.
(AFP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua formally received the first set of 32 Niger Delta militants who have surrendered their arms under an amnesty he offered them in June and commended them for their "patriotism."
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Nigeria US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged the government to take a firmer line on corruption and offered US help to implement badly needed electoral reforms in Africa's biggest energy producer.
(Reuters, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 14, Nigeria’s banking chief said the government will inject US$2.55 billion into five troubled banks, in Africa's first major bank rescue program since the global credit crunch began. Central Bank Chief Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also announced the sacking of the heads of five major banks for piling up debts worth billions of dollars and poor management. The heads of Afribank plc, Intercontinental Bank plc, Union Bank plc, Oceanic Bank plc and Finbank plc were removed by Sanusi. The Nigerian anti-graft agency soon froze the accounts of the sacked directors for running the institutions into insolvency.
(AP, 8/14/09)(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Nigeria the number of polio cases caused by the vaccine was reported to have doubled so far this year with 124 children paralyzed, compared to 62 in 2008, out of about 42 million children vaccinated. For every case of paralysis, hundreds of other children don't develop symptoms, but pass on the disease.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it had recovered more than 50 billion naira ($320.5 million / €224.2 million) in looted funds and secured 70 convictions in the past year. Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger raided the Darul Islam community and detained hundreds of its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast. Sect leader Amrul Bashir Abdullahi said: "We decided to create a camp for ourselves outside the community because of the problems in the larger society. These are problems of corruption, drunkenness, prostitution and so on which Allah forbids."
(AFP, 8/15/09)(Reuters, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Nigeria a top militant commander and nearly 1,000 of his followers surrendered to the government, handing over rocket launchers, gunboats, guns and bullets in the biggest move since a government amnesty began two weeks ago. Ebikabowei "Boyloaf" Victor Ben, state commander for the region's biggest armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), and 25 commanders under his leadership delivered weapons to police overnight.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 24, Nigeria's anti-graft agency EFCC declared two sacked bank directors wanted over alleged frauds and running their institutions into insolvency.
(AFP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 26, Nigerian authorities arrested two dozen people wanted over massive debts owed to troubled banks in a scandal that has rocked the country's financial industry.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 31, The Nigerian anti-graft agency filed charges against 16 bank chiefs arrested for incurring billions of dollars in bad loans for five ailing banks.
(AFP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 5, Gani Fawehinmi (71) prominent Nigerian lawyer and rights activist died in Lagos after a prolonged battle with cancer. Fawehinmi, holder of Nigeria's highest legal title, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was an author, publisher, philanthropist, social critic, human and civil rights lawyer and politician.
(AFP, 9/5/09)
2009 Sep 16, Nigerian militants (MEND) announced they will extend a cease-fire that expired overnight by one month, holding off on attacks on oil installations and kidnapping foreigners, but warned that the government must address the group's grievances.
(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 19, Nigeria’s Information Minister Dora Akunyili said she's asked movie houses to stop screening "District 9" because the South Africa-based sci-fi movie about aliens and discrimination makes Nigerians look bad. Akunyili said she has asked Sony for an apology and wants them to edit out the Nigerian antagonists and the name of the main Nigerian gangster Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The film brought in some US$37 million (euro25.16 million) during its US debut weekend in August.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 20, In Nigeria Bayo Ohu (45), assistant news editor at the influential Guardian newspaper, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he answered a knock at the front door of his house in a northern suburb of Lagos. On March 15, 2010, police detained three suspects for the murder of Ohu.
(AFP, 9/22/09)(AFP, 3/15/10)
2009 Sep, Nigeria launched a multi-million-dollar dredging exercise to boost navigation and commerce on the Niger River. Then government planned to construct seven ports to serve the 152 host communities along the river.
(AFP, 11/8/09)
2009 Oct 1, In Nigeria Tom Ateke, leader of Niger Delta Vigilante, an ethnic Ijaw militia group, formally accepted an amnesty offer in a meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AFP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 1, A Nigerian official said 9 people died and several others were hospitalized this week following a cholera outbreak in northern Taraba State, bringing the death toll in the region to 97 over the last few weeks.
(AFP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sacked the managing directors of three banks which it said were in "grave situation", seven weeks after it applied similar sanctions to the heads of five other banks.
(AFP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Nigeria Farah Dagogo, a former commander of the country's main militant group, said that he and other field commanders in Rivers state have surrendered all of their weapons. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it has already replaced the commanders who have surrendered. The group has said it would not accept an amnesty deal. Loyalists of Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, filled up boats from the oil city of Warri and made for Oporoza camp, a two-hour boat ride, to witness him giving up his weapons.
(AP, 10/4/09)(AFP, 10/4/09)
2009 Oct 7, In Nigeria the armed Niger Delta militant group MEND dismissed a government amnesty program as a "charade" and warned it would resume attacks on oil facilities once its ceasefire expires next week.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 4, In Nigeria an amnesty for militant in the Niger Delta officially expired.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.57)
2009 Oct 8, Nigerian officials said more than 8,000 militants who laid down arms in the troubled oil hub have so far been registered and that the number could double when the documentation is complete. The grand total was later thought to exceed 15,000.
(AFP, 10/8/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.57)
2009 Oct 9, In southeastern Nigeria some 70-80 people died when a petroleum tanker truck exploded and set nine other vehicles alight on a road. At least five minibuses packed with up to 18 passengers each and two cars were incinerated by the fireball. The truck had toppled and leaked into a deep pothole and then exploded after a car crashed into it.
(Reuters, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria’s central bank said ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar is among more than 600 debtors owing five troubled banks some 450 billion naira (2.96 billion dollars, 2 billion euros). Abubakar, who was deputy to former president Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), owed Spring Bank 111.15 million naira (731,490 dollars, 491,592 euros). The CBN also listed billionaire tycoon Aliko Dangote (52) and Mohammed Buba Marwa, Nigeria's ambassador to South Africa, as major debtors.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria's most high-profile armed group MEND threatened to resume attacks on the country's oil sector when a unilateral ceasefire lapses at midnight.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 16, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency EFCC arrested two sacked bank chiefs and a senior stockbroker for alleged fraud running into several millions of dollars. EFCC said the former managing director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, Charles Ojo of Finbank and Peter Ololo of Falcon Securities would be prosecuted for alleged fraud and granting loans without collateral.
(AFP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 16, In northern Nigeria the toll in a cholera outbreak rose to 149 with 52 more deaths recorded. The disease was first reported on September 10 in Gwoza local government on the border with Cameroon from where it spread to six other districts.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 17, It was reported that an increasing number of children in Africa are being accused of witchcraft by pastors of evangelical Christianity and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files. Campaigners against the practice said around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 19, Nigeria reported plans to offer inhabitants of its oil-producing Niger Delta region 10% of oil and gas ventures in a bid to end a rebellion that has hampered output for years.
(AFP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, Nigeria’s main rebel group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), expressed cautious optimism after a landmark meeting between its leader and President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AFP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 25, Oil-rich Nigeria's main militant group (MEND) called an indefinite cease-fire to encourage dialogue with the government.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 26, A key member of Nigeria's ruling party and close associate of former president Olusegun Obasanjo was sentenced to a total of 28 years in jail for corruption. Bode George and five co-accused "were given 28 years on the charges, but will serve two-and-half years since the sentences will run concurrently." George and five other directors of Nigeria Ports Plc were found guilty of fraud and contract inflation while serving on the board of the state-run company during Obasanjo's regime from 1999 to 2007.
(AFP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 26, Nigeria signed a deal worth almost a billion dollars with a state-owned Chinese engineering firm to resuscitate part of its dilapidated railway system.
(AFP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 27, In Nigeria the 78-year-old father of ex-Central Bank of Nigeria governor Charles Soludo was seized from his home. He was released on Nov 4. Soludo, who left office in June, was last month controversially nominated candidate for the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) for upcoming state governorship elections. Aggrieved aspirants contested the nomination in the courts.
(AFP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 4, A Nigerian senior health official said a fresh cholera outbreak has killed 20 people and left 200 others infected in northern Adamawa State in the past week.
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 10, Nigerian football star Stephen Worgu (20) was fined and sentenced to 40 lashes in Sudan after being convicted of drunk driving in Khartoum. Worgu said he was stopped by police driving home late from dinner at a friend's house in August. No tests were done but officers told the court they had smelled the home-brewed spirit aragi on his breath.
(Reuters, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 14, Nigeria's president held "frank and fruitful" talks with former oil rebel leaders in an effort to end the conflict in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 18, In Uganda a new 12 million dollar family planning drive was launched in Kampala highlighting how Obama administration funding has revamped a contraception drive in Africa and developing states. Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Kenya will share in the 12-million dollar funding, but international organizations still have to persuade certain African governments that it is in their interest to curb population growth.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, The European Commission signed a 677 million euro (one billion dollar) deal in Brussels to help Nigeria tackle challenges in its restive oil-producing region, promoting peace.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Swiss authorities said that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for graft.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Dec 3, Nigerian AIDS and malaria activists said at least 144 women die each day in Nigeria during pregnancy or childbirth, according to the UN and World Bank statistics. Activists premiered three short but hard-hitting Nollywood films to push for an urgent change in attitude and provision of adequate healthcare services to avoid pregnancy-related problems.
(AFP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 9, Amnesty International said that police in Nigeria carry out hundreds of extra-judicial killings every year and only those who can afford to pay bribes can guarantee their safety from execution or torture.
(AFP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Nigeria 23 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with a truck on a road in southwest Oyo state.
(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 16, Nigerian authorities announced the creation of five committees that will address oil, environmental and disarmament issues, following an amnesty in the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 17, A Nigerian judge dismissed a 170-count indictment that accused former Delta state governor James Ibori, of corruption and money laundering. Ibori was also a financial backer of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 18, In Nigeria fresh clashes began between farmers and nomads leaving at least 32 people killed and scores of houses were burnt in central Nassarawa State.
(AFP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 19, Nigerian militants said they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since an amnesty offer because the absence of Pres. Yar'Adua was delaying peace talks. A truck carrying bags of cement crushed and killed at least 55 people when the driver lost control and ran into a crowd on a road in Dekina, in central Kogi state.
(Reuters, 12/19/09)(AFP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 20, In Nigeria 12 people were burned to death when the two vehicles they were traveling in collided and burst into flames at Sabongida-Tasharanda in Bauchi State. A separate crash in neighboring Gombe State killed 9 people and injured five others in a head-on collision between a commuter bus and a car at Lafiyawo village.
(AFP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 23, In northern Nigeria a truck packed with cattle and people collided with a car, killing 18 people and injuring 22 others in the town of Talata Mafara.
(AFP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 25, An attempted bombing took place as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam prepared to land in Detroit just before noon. Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (23), a Nigerian man, who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner with a bomb sewed into his underwear. Abdulmutallab later told US investigators he had received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen. On Oct 12, 2011, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all federal counts against him.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AFP, 12/29/09)(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A8)
2009 Dec 28, In northern Nigeria fighting between Islamic militants and security forces in Bauchi state left at least 70 people dead as Kala Kato sect members armed with spears and arrows ransacked a neighborhood and set homes ablaze.
(AP, 12/29/09)(AFP, 12/30/09)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.56)
2009 Dec 30, A Nigerian official says the nation will purchase 3-D, full body scanners after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed through Nigeria's biggest airport before trying to bring down a US-bound flight on Christmas Day.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 The South African directed film “District 9" depicted Nigerians eating the flesh of, and prostituting themselves, to aliens.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.44)
2009 Nigeria’s population reached about 160 million, making it Africa’s most populous country.
(Econ, 11/14/09, p.31)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 8, In Nigeria a crude-oil pipeline operated by Chevron was attacked by unknown gunmen in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 12, Nigerian lawmakers voted to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss "issues of national importance" with ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua as protests mounted for him to stand down. Gunmen seized 3 Britons and a Colombian, shooting dead their police escort in the first major kidnapping for six months in southern Niger Delta. Gunmen soon demanded a ransom of 300 million naira (1.98 million dollars, 1.38 million euros) for the release of three Britons and the Colombian. On Jan 18 gunmen freed the 3 British expatriate workers and their Colombian colleague.
(AFP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/15/10)(AFP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Nigerian high court ruled that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Nigeria clashes took place in the central city of Jos as tensions reignited between Muslims and Christian gangs, a year after similar fighting killed hundreds of its residents. Angry Muslim youths set a Catholic church filled with worshippers ablaze, starting a riot that killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 300 others.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Nigeria religious violence between Christians and Muslims erupted again in central Nigeria. Gregory Anyating, Plateau state's police commissioner, declared a 24-hour curfew as the number of dead reached close to 150 in 3 days of violence.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Jos, Nigeria, charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Nigeria religious leaders in Jos prepared for mass burials after four days of Christian-Muslim clashes left nearly 300 dead.
(AFP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 23, In central Nigeria a village headman said at least 150 bodies were recovered from wells following deadly Muslim-Christian clashes, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Nigeria the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jos condemned clashes between Christians and Muslims there which are said to have claimed more than 450 lives. Reverend Peter Imasuen, the Anglican bishop of Benin City, was kidnapped in southern state of Edo shortly after saying mass.
(AFP, 1/24/10)(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, A Nigerian state police commissioner said sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Jos left 326 people dead last week. Police in central Plateau state have arrested 303 suspects from last week's inter-religious violence. In southwestern Ogun State gunmen shot dead Chief Dipo Dina, a prominent opposition politician, amid rising tensions ahead of general elections next year.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Nigerian naval helicopter crashed in the Niger Delta, likely killing the four people onboard.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Nigeria Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria, said chilling text messages urged both Christians and Muslims to commit violence during rioting that left more than 300 people dead. He said his group has collected about 150 text messages that were sent before and during the violence in Jos.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Nigerian court rejected a demand by top lawyers that a caretaker head of state be appointed until ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua returns from hospital treatment in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, Nigeria's main rebel group called off a truce in the oil-rich Niger Delta, threatening an "all-out onslaught" and adding to the country’s political and economic woes. A leak was observed on the Anglo-Dutch Trans-Ramos pipeline. The leak was stopped and an investigation confirmed the leak was due to a sabotage. Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell shut down some oil production following the sabotage.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 6, Nigerians voted to choose a governor for the politically turbulent state of Anambra in a race expected to test the country's readiness to hold credible presidential polls next year. The next day the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Peter Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance victor despite glitches and fears the vote would be rigged in favor of President Umaru Yar'Adua's party.
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 9, Nigeria's Parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over for ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, whose absence has stoked unrest.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 10, Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan removed the powerful justice minister in his first major step since assuming executive powers in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Outgoing Justice Minister and Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa had been among the group of ministers who held out most strenuously against formally transferring power to Jonathan.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least 20 bus passengers were killed in Port Harcourt when a cable fell onto the bus and electrocuted the people inside.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Nigeria Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa state, was arrested for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for public projects. He was currently serving as secretary to the board of trustees of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria's ruling political party.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Nigeria's ailing Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua returned home after a three-month stay in a Saudi Arabian hospital. An advisor said the leader needed time to recuperate and so the vice president would remain in charge.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, French oil giant Total said it is to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Nigeria a spokesman said police detained 17 officers over the weekend for questioning after the Al-Jazeera news channel aired a video on Feb 9 showing uniformed men executing people in Boko Haram town where religious rioting left 700 people dead last year. Gunmen attacked a van carrying 21 people working for the network's SuperSport channels after the crew filmed a soccer match in the Niger Delta. One of three kidnapped sports journalists escaped his captors.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Nigeria planted explosives in the Niger Delta damaged the Kokori oil flow station operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, marking the latest attack in a region supposedly brought under control by a government amnesty program.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Nigeria some 500 people, mainly women and children, were allegedly killed in overnight attacks in the three villages of Dogo Nahawa, Ratsat and Zot near the city of Jos. Residents and local rights activists blamed the overnight attack on ethnic Fulani pastoralists. A military spokesman said security forces have arrested 24 people last week accused of stealing crude oil and illegally refining it. Security forces soon detained 95 suspects in the violence.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Nigeria some 5,000 activists staged a march in Abuja to demand the sacking of the cabinet and a public appearance by ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned to the country. 2 people were killed overnight by soldiers in Jos enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages. Plateau state police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba gave a breakdown of the list of people killed, saying the toll was 109. Aduba also revealed that 49 people were to be charged over the killings, saying they had already confessed to being on a revenge mission.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 19, A Nigerian armed rebel group claimed to have blown up an oil facility in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta region and threatened to step up attacks in coming days.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Nigerian authorities said police have arrested 164 people over a recent massacre near the central city of Jos and plan to charge most with offences ranging from terrorism to arson.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Nigeria the Magajin Gari Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna ordered the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), one of the country's leading rights groups, to suspend its Twitter and Facebook online debates on Malam Buba Bello Jangebe’s wrist amputation for theft, which was carried out in 2000.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Two Nigerian oil workers were found dead in the oil-rich Niger Delta region after being kidnapped on March 13.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, Most of Nigeria was shrouded in a thick dust storm, disrupting air travel and threatening to trigger respiratory problems.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, Pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, injuring three crew members. Eight to 10 pirates with automatic weapons boarded the Ozay 5. They robbed the crew of money and cellphones but fled after the ship began making distress calls.
(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped Chris Nnaji. a local employee of French oil group Total, on his way to work in the country's oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 1, Nigerian authorities charged 20 people over their roles in sectarian clashes that killed hundreds in central Plateau state last month, and some could face the death penalty.
(Reuters, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Nigeria at least two people were killed when police fired live rounds to disperse a group of protesting youths in a suburb of Lagos.
(AFP, 4/4/10)
2010 Apr 6, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan installed his new cabinet, appointing senior Goldman Sachs executive Olusegun Aganga as his new finance minister. Jonathan also named former mines minister Deziani Allison-Madueke and Godsday Orubebe as the new oil and Niger Delta ministers. Police said that religious massacres have stopped, but "secret" killings of Christians and Muslims continue on a smaller scale across central Nigeria, claiming more than 30 lives this year.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 9, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped three Syrian expatriates and one Lebanese worker near the oil hub Port Harcourt. A police officer attached to the construction firm was killed when gunmen launched the attack. The 4 kidnapped men were released on April 12.
(AP, 4/9/10)(AFP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 11, In Nigeria suspected Muslim ethnic Fulani attackers burned homes in a Christian village near the city of Jos, which has been at the centre of tit-for-tat attacks this year which have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 13, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency sought the arrest of Chief James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich Delta State (1999-2007), suspected of siphoning off millions of dollars of state assets. Hundreds of Nigerian youths rallied in the commercial capital Lagos demanding Acting President Goodluck Jonathan implement much needed electoral reforms to ensure credible national polls next year.
(AFP, 4/13/10)(Reuters, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 15, In Nigeria the burnt bodies of a Pentecostal pastor, Ishaya Kadah, and his wife, Selina, were discovered by the police in Boto village, two days after they were kidnapped.
(AFP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 17, In Nigeria at least five people were killed and several wounded when two oil tankers collided and burst into flames in southwest Ogun state.
(AFP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 18, In Nigeria gunmen abducted two Germans who sought respite along a beach in the oil-rich and violent southern region.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, The Nigerian army averted an attack by suspected Muslim extremists on a mainly Christian village in the flashpoint central Plateau State, killing two gunmen. 2 Christian farmers were killed and two others went missing in fresh attacks by suspected Muslim-Fulani nomads in central Plateau State.
(AFP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 22, Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan approved a 4.6 trillion naira (31-billion-dollar) budget that increased spending by about 50%. He also signed a bill that gives preferential treatment to Nigerian companies wanting to take part in the country's oil industry.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 24, Nigeria and the United States agreed to work together to counter the spread of nuclear weapons. The agreement was announced following a meeting between US undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns with acting Pres. Goodluck Jonathan.
(AFP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 24, In Nigeria Edo Ugbagwu (42), a justice reporter for the daily newspaper The Nation, died in a shooting after some sort of confrontation at his home in Lagos. Two journalists working for a Christian magazine were stabbed to death by a mob in a predominantly Muslim suburb in the flashpoint Nigerian city of Jos. Kidnappers seized the commissioner of the environment in southern oil-rich Bayelsa State, along with her mother-in-law, during a private visit to Abia state. Mrs. Victoria Denenu and her mother-in-law were released on April 29.
(AP, 4/26/10)(AFP, 4/26/10)(AFP, 4/27/10)(AFP, 5/1/10)
2010 Apr 26, A Nigerian court charged the country's ruling party chairman over a series of corruption allegations, creating a criminal case against the most powerful man blocking the acting president from running in next year's election. Vincent Ogbulafor faced 16 counts accusing him of funneling money toward fictitious projects during his service as minister of special duties.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, Nigeria's senate ordered a probe into Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49) for his alleged marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, after the national rights watchdog and other 10 groups accused him of shaming the country. Gunmen seized four officers of an agency responsible for combating counterfeit pharmaceuticals in the southern state of Abia.
(AFP, 4/28/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 30, A Nigerian court sentenced six Ghanaians and a Nigerian to 8 years in prison each after they were found guilty of stealing 4,000 tons of oil products. Rebels in the restive Niger Delta claimed to have blown up a Shell pipeline in the creeks of the southern oil producing region and threatened further attacks.
(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 May 1, Nigeria's navy seized a Greek-flagged vessel carrying more than 80 tons of stolen crude oil and arrested its crew in a crackdown on a multi-million dollar smuggling racket.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 3, Nigeria's private pay TV station NN24 began a 24-hour news coverage service in a first for the west African country. Nigerian police freed a Ghanaian woman after a shootout with her kidnappers in the restive oil city of Port Harcourt. The kidnappers seized another woman, Rita Oparaocha, an employee of the state ministry of works and housing after snatching her car.
(AFP, 5/3/10)(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Royal Dutch Shell said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 6, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan (52) was sworn as president of the oil-rich African nation riven by religious and political divisions, hours after the death of the incumbent Umaru Yar'Adua (58). Jonathan vowed that electoral reform and fighting graft would be top priorities.
(Reuters, 5/6/10)
2010 May 7, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it had deferred crude shipments from its Bonny Light terminal in the Niger Delta for two months due to a fire that has hampered production.
(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 11, Nigerian Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49), under fire over marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, justified his actions by saying he was following in the footsteps of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, who had married a nine-year-old girl, Aishatu.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, Former Nigerian minister Nasir el-Rufai appeared in court on charges of doling out government lands to associates and family members during his four years in office. The minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja from 2003 to 2007 faced charges of criminal conspiracy and abuse of office following an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, In Dubai James Ibori, former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state (1999-2007), was arrested on a UK warrant. Nigerian anti-graft agency chief Farida Waziri said Ibori was wanted on charges of stealing 44 billion naira ($292 million) in state funds while he was in office. In July Ibori was scheduled for extradition to Britain.
(AP, 5/14/10)(AFP, 7/26/10)
2010 May 13, In Nigeria Vincent Ogbulafor, chairman of the ruling People's Democratic Party, wrote that he would be resigning his post following accusations of embezzling government money. The move pushed aside the most powerful man blocking the nation's new president from running in next year's election.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 13, In Abuja, Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) sealed a $23 billion deal to build three refineries and a petrochemical complex.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In southern Nigeria gunmen sporting military uniforms kidnapped four Lebanese road construction workers in an attack that left a soldier and a gang member dead in Abia state. The 4 workers were freed on May 22.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 17, A report by civil liberties group Open Society Justice Initiative alleged that Nigeria's federal police force kills with impunity, extorts those it's charged to protect and rapes arrested prostitutes as a "fringe benefit" of the job.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, In Nigeria both houses of parliament voted to approve Namadi Sambo, a northern Muslim, as new vice president of the country, maintaining a delicate religious and geographical balance in power.
(AFP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced it will spend more than $2 billion to sharply reduce the burning off of natural gas at its oil wells in Nigeria, gases that when burned contribute to global warming and sicken people living nearby.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 21, Nigerian officials and residents said hundreds of Niger nationals, mostly women and children, have flooded into the country in search of food.
(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 22, Nigerian youths in Jos hacked to death 3 Muslim herders and burned their bodies.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 23, In Nigeria fresh violence between Muslims and Christians in Jos left one person dead and another seriously wounded, a day after three others were killed. 15 suspects were arrested for the previous day’s killings. Gunmen in the delta seized 3 Chinese technicians. The men were freed on May 29.
(AP, 5/23/10)(AFP, 5/23/10)(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 30, In northern Nigeria a chlorine gas leak led 300 people to fall ill after a welder cut into a tank of the noxious gas in Kaduna.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 Jun 1, Christie Ibori-Ibie was found guilty by London's Southwark Crown Court on charges of aiding her brother James Ibori, the former governor of Delta state, who himself stands accused of siphoning nearly 300 million dollars of public funds in Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 3, Nigeria's parliament approved a constitutional amendment on transferring presidential powers, aimed at avoiding a repeat of a crisis when the late President Umaru Yar'Adua fell seriously ill last year.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 4, A senior Nigerian official said lead poisoning caused by illegal gold mining has killed 163 Nigerians, including 111 children, since March in several northern remote villages.
(Reuters, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 17, Royal Dutch Shell PLC warned Nigeria that $40 billion of planned investments in the oil-rich nation could be in jeopardy if lawmakers pass a proposed bill to overhaul the petroleum industry. Government officials say the bill would allow more oil money to return to Nigeria's people. The bill also would require the government-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., which partners with all foreign oil firms, to seek profits like a private business and not rely on government subsidies.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jul 2, In Nigeria a gasoline tanker flipped and exploded in Gombe killing 14 people.
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 3, In Nigeria gunmen attacked two cargo vessels off the coast of the oil-producing Niger Delta, killing one crew member and kidnapping 12 foreign workers. The crew members were seized near Bonny in southern Rivers state. The military believe they were from eastern Europe. The workers were freed 2 days later along with three sailors taken hostage in May.
(Reuters, 7/3/10)(AFP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency ruled that it lacks sufficient evidence to criminally charge Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49) for marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, the daughter of his driver, to whom Yerima allegedly paid a $100,000 dowry.
(AP, 5/11/10)(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 7, Royal Dutch Shell said it has begun production at a major project in Nigeria that should eventually provide up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day and help boost electricity for the power-starved nation.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 7, The UN WHO said at least 2,000 lead-poisoning victims in northern Nigeria may require treatment to remove brain-damaging lead. The poisoning was believed to be related to the processing of lead-rich ore for the extraction of gold.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 9, Aid agency Oxfam warned that the food crisis gripping the Sahel region of Africa was reaching disastrous levels and called on governments and the international community to act now. The crisis stretched across the region taking in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped 4 journalists traveling through the country's oil-rich southern delta. The kidnappers made a ransom demand of $1.67 million. The journalists were freed on July 18 with no ransom paid.
(AP, 7/12/10)(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 13, In Nigeria the junior finance minister said the country’s corruption-ridden giant state oil firm NNPC is insolvent with debts of five billion dollars.
(AFP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 13, In eastern Nigeria Christians and Muslims clashes, left eight people dead and 40 seriously wounded, with six mosques and one church also torched.
(AFP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 15, French oil firm Total SA said it has signed a deal to acquire Chevron Corp.'s stake in an offshore oil block near Nigeria's coastline.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 17, In central Nigeria Muslims attacked a Christian village, killing eight people with machetes and burning seven houses and a church in fresh religious violence.
(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 21, Nigeria laid out plans to bail out its badly struggling banks by removing up to 21 billion dollars in deadbeat loans from their balance sheets.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 26, Nigeria's drug enforcement agency seized nearly half a ton of cocaine and arrested two Chinese nationals and a Nigerian in connection with the seizure. The shipment originated from Chile and passed through Peru, Bolivia and Antwerp in Belgium before being shipped to Nigeria.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Nigeria Islamic police smashed 80,000 bottles of beer in the city of Kano to enforce a sharia law ban on consumption of alcohol that exists in much of the country's north.
(AFP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Nigeria Erastus Akingbola, ex-chief executive of Intercontinental Bank, turned himself in after returning from Britain. He was accused of taking part in corruption blamed for helping cause a financial crisis. The central bank removed a list of executives from their jobs at financial institutions, including Akingbola, in 2009 in a bid to clean up the banking sector.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 6, In northern Nigeria authorities shot three people dead as a mob threatened to burn down a police station in an area that has been a hotbed of political and religious violence.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 11, In Nigeria a condemned building collapsed in Abuja and killed 23 people. Squatters who lived there described jumping from two storeys up to escape. Russian sailors Igor Ivanov and Andrei Pukke were kidnapped in the southern delta. On Sep 9 they were reported to have been released by their captors following a $60,000 ransom.
(AFP, 8/12/10)(AFP, 8/14/10)(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Nigeria a senior official said a cholera outbreak has killed 40 people while 115 others have been infected in northern Nigeria's Borno State in the past week.
(AFP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Nigeria Royal Dutch Shell PLC warned that thieves in the oil-rich and restive southern delta are increasingly targeting the company's crude pipelines, including at least three incidents of sabotage this month alone.
(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Nigeria a fiery road crash outside the commercial capital of Lagos burned at least 15 people to death and injured 18 others.
(AFP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Nigerian officials said a cholera outbreak has killed 87 people during the past month while 1,315 others have been infected.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 17, A Human Rights Watch report said Nigerian police corruption has led officers to regularly detain innocent people to extort cash, with some tortured or allegedly killed in the process. The report was based on interviews with more than 145 victims of or witnesses to police corruption.
(AFP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 18, Officials with Nigeria's security services say they've intercepted 52 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds heading for Kos, an area that has been the scene of religious violence. They said five men were arrested for trying to bring the weapons from neighboring Chad.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 18, Shell in Nigeria said it has warned it may not meet contractual obligations on Bonny Light crude, after oil thieves sabotaged two pipelines in the country's south.
(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 19, Nigeria’s Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the death toll from a cholera outbreak in northern Nigerian has risen to 231 while 4,600 others have been infected.
(AFP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 23, Officials said the United States has granted Nigerian airlines permission for direct US flights.
(AFP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Nigeria gunmen ambushed Soboma George, leader of the feared Outlaws Gang, in the oil town of Port Harcourt. The gunmen fired at George, and killed one woman and wounded another during a running shootout. George’s body was recovered Aug 27.
(AP, 8/25/10)(AFP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 25, In Nigeria 2 motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed a police constable in Yobe state. Separately 2 policemen were shot and killed by 4 gunmen dressed in black and riding motorcycles in Maiduguri. The gunmen were suspected to be members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
(AFP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 25, Nigeria's worker union for the state-run power company called a general strike, a day before the nation's president is to announce his plans to privatize the industry.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 25, Shell said it has shut down an oil facility in southern Nigeria due to protests by a group of local women, after a similar demonstration targeted a Chevron pipeline.
(AFP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 25, Nigerian health officials warned that the whole country is at risk in a cholera epidemic that has killed 352 people in only three-months time.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 26, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan laid out plans to privatize most of the country's power sector, as corruption and mismanagement continued to cause daily outages in the oil-rich nation.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 27, In Nigeria Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, a physician, businessman and son of the country's first prime minister, was abducted by gunmen and taken to a forest in Katampe area on the outskirts of Abuja. The next day police engaged the suspects and rescued the abductee.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Aug 27, Some Nigerian women and girls are being forced into prostitution in neighboring Ivory Coast after being deceived with promises of a better life outside of their country, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 30, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot and killed a personal assistant to Bauchi state Gov. Malam Isa Yuguda, the son-in-law to the late Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua. A police guard for Yuguda was shot and seriously injured.
(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Sep 5, In Nigeria more than a dozen vehicles including three fuel tankers and two mini-buses caught fire in a pile-up on a highway, site of a deadly multi-car crash three weeks ago. No death toll was immediately available. Three separate shootings occurred by motorcycle-riding gunmen, leaving a retired police officer dead. Another person reported wounded later died, and four others were injured.
(AFP, 9/5/10)(AFP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 7, In northern Nigeria the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect used assault rifles to launch a coordinated sunset raid on a prison in Bauchi, freeing over 700 prisoners including more than 100 followers and raising new fears about violence just months before elections. Five people, a soldier, a police officer, two prison guards and a civilian, died in the attack and six others were in critical condition.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 10, A US federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a jury verdict clearing the Chevron Corp. of alleged human rights abuses during a violent 1998 protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria.
(AP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 13, In Nigeria unknown attackers brandishing machetes stormed the home of Garba Bello, a senior intelligence official, and hacked him and four members of his family to death in an apparent targeted killing.
(AFP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 14, A Nigerian official said police over the weekend arrested 10 members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect accused of a recent spate of targeted killings of police officers and local officials. Police also arrested two more sect followers freed in a recent prison break. Pere Fiofori, Emmanuel Gladstone and Dobra Ogbe, aged between 30 and 35, were arrested in a hotel in Ondo town and handed over to the Rivers State police in connection with last month's murder of Soboma George, in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 9/14/10)(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 17, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan, current chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said Guinea-Bissau risks sliding into anarchy unless a security solution, including taming the military, is found in the coup-prone west African nation.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 17, Nigeria’s national security adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan resigned to compete against his boss to become the ruling party's candidate in next year's presidential election.
(AFP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 18, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan formally declared his bid for the 2011 presidential poll, three days after launching it on his Facebook page, ending months of doubts over his ambition.
(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency said the United States has removed Nigeria from the list of major drug trafficking countries, describing the move as recognition of its fight against trafficking.
(AFP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 22, A Thai national and 3 French employees of marine services company Bourbon were kidnapped overnight in an attack on one of its ships, the Bourbon Alexandre, in an oil field off Nigeria. The hostages “in poor health" were released on Nov 10.
(AP, 9/22/10)(AP, 11/10/10)(AFP, 11/12/10)
2010 Sep 25, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka attended an event in Lagos announcing the platform of the Democratic Front for a People's Federation. The party claims to be a "zero resource" party, a jab at oil-rich Nigeria's culture of government graft and corruption.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, Nigerian officials said opened dams in Jigawa state have displaced some two million people in the north, adding to flood misery that has already washed away entire villages across a wide swathe of the region. The next day spokesman for the Hadejia-Jama'are River Basin Development Authority, said the dams, located in Kano state, which borders Jigawa, are never manually opened and simply empty automatically into a spillway once the reservoir fills. He said heavy rainfall almost everywhere in the country caused the flooding.
(AFP, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, In Nigeria gunmen hijacked a school bus in Abia state and kidnapped 15 children on board in the oil-rich south. The next day they demanded a $130,000 ransom for their release. On Oct 1 a joint military and police taskforce "rescued" the children and no ransom was paid.
(AFP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Sep 29, Nigerian authorities said as many as 40,000 girls and women have been trafficked to nearby West African countries to serve as sex workers.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Sweden activists from Nepal, Nigeria, Brazil and Israel were named the winners of this year's Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," for work that included fighting to save the Amazon rain forest and bringing health care to Palestinians cut off from services. The recipients included Nigeria's Nnimmo Bassey (42), Catholic Bishop Erwin Kraeutler (71) of Brazil, Shrikrishna Upadhyay (65) of Nepal, and the organization Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, In Nigeria car bomb explosions killed 12 people and injured 17 near a parade Abuja marking the 50th anniversary of independence. Two blasts, which also destroyed three cars, came an hour after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), warned it had planted several bombs and told people to evacuate the area.
(Reuters, 10/1/10)(Reuters, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 1, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria's southern delta kidnapped two foreign sailors from the MV Eckhardt tanker. A naval spokesman later suggested the crew worked in the black market trade of stolen crude from the region.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 2, South African authorities arrested Henry Okah, an ex-leader of a militant group that claimed responsibility for the Oct 1 dual car bombing that killed 12 people in Nigeria. A day before the bombings, security agencies in South Africa had raided Okah's home and seized a laptop, though they did not arrest him. On Jan 21, 2013, a South African court found Okah guilty of masterminding the bombings. On March 26, 2013, Okah was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
(AP, 10/3/10)(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2010 Oct 3, Nigeria's federal police force named two men, Ben Jessy and Chima Orlu, as the "masterminds" behind the Oct 1 bombings in Abuja.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 5, Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF) said lead poisoning has killed more than 400 children under five in the past six months in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara.
(AFP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Nigeria suspected members of Boko Haram, a northern radical Muslim sect, shot and killed Awana Ngala, the leader of the ruling All Nigeria People's Party, the latest attack by a group that engineered a massive prison break last month.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, A Nigerian court handed a 6-month jail sentence to Cecilia Ibru, one of the country's most prominent women, over millions of dollars loaned by her bank in a case linked to a financial crisis in the oil-rich nation.
(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, In northern Nigeria gunmen on motorcycle taxis killed Islamic cleric Sheikh Bashir Mustapha. He had been an outspoken critic of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect blamed for a rash of recent shootings. Authorities believed Sheikh Bashir Mustapha was slain by members of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 11, A Nigerian official said scores of slum residents in Lagos have been left homeless by flooding from the Ogun River following last month's opening of a dam.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 11, In northern Nigeria suspected members of a radical Islamic sect set a police station ablaze, wounding three officers in an attack similar to one that sparked rioting and a government crackdown that left 700 dead last year.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In India a second doping case in two days, and again involving a Nigerian runner, was reported. Both cases involved Methylhexaneamine. It was also found in about a dozen Indian athletes in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 14, In Nigeria gunmen in the southern delta kidnapped, Lakshmi Tombush, the principal of a school sponsored by Exxon, and killed 2 police officers in a firefight. Gunmen attacked a police roadblock northern Bauchi state and two policemen were killed. Police officers recovered Tombush on Oct 28.
(SFC, 10/15/10, p.A2)(AFP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 16, A Nigerian army spokesman said soldiers have arrested this month about 100 suspected kidnappers and armed robbers in the southeastern state of Abia, including a Roman Catholic priest. Nigerian investigators raided a Lagos home of Charles Okah, the brother of former militant group leader Henry Okah, taking him into custody over his alleged role in funding the Oct 1 bombings that struck independence anniversary celebrations in Abuja.
(AFP, 10/16/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, A Nigerian government spokesman said a Dubai court found cause to honor an extradition request for former Delta state Gov. James Ibori, a prominent politician in the ruling People's Democratic Party. Authorities have said Ibori faces charges over stealing $292 million in state funds while in office.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 19, The UN said that 377 people had died in flooding in central and west Africa, with nearly 1.5 million people affected since the start of the rainy season in June. The highest toll was in Nigeria with 118, followed by Ghana (52), Sudan (50), Benin (43), Chad (24), Mauritania (21), Burkina Faso (16), Cameroon (13), Gambia (12), with other countries reporting less than 10 dead.
(AFP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Nigeria Mallam Tukur, a local government official, died after being shot in the body and head at his home in Bauchi state.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 22, The UN Children's Fund said about 1,555 people have died of cholera in Nigeria this year, marking a likely peak in a three-year-old surge in the disease in the country.
(AFP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 24, In southeastern Nigeria fighting erupted linked to a land dispute between the feuding Nsadop and Boje communities in Cross River state. Fighting led to the burning of dozens of houses and churches. After 2 days of unrest police recovered 13 burnt corpses.
(AFP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 26, Nigerian police arrested 10 local chiefs from Boje community accused of murder in a land dispute with neighbors after which 13 burnt corpses were recovered.
(AFP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 27, Nigerian officials allowed journalists to see the 107 mm rockets, rifle rounds and other weapons seized at Apapa Port. Authorities said the shipment also contained grenades, explosives, mortars and possibly rocket launchers. However, journalists visiting the holding yard just inside of the port's main gate did not see those weapons. the manifest for the weapons described the shipment as "packages of glasswool and pallets of stone." The next day customs officials said the shipment of 13 containers came from a ship that had just left India and investigators continued to trace the weapons' origins.
(AP, 10/27/10)(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 28, Israeli officials said that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. On Oct 30 an international shipping company said the weapons cache originally came from Iran. Last week, the Iranian shipper filed a request for the containers to be picked up again and this time shipped to the West African nation of Gambia. On Feb 1, 2011, Azim Aghajani of Iran and his alleged accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, both maintained their innocence against three charges over the shipment.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Oct 29, In Nigeria Italian oil firm Eni SpA said a pipeline carrying some of its crude out of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta has erupted after an "act of sabotage."
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Nov 1, ExxonMobil in Nigeria announced the discovery of rich gas condensate off the West African country's coast as the government seeks to boost gas supply to help solve electricity shortages.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 3, Northern Nigeria began deporting hundreds of illegal immigrants from neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon amid tight security and military patrols over a series of attacks blamed on an Islamist sect. Immigration officials said they were deported some 700 illegal immigrants to prevent them from casting votes in next year's presidential election.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 4, Nigerian lawmakers approved constitutional changes allowing the postponement of presidential elections set for early next year after warnings there would not be enough time to prepare.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Nigeria an oil rig in the volatile Delta region was attacked and 7 crew members were taken hostage. A security source said the crew included 2 Americans, 2 French, 2 Indonesians and a Canadian.
(AFP, 11/8/10)(AFP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, Nigerian authorities announced 23 new arrests announced, bringing the number of suspected Boko Haram sect members in police custody to 128.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 10, Nigerian trade unions called off a strike protesting the minimum wage across the oil-rich nation, one day into the planned 3-day action. They said Pres. Goodluck Jonathan made promises to raise the wage. The current minimum monthly wage was 7,500 naira, or $50.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, A Nigerian government report identified Iranians Azimi Agajany and Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi as the men who organized a shipment of arms through a Tehran-based company called International Trading and General Construction. The arms containers sat at Lagos' busy Apapa port from July until Oct. 26, when Nigerian security agents carried out a raid and discovered the weapons inside.
(AP, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 13, A Nigerian soldier was killed and another wounded in a suspected attack by a radical Muslim sect in northeastern Borno state. The assailants fired a Kalashnikov rifle at the soldiers from a motorbike. Gunmen burst into a burial vigil outside the oil city of Port Harcourt, firing shots and kidnapping 4 people.
(AP, 11/14/10)(AFP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 14, A Nigerian army spokesman said its special joint military force has arrested 449 suspected kidnappers in four oil-producing states in the Niger Delta in under 7 weeks. Gunmen attacked an offshore facility operated by Exxon Mobil off the southern coast. 8 people were missing following the raid that knocked out 45,000 barrels per day of condensate production.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AFP, 11/15/10)(Reuters, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 15, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the issue of an alleged Iranian arms shipment intercepted in Nigeria was a "misunderstanding" that has been settled.
(AP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 17, Nigeria's security forces rescued 19 foreign and local hostages from militant camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta oil region.
(Reuters, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 18, Nigeria's drug enforcement found and seized 286 pounds (130 kg) of high-quality heroin, destined for Europe, hidden inside a shipment of auto parts sent from Iran.
(AP, 11/19/10)(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 19, The Nigerian army arrested a militant leader and 62 of his followers suspected of involvement in a string of recent kidnappings of oil workers, including foreigners. Gunmen suspected of being members of Boko Haram, an Islamist sect behind a deadly uprising last year, shot dead three worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 23, Nigeria's most prominent armed group MEND said that on Nov 21 it had attacked and destroyed the Obidi refinery trunk line feeding a refinery in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, Nigeria said it has seized another illegal arms shipment at its main port, including pistols and military vehicles, weeks after the discovery of a weapons cache sent from Iran. The military items which were packed inside a vehicle painted in army green. The illegal arms shipment came from Belgium through Germany,
(AFP, 11/24/10)(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 25, A court in Nigeria charged an alleged member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and three Nigerians over a shipment of mortars and rockets seized in the main port of Lagos last month.
(Reuters, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 26, A Nigerian court annulled the election of the governor of the southwestern state of Osun and installed his opposition rival, in the latest blow to the ruling party ahead of national elections next April. The court ruled that Osun state governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) had been wrongly elected in the 2007 polls and installed his rival Rauf Aregbesola of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
(Reuters, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 29, Nigerian union leaders ordered their tanker drivers to halt the supply of petrol nationwide for 7 days in protest at alleged maltreatment and killing of their members by the military. The strike was suspended the next day after a group of soldiers behind the killing of one of their colleagues were handed over to police.
(AFP, 11/30/10)(AFP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 1, In southern Nigeria a gun battle between police and armed robbers left seven people dead, including a policeman and three passersby.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 2, Nigeria's anti-corruption police said they planned to file charges against former Vice President Dick Cheney in a $180 million bribery case involving a former unit of oil services firm Halliburton.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 2, ExxonMobil said management staff in Nigeria have begun an indefinite strike after dozens of local employees were sacked, but that oil production has not been affected. A military taskforce (JTF) comprising the army, navy and air force began raiding three camps which are believed to belong to a notorious gang leader in Delta state. The next day local residents said several civilians were killed and scores displaced during the raids against armed gangs in the Niger Delta. At least 9 people were reported killed and houses were found burned after the military raids. Activists and witnesses said as many as 150 people were killed around the village of Ayakoromo.
(AFP, 12/2/10)(Reuters, 12/3/10)(AFP, 12/4/10)(SFC, 12/4/10, p.A3)
2010 Dec 4, In northeastern Nigeria a shootout between suspected members of a radical Muslim sect and security forces killed three people, including an 8-year-old boy.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Nigeria's military acknowledged that raids in pursuit of an alleged gang leader in the main oil-producing region may have killed civilians, but insisted only militants were targeted. On Dec 15 the military said 14 people, including 8 soldiers and 6 civilians, were killed during the operation targeting a notorious gang leader.
(AFP, 12/5/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 6, In Nigeria's Niger Delta a militant faction said it had ruptured an oil pipeline in response to what it said was the killing of innocent civilians during a military offensive last week.
(Reuters, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged former US Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during the time he served as its top executive. A Nigerian court charged Charles Okah, the brother of an alleged militant, and three other suspects with treason and terrorism over the October 1 Independence Day twin car bombings that killed 12 people.
(AP, 12/7/10)(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, In Nigeria police arrested four men while four others had fled, after a 30-minute shootout with members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, who ambushed security officers at a checkpoint in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 9, In Nigeria an election officials said thieves had infiltrated Murtala Muhammed International Airport and stole just-arrived equipment needed to register voters ahead of next year's hotly contested presidential election. Police arrested four men while four others had fled, after a 30-minute shootout with members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, who ambushed security officers at a checkpoint in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 12, Nigeria's military said it had taken control of eight camps belonging to Ateke Tom, a militant leader in southern Rivers State. In the southeast Obioma Nwankwo, a gang leader accused of kidnapping children from a school bus, was killed. An unknown number of alleged gang members also died. 6 others were arrested. The operation freed a family of five.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 14, A Nigerian official said Nigeria has negotiated a 250 million dollar settlement deal that would see it drop charges against US ex-vice president Dick Cheney and others over a bribery scandal.
(AFP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 16, In Nigeria Pentecostal pastor John Nadrew (46) was given three years and eight months after security agents found an AK-47 rifle and five pistols in his house in Dot village during a raid last month.
(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, A Nigerian court sentenced 15 Muslim herdsmen to 10 years each over sectarian violence in the country's central region that left hundreds dead this year. Nigerian tanker drivers suspended petrol deliveries to Lagos and other areas to protest the firing of 2,500 members, sparking long queues at filling stations.
(AFP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 17, Nigerian NDLF militants attacked three pipelines operated by the US oil giant Chevron and Italian firm Agip in the key oil producing state of Delta.
(AFP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 17, Nigeria dropped charges against US ex-vice president Dick Cheney and others over a bribery scandal allegedly involving Halliburton after a reported settlement of 250 million dollars. On Dec 21 Halliburton said it had agreed to pay 32.5 million dollars to the Nigerian government, plus 2.5 million dollars in costs.
(AFP, 12/17/10)(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 22, Nigeria’s state oil firm said it has shut down three of its four refineries because of sabotage of pipelines leading to them. It called on the military to increase security.
(AFP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, Nigeria said it has signed loan deals with China worth 900 million dollars that will be used to finance rail and communication projects in Africa's most populous nation.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In central and northern Nigeria a series of unprecedented Christmas Eve bomb blasts and attacks on churches left 32 people dead in Jos. 6 people were killed when petrol bombs were thrown at churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.
(AFP, 12/25/10)(Reuters, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 25, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan handed out $1 billion from the nation’s “excess crude account" to government officials for Christmas presents.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.58)
2010 Dec 26, In Nigeria clashes left at least one person dead and a number of houses burned in the city of Jos amid tensions following a series of Christmas Eve bomb attacks.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Nigeria members of the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram shot and wounded a retired senior police officer and two civilians in the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve bomb blasts in Jos that left at least 32 dead.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 29, In southern Nigeria 2 bombs exploded during a political rally in Yenegoa, Bayelsa state. No one was killed but a number of people were taken to hospital with injuries. Suspected Islamists killed 8 people, including 3 policemen, in five separate attacks in the northern city of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 31, Nigerian police said they have arrested Bunu Wasili (55), a man suspected to be a leader and financier of Boko Haram, along with 91 others. The radical Muslim sect was responsible for dozens of recent killings in northern Nigeria. A New Year's Eve bombing in Abuja killed 4 people.
(AP, 12/31/10)(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2010 Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) was set up to execute a deal with the Nigerian government to build and operate a gas-processing plant in the southeastern port city of Calabar. When the deal collapsed, P&ID took the government to arbitration, eventually winning a $6.6 billion award that has been accruing interest since 2013. In 2019 the company was ordered by a court in the capital Abuja to forfeit its local assets to the government. The order came after two men linked to P&ID pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on the company's behalf.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2010 In Nigeria theft, sabotage and operational reasons caused 27,580 barrels of oil to spill from the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell facilities this year.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Nigeria a policeman was shot dead in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where an Islamist sect last week killed at least 16 people in a series of religiously motivated attacks. Security officers killed 3 bystanders and arrested 7 suspected Boko Haram sect members, including a man they were chasing in Maiduguri movie theater.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 6, Nigerians voted in a key state governor's ballot seen as a test ahead of April's nationwide elections, with massive security deployed amid fears of further violence.
(AFP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 7, In Nigeria's southern delta gunmen opened fire on a ceremony welcoming Timi Alaibe, a former presidential adviser on the region, back home in Bayelsa state. 2 people were killed and 6 others wounded, but Alaibe was not hurt. In central Nigeria Christian youths attacked a car full of Muslims returning from a wedding, killing seven people inside the vehicle and sparking retaliatory violence in Jos that left one other person dead. Gunmen opened fire at an open-air tavern in northeastern Nigeria, killing six people in Gombe.
(AP, 1/8/11)(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 7, A UN report said over 400 children have died in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state due to lead poisoning related to mining a processing gold ore.
(SFC, 1/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 8, In Nigeria at least 11 people died around Jos from religious violence and a political rally gone awry.
(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 9, In Nigeria witnesses heard gunshots and saw smoke rising from neighborhoods in the city of Jos. Gunmen attacked a church near the Maiduguri International Airport in a drive-by shooting. A police officer was killed and the church watchman wounded.
(AP, 1/9/11)(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 10, Former Nigerian leader and mediator Olusegun Obasanjo left Ivory Coast as incumbent Pres. Gbagbo continued to defy the world and insist he had won the recent election. Men armed with rifles and machetes killed 19 people in attacks on three villages in volatile central Nigeria. Three homes were attacked in the Christian village of Kuru Station. Those that escaped said they saw military men shooting and other people burning the houses and macheteing the villagers.
(AP, 1/10/11)(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 12, Nigerian authorities presented Keiti Sese, aka Commander Noumekeme, to journalists. He said he surrendered because he wanted to become part of the amnesty program, though it was unclear whether he would be allowed since deadlines to do so have long passed. His gang in Bayelsa state has been suspected of sabotaging Chevron pipelines, as well as involvement in kidnappings and the illegal oil trade.
(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, Nigeria's former anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, who won international acclaim for seeking charges against members of the oil-rich nation's political elite, was chosen as the presidential candidate of the country's strongest opposition party. President Goodluck Jonathan won his ruling party's primary.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AFP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Nigeria soldiers shot and killed a motorcyclist who tried to avoid an army checkpoint, mistaking him for an Islamists seeking to carry out an attack.
(AFP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 23, In northern Nigeria suspected members of an Islamist sect, blamed for a series of attacks in Maiduguri, shot dead a soldier guarding a church and stole his rifle. Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect shot two soldiers to death and injured another manning a checkpoint in northern Biu village.
(AFP, 1/23/11)(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 24, Nigeria's foreign minister called on the UN Security Council to authorize force in Ivory Coast as West African nations seek to further pressure Laurent Gbagbo to quit power.
(AFP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 26, In northern Nigeria a fight over a game of billiards disintegrated into religious violence in Bauchi state, leaving at least four people dead among the smoldering ruins of churches and mosques in the town of Tafawa Balewa. Members of a radical Muslim sect killed a police officer guarding a voter registration site in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 26, Environmental groups accused Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of destroying lives and the environment in the Niger Delta, and urged Dutch MPs to intervene as the company defended its record.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 28, In central Nigeria up to 13 people were killed overnight when men with rifles attacked 4 Christian villages near Jos. Authorities in Maiduguri said gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed Modu Fannami Gubio, a dominant gubernatorial candidate.
(AP, 1/28/11)(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 29, In central Nigerian soldiers opened fire on university students in Jos protesting continuing violence between Christians and Muslims. At least 9 people were killed in the ensuing violence.
(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 30, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked a police checkpoint, killing a policeman and leading police to shoot dead two Boko Haram gunmen in Maiduguri. Police said they have arrested 19 people over the slaying of the region's dominant gubernatorial candidate.
(AP, 1/30/11)
2011 Feb 3, Nigerian militants threatened new attacks on oil facilities, saying they would blow up pipelines and other targets because the government had not addressed "fundamental problems."
(AFP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 8, Hussein Abdullahi, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, said that he had spoken to senior officials of the Nigerian government as soon as an arms shipment was seized last Oct 26 and told them that the intercepted cargo was the third of four Gambia-bound shipments originating from Iran.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 9, Hussein Abdullahi, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, said that a Gambia-bound arms shipment seized at Nigeria's busiest port three months ago did not breach sanctions imposed by the UN, because Iran and Gambia had signed a secret agreement two years before the UN's 2010 ban on Iranian arms exports.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 12, In Nigeria a stampede happened shortly after President Goodluck Jonathan addressed a surging crowd of party supporters in a sports stadium in Port Harcourt. 11 people were killed and a 12th person died the next day.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 15, In central Nigeria a police officer arguing with a merchant was stabbed to death in a market in Jos and at least two others were killed during the latest violence to hit the region beset by sectarian fighting.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 17, In northern Nigeria police killed three men after they attacked a bank and a police station in Darazo, Bauchi state.
(AP, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 17, Chevron and a US aid agency announced a $50 million plan aimed at improving conditions in Nigeria's main oil-producing region, where pollution and poverty have led to years of unrest.
(AFP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 22, In central Nigeria at least 12 people were killed after cattle thieves attacked the village of Bere Reti Fan, a region beset by religious and ethnic killings.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 23, In Nigeria two men on a motorbike killed a senior police officer inspector after following him to his home in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 26, Nigerian police arrested Boko Haram arms dealer Mohammed Zakaria in the town of Maiduguri. Police shot dead, Alhaji Salisu Damaturu, a man financing the radical Islamist sect. Mohammed Goni was identified as another financier of the group. Weapons recovered from their hideout included 12 rocket launchers, two pistols, one loaded AK-47 rifle, two detonating bomb cables and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition.
(AFP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 3, In Nigeria a bomb exploded at a political rally in Suleija, Niger state, for Babangida Aliyu, the gubernatorial candidate for the People's Democratic Party, Nigeria's ruling party, killing 3 people and wounding 21 others. A 4th person died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 3/3/11)(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 3, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos attacked a chemical tanker in an unsuccessful bid to board and rob the ship in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 11, Jeffrey Tesler (62), a former British lawyer accused of helping a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary illegally bribe Nigerian officials to win over $6 billion in construction contracts, pleaded guilty in Houston to federal charges of conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
(SFC, 3/12/11, p.A9)
2011 Mar 13, In central Nigeria 6 people died in attacks on two villages near Jos.
(SFC, 3/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 18, In Nigeria sea raiders carted away some $400,000 from Douala’s Pan-African Ecobank killing 7 people. Two gunmen were arrested after the attack. Cameroon’s army later said it killed 18 pirates suspected of the robbery. Police in Cameroon later detained 4 navy officers and 5 civilians in connection with the robbery.
(SFC, 4/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 20, In Nigeria a bomb carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them when it accidentally exploded in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 21, In central Nigeria at least three people died in Jos after a fight over where a political rally would be held for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler running for president.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Nigeria police and local media said John James Akpanudoedehe, an opposition politician for governor in Akwa Ibom state, has been charged with treason after clashes killed four and left a campaign office for the president burnt in the main oil region.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Apr 1, Nigeria tightened security and shut its land borders ahead of the start of a landmark election period to choose a new legislature, president and state governors over three successive weekends.
(AGFP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 1, In central Nigeria a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint, sparking an inferno in which 17 vehicles were engulfed in flames. Some 50 people were killed.
(AFP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 2, Nigeria postponed parliamentary elections until April 4 after voting materials failed to arrive in many areas, a major blow to hopes of a break with a history of chaotic polls. Attackers stormed three villages In central Nigeria killing at least two people and setting a number of houses ablaze.
(Reuters, 4/2/11)(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 3, Nigeria’s electoral commission postponed the legislative vote to April 9.
(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 6, In Nigeria 3 motorcycle-mounted gunmen, members of Boko Haram, killed two passers-by in Maiduguri. One of the suspects was shot dead after a police chase. A senior immigration official said Nigeria has deported 87 Niger nationals over fears they could be involved in election rigging during this month's rescheduled polls.
(AP, 4/6/11)(AFP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 8, In Nigeria a bomb targeting election officials exploded in Suleja killing at least 8 people. Thugs attacked a police post storing voting materials killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A2)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.52)
2011 Apr 9, Nigeria held parliamentary elections. The ruling party lost key parliament seats in the first of three crucial elections this month.
(AFP, 4/10/11)
2011 Apr 15, In Nigeria gunmen who hid their Kalashnikov rifles in long flowing gowns attacked residents in the city of Maiduguri. Two people were killed and five others wounded a day ahead of the country's presidential election.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 16, Nigeria held elections on whether to keep their accidental president, Goodluck Jonathan, in power. An explosion hit a police station in the northeastern city of Maiduguri just as presidential elections were beginning.
(AP, 4/16/11)(Reuters, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, In Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan took what appeared to be an unassailable lead as votes were tallied from around the country, despite a strong showing by rival Muhammadu Buhari in his mainly-Muslim strongholds. Rioting began in the Muslim north as early results showed Jonathan in the lead. Christians retaliated and the violence over the next few days left at least 70 people dead.
(Reuters, 4/17/11)(SFC, 4/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 18, The Nigerian Red Cross said rioting in cities across northern Nigeria has killed many people with homes, churches and mosques set ablaze as election officials released results showing the Christian incumbent had gained an insurmountable lead.
(Reuters, 4/18/11)(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Nigeria burned corpses with machete wounds lay in roads and smoke rose above Kaduna where rioting broke out again among Muslim opposition supporters who were angered by the announcement that the Christian incumbent president had won the election.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In Nigeria opposition presidential candidate, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, urged calm saying he would pursue his complaints through legal means as post-poll unrest in Nigeria was reported to have killed more than 200 people.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 22, In northern Nigeria suspects detained in post-election violence have rioted at an overcrowded jail and more than a dozen of them escaped.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 23, In northern Nigeria at least two suspected bomb-makers were killed in a blast in Kaduna close to a residential neighborhood for members of local government.
(Reuters, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 24, Nigerian police said at least 11 recent college graduates who helped run polling stations as part of the country's national youth service corps have been killed in postelection violence in northern Nigeria and other female poll workers have been raped. A Nigerian human rights group said more than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Muslim north.
(AP, 4/24/11)(Reuters, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, In northeastern Nigeria police said an explosion at a hotel killed three people and wounded 14 others only days before the state's gubernatorial election.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Nigeria voted for state governors, the last of three landmark elections that have triggered deadly unrest, as fresh bomb blasts jolted the northeastern city of Maiduguri. The presidential poll earlier this month left at least 500 people dead. A suspected Islamist sect member opened fire at a polling station in Maiduguri during voting, killing one person and wounding four.
(AFP, 4/26/11)(AP, 4/26/11)(AFP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 28, Nigeria's ruling party won the delayed governorship elections in two northern states where hundreds died in rioting after a vote two weeks ago.
(Reuters, 4/30/11)
2011 May 6, In Nigeria polling opened in some parts of the state of Imo for a governorship election after irregularities marred a previous exercise. Attackers killed at least 16 people and set fire to more than a dozen houses in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state, a town that has been beset by years of sectarian violence.
(AFP, 5/6/11)(Reuters, 5/7/11)
2011 May 8, Nigeria's opposition Congress for Progressive Change party asked a court to nullify the election of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan because of alleged irregularities in some areas.
(AFP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 12, In northern Nigeria two motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on local chief Abba Mukhtar outside his home in Maiduguri, killing him and seriously wounding a friend. In the northwest gunmen kidnapped an Italian and a Briton who had been working for a construction company in the state capital of Birnin-Kebbi. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara (48) and his British colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot dead by their captors during a British-Nigerian rescue attempt on March 8, 2012.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/14/11)(AP, 3/9/12)
2011 May 13, In northern Nigeria suspected members of an Islamist sect shot and killed a driver for a state governor. A blast in Borno state killed two bystanders at a bus stop. 18 people were killed after a bus crashed head-on with a car in the country's northeast.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 May 19, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off wounding five soldiers and policemen just hours after a gang of suspected Islamists raided a police station.
(AFP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 23, In Nigeria a Borno State policeman on patrol was killed in a drive-by shooting near St. Mary Catholic Church in the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, was blamed for the killing.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, In Nigeria a fire engulfed a pipeline belonging to a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the town of Amukpe.
(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 29, In Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for a full four-year term as president and faced the challenge of uniting a country that saw deadly postelection violence despite what observers called the fairest vote in over a decade. A blast in the city of Bauchi killed 15 people. One bomb went off at a beer garden in Zuba, near the capital, killing two people and wounding at least 11. Another explosion in the northern city of Zaria also targeted a bar hours after the inauguration.
(AP, 5/29/11)(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 29, Nigerian police raided the Cross Foundation in Aba, a home allegedly being used to force teenage girls to have babies that were then offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes. Dr. Hyacinth Orikara was arrested and 32 pregnant girls, aged 15-17, were rescued.
(AFP, 6/1/11)(Reuters, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 7, In Nigeria at least 11 people were killed in multiple blasts and targeted attacks by the Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(SFC, 6/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 15, In Nigeria a man claiming to be a Boko Haram spokesman warned that the group would launch more attacks after being angered by comments from the national police chief. A day earlier Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim said during a visit to the northeastern city of Maiduguri that "the days of Boko Haram are numbered."
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 16, In Nigeria a suicide bombing blamed on radical Islamist militants killed a policeman in the parking lot of police headquarters in Abuja. The next day the Boko Haram sect said it was behind the attack. Security experts said it was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria.
(AP, 6/16/11)(AFP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 20, In Nigeria gunmen shot a nurse dead and wounded four others who were playing poker at a bus stop in the city of Maiduguri. The same group of gunmen killed a security officer in a separate attack hours later. Police suspected members of the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram. Gunmen killed five police officers and a bystander in a bank robbery in Kankara staged to look like a militant attack.
(AP, 6/20/11)(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Nigeria unusually heavy rains flooded a neighborhood in the northern city of Kano killed 24 people overnight.
(AFP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Nigeria 2 men riding motorbikes tossed bombs and fired on a crowded beer garden in Maiduguri killing at least 25 people. The attackers were believed to be members of Boko Haram.
(AFP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Nigeria two girls were killed and three customs officers wounded from a bombing in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/28/11)
2011 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria lightning strikes in Gombe and Yobe states killed eight men, four women and three children.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the country's first Freedom of Information bill. As of April 2012 government agencies still largely refused to release information, while security personnel routinely harassed, beat and arrested working journalists.
(AP, 4/6/12)
2011 Jul 2, In Nigeria 3 gunmen from the Boko Haram sect shot and killed four people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Nigeria assailants threw a bomb at drinking spot near a police barracks in Maiduguri. At least 8 people were killed and 15 others wounded.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 4, Nigeria's secret police said it was holding over 100 leaders and members of a northern-based "dissident" group it did not name.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, In Nigeria 11 people were killed and 30 rescued when a four-storey building collapsed in the central business district of Lagos.
(AFP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Nigeria 3 soldiers were injured when a bomb hit a military checkpoint near a food market in Maiduguri where attacks by suspected Islamist radicals have killed dozens. Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of northern Borno state (2003-2011), sent an apology to Boko Haram over his role in the brutal military crackdown on the radical Islamist sect. Last week, ex-governor of neighboring Gombe State Danjuma Goje, now a senator, and Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda, in separate statements apologized to Boko Haram for any role they might have played in rights violations against its members during the uprising. The sect has demanded a public apology as part of condition for a truce with the government. Gunmen suspected of being members of an Islamist sect raided a police station overnight in the northern state of Bauchi, stealing weapons.
(AFP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Nigeria motorcycles were completely banned in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, wracked by violence blamed on the Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 9, Nigerian special military forces in Niger Delta arrested four suspects after troops raided sites where stolen oil was illegally being "refined." More than 1,000 the sites were destroyed during the operation. At least 25 people, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed during a military and police operation against a radical Muslim sect in Maiduguri. Security forces launched a search operation after two suspected members threw two homemade bombs at patrol cars from a moving bus. The blasts wounded five soldiers.
(AFP, 7/9/11)(AP, 7/10/11)(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Nigeria a bomb blast killed three people outside a church in Suleja, just north of Abuja.
(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Nigeria numerous roads and highways were flooded following the heavy downpour which a day earlier and continued in Lagos, a city of some 15 million people. At least 29 people died from flooding in Katsina and Lagos. An explosive went off under a van as its driver slowed down at a military checkpoint in the city of Maiduguri. 3 people were killed.
(AFP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Nigeria the University of Maiduguri said it is closing indefinitely after receiving bomb threats from Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect. spokesman Ahmed Mohammed said the school could no longer guarantee the safety of its 35,000 students.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 14, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the president of oil-and-gas rich Nigeria after her trip to Angola the previous day sparked controversy over an offer to sell patrol boats.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Nigeria assailants from the Boko Haram sect threw a bomb at a police patrol car in Maiduguri wounding seven civilians. Colonel Victor Ebhaleme said a bomb was planted and a police van drove over it, exploding and injuring eight policemen.
(AP, 7/15/11)(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Nigeria a second building collapsed since the start of the month in Lagos killing two people. 6 others were rescued.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, The Greek oil tanker 'Aegean Star' belonging to the Endeavour Marine Agency company and flying a Liberian flag was hijacked, 30 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria. The ship was released on July 18.
(AFP, 7/18/11)(Reuters, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, Britain’s PM David Cameron visited Nigeria, pushing a message of trade, aid and democracy before making an early return home to deal with the spiraling phone hacking crisis. Fresh clashes between Muslim and Christian youths left five people dead and 12 seriously injured in Jos.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 21, In Nigeria a gun battle between soldiers and suspected Islamists broke out after a failed bomb attack in Maiduguri leaving one extremist dead.
(AFP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Nigeria a bomb exploded in a busy neighborhood in Maiduguri. A witness said at least eight people were killed. Amnesty International said the Nigerian Joint Military Task Force responded by shooting and killing at least 23 people, apparently at random.
(AP, 7/24/11)(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 26, Nigeria's central bank jacked up its main interest rate by 0.75 points to 8.75 percent, the fourth increase in six months in a move aimed at putting a lid on inflation.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 30, In southwest Nigeria two women and a male pilot died after a helicopter crashed in a hilly area outside Ife-Odan in Osun state.
(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Aug 4, In Nigeria a clash between security forces and suspected members of a radical Muslim sect left two dead in the volatile northeast. The clash came after six assailants from the Boko Haram sect detonated a bomb that blew up the median of a major Maiduguri road.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 4, A UN report was released that described oil destroying crops and seeping into drinking water supplies in Ogoniland, Nigeria, a region of the Niger Delta. In one case, the UN found one village where drinking water was polluted with benzene 900 times more than the international limit.
(AP, 8/5/11)
2011 Aug 5, Nigerian officials said the government has taken over management of three banks rescued under a major 2009 bailout amid concerns over their ability to recapitalize by a September 30 deadline.
(AFP, 8/6/11)
2011 Aug 8, In Nigeria gunmen killed five people and wounded four others in a nighttime attack on in Bisichi village, Plateau state, leaving the dead mutilated with machete wounds. Boko Haram attackers killed a senior prison official and a school teacher in Maiduguri.
(AP, 8/9/11)(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 9, In Nigeria a clash between soldiers and youths in the northeast over the arrest of suspected members of Boko Haram killed one person and wounded two. Attackers with machetes hacked at least two people to death and seriously wounded four others in a village near the deeply divided city of Jos.
(AP, 8/10/11)(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 11, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer began long-awaited compensation payments to Nigerian families over a 1996 drug trial blamed for the deaths of 11 children and disabilities in dozens of others. Only four families were paid in the initial disbursements, while some 200 children participated in the trial of meningitis drug Trovan.
(AFP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 12, In Nigeria cleric Liman Bana (65) died after sustaining gunshot wounds while walking home from conducting prayers at the main mosque in Ngala, a border town with Chad. Police blamed the attack on the Boko Haram group.
(AP, 8/14/11)
2011 Aug 14, In Nigeria attackers stabbed eight people to death in Jos, a central region beset by religious and ethnic tensions.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 15, Nigerian guards in Borno state killed the 25-year-old man who was driving a sedan loaded with seven gas cylinders and cans of gasoline and gunpowder into a police headquarters hosting a recruitment drive. In the north gunmen attacked a microfinance bank, carting away bags of cash and bombing a police station when making their escape. Gunmen attacked two separate police stations across northern Nigeria, killing four police officers and two civilians in one attack while bombing a station in another.
(AP, 8/15/11)(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 18, In Nigeria attackers shot dead Tafai Saifudeen (55), a Lebanese auto parts dealer, in front of his shop on Murtala Mohammed Way in the city of Kano.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, In Nigeria 3 policemen and a civilian were shot and killed at a residence in Maiduguri by suspected members of the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 21, In Nigeria three Christians died in an overnight attack on the village of Kwi in troubled Plateau state. At least 4 people died in floods in the northeast town of Kari. Some 1,800 people were displaced by the floods. Another house collapse in Kano killed six more people. Nigerian officers arrested Babagana Ismail Kwaljima and Babagan Mali, two men tied to Boko Haram. They were planning an attack that took place on August 26. A 3rd suspect, Mamman Nur, remained at large.
(AP, 8/21/11)(AP, 8/22/11)(SFC, 9/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 22, Royal Dutch shell said sabotage in Nigeria has led to six oil spills from one Shell pipeline since the start of the month, while damage to another line has caused a temporary production halt.
(AFP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 23, In northern Nigeria the flood-related death toll rose to 15 as a river in the town of Numan overflowed during a five-hour rainstorm.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 25, In Nigeria the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, blamed for attacks across the northeast, attacked two police stations and robbed two banks, killing 16 people in an assault highlighting the group's escalating willingness to shed blood.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Nigeria a suicide bomber in car laden with explosives rammed through two gates and blew up at the UN offices in Abuja shattering part of the 4-story concrete structure. 23 people were killed and 116 wounded. The radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack. Two of the injured died later bringing the death toll to 25.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AP, 8/27/11)(AP, 9/15/11)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Aug 26, The UN wildlife trade regulator said it was lifting its 2005 suspension on wildlife commerce with Nigeria, citing the country's improved efforts to combat illegal trade.
(AFP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 27, Seven heavily armed assailants boarded the Cameroonian ship Monica with 150 people on board off the coast of Nigeria and took its captain hostage. The others on board were released unharmed.
(AFP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 28, In northeast Nigeria gunmen stormed the home of Lawan Yaraye, chairman of Kukawa district in Borno state, and shot him dead.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 28, In Nigeria heavy rains that caused a dam to overflow in the southwest and led to houses being submerged killing 102 people and displaced thousands. Most of the victims were children who drowned in the city of Ibadan.
(AP, 8/28/11)(AP, 8/29/11)(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 29, In Nigeria religious rioting began in Jos leaving 4 people dead. Four days of fighting left at least 21 people dead in the city on the volatile dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and Muslim north.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Aug 30, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 35 people in northern Sokoto and Yobe states in recent days.
(AP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 30, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 35 people in northern Sokoto and Yobe states in recent days.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 2, A Nigerian army spokesman said soldiers have shot dead a suspected Islamist and wounded another in northeastern Adamawa state where 16 people were killed last week in attacks on police stations and banks. 3 people were killed when armed fighters clashed with security forces in the city of Biu.
(AFP, 9/2/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 3, In Nigeria unknown gunmen stormed a mainly Christian-dominated community overnight and hacked eight members of a family to death in Tatu.
(AP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 4, In Nigeria 3 people were killed near the city of Jos. Islamic cleric Mallam Dala was shot and killed after two men burst into his house. Attacks in two villages in central Nigeria, Targom-Babale and Dabwak, killed 11 people, including children.
(AFP, 9/4/11)(AP, 9/4/11)(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 5, Nigeria’s central bank said it plans to include the Chinese yuan as part of its foreign exchange reserves, a symbolic shift in Africa's largest oil producer and one of its biggest economies.
(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 6, Nigeria's secret police announced that they had arrested five suspected members of a radical Muslim sect accused of bombing an election office (April 8) and a church (July 10) near the oil-rich nation's capital. A bomb went off in Maiduguri disrupting a three-week lull in bombings in the violence-torn city.
(AP, 9/6/11)(AFP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 8, In Nigeria gunmen attacked Tsohon Foron village outside Jos, killing 12 people, including 7 children. Witnesses blamed the attack on regional Muslim Fulani herders.
(AP, 9/9/11)(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 9, In Nigeria 13 people are thought to have been killed in overnight attacks near Jos, a city beset by ethnic and religious slayings.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 10, In Nigeria four policemen on illegal duty at a burial ceremony started shooting, killing three people among the mourners. The officers were suspected of being drunk.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 10, Leaders of Ivory Coast and Liberia were joined by counterparts from West Africa for talks on security along the border between their two countries after a bloody post-poll crisis. Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf were joined by Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, John Atta Mills of Ghana and Nigerian summit host Goodluck Jonathan, under the aegis of regional bloc ECOWAS.
(AFP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 12, In northern Nigeria gunmen firing assault rifles bombed a police station and robbed a nearby bank, killing at least five people in Misau, Bauchi state. Members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect shot, and killed four people at a beer parlor in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/12/11)(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect attacked an army patrol in Maiduguri, wounding four soldiers. The soldiers later arrested 15 people on suspicion of being sect members, with some of them carrying weapons and ammunition.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Nigeria Kindreck Dion Lee (34), one of Britain's most wanted drug and firearm suspects, was arrested in Lagos. He was wanted for his alleged involvement in bringing cocaine, cannabis, firearms and ammunition into the country from Amsterdam.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 14, In Nigeria members of the radical Muslim Boko Haram sect killed three people and wounded two others in a shooting in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 14, Armed pirates raided a tanker off the West African coast and kidnapped 23 sailors, 62 nautical miles from Benin's capital of Cotonou, as the Cyprus-flagged vessel tried to transfer its cargo of crude oil to a Norwegian-registered ship. Analysts believed many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 15, Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke with the family of late Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf for two hours in the northeast city of Maiduguri. Relatives said current attacks represented revenge against the government for Yusuf's death and the killing of two other leaders during the 2009 uprising. Relatives also said they have representatives in Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 17, In Nigeria Babakura Fugu, a relative of the slain leader of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, was shot dead, only two days after taking part in peace talks led by a former president.
(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 18, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot dead four people and injured several others in a raid on a Christian farming village in northern Nigerian Kaduna state.
(AFP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 19, It was reported that Nigeria-based Dangote Group, headed by Aliko Dangote, once dubbed Africa's richest man by Forbes, planned to build Africa’s largest fertilizer plant in Edo state to be operation in 2014.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, In Nigeria local authorities dismissed a 10-minute video of a Nigerian woman repeatedly asking her attackers to kill her as they take turns raping her at a university dormitory. The video had circulated for weeks around the campus of Abia State University before being posted on the Internet.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 23, In Nigeria a 40-foot container of explosive materials was intercepted at the port of Tin Can in Lagos. The container, which arrived a week ago, originated from China and was falsely declared to contain industrial spares and children's toys.
(AFP, 9/24/11)
2011 Sep 23, Nigerian officials said a fresh cholera outbreak in the north has killed at least six people, raising the overall toll in the country to more than over 200 in recent months.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 25, Nigeria’s NEXT newspaper, run by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, stopped publication after 2½ years of muckraking and sometimes controversial coverage of Africa's most populous nation. The newspaper's advertising dwindled in recent months, forcing it from publishing six days a week to only on Sunday.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 26, Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said it has shut in 25,000 barrels per day of crude in a southern Nigerian oil field due to spills caused by sabotage and theft.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Nigeria Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima said security forces have arrested a top commander of a radical Muslim sect who is accused of orchestrating attacks in the country's northeast that have left police, clerics and others dead. Police on patrol found the corpses of 12 persons, suspected murdered, with their hands tied at the back, in the Niger Delta region. 10 people were killed after an out-of-control cement truck crashed into a taxi and bus stand in the northern town of Dukku, Gombe state.
(AP, 9/28/11)(AP, 9/29/11)(AFP, 9/30/11)
2011 Sep 29, A Nigerian joint security team including the military and intelligence agents rescued a Romanian engineer along with six Nigerian workers who had been kidnapped earlier in the week in the same state. A truck accident in Gombe state killed 19 people.
(AFP, 9/30/11)(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 1, In northeastern Nigeria attackers used explosives and gunfire to target an army patrol near a wedding, killing at least three civilians in Maiduguri. In a separate incident, a butcher and his assistant were shot dead by gunmen in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, In northern Nigeria some 150 attackers raided Lingyado village, Zamfara state, going house to house to shoot people who came out to greet them. Others were slashed and stabbed to death by machetes. 19 people were reported killed. State police chief soon arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the raid.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect shot dead three people at a market in the violence-torn northern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria a tanker truck collided with a 16-seat minibus along the Damaturu-Potiskum road in Yobe state. 11 people were killed.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 6, India-owned Airtel, one of the west African nation's biggest telecom firms, said that more than five million telephone subscribers in Nigeria have been cut off after protesters attacked an exchange. The protesters, members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the nation's central labor movement, were protesting against the alleged casualisation of workers in Airtel and the dismissal of 3,000 employees, charges denied by the company.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 8, Pirates off Nigeria boarded the MT Cape Bird, a chemical tanker believed to be a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, about 90 nautical miles from Lagos. 20 Eastern European sailors were onboard. The crew and vessel were freed on Oct 14.
(AFP, 10/10/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko haram radical sect set off a bomb near a mosque in Maiduguri. A soldier and one civilian died from their injuries. The military was accused of abuses following the attacks.
(AP, 10/10/11)(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 11, Nigeria's secret police said 3 additional suspects, including a banker, have been arrested over two car bombings on the Oct 1, 2010, Independence Day in Abuja, which killed at least 12 people.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 12, Police in Nigeria raided the Abuja office of The Nation newspaper. A day earlier detectives arrested five journalists over the publication of a purported letter from the nation's former president instructing its current leader to fire government officials. The letter hit a nerve in Nigerian politics, as it recommended replacing leaders from the Muslim north as opposed to the country's Christian south. 4 of the 5 journalists were released this evening.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Nigeria members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect attacked a bank in the northeast, killing one police officer and stealing an undisclosed sum of money in Damboa, Borno state.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Nigeria protesters marched to an army barracks to demand justice for the death of the cell phone market chairman known as Umar Quality.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 14, In northeastern Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect shot and killed a policeman in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Nigeria the bodies of community leader Ahmadu Ali Kazaure and Babangida Ibrahim Yusuf (23) were dropped off at a local mortuary in Jos. Soldiers had picked up the men hours earlier over the machete killing of a soldier.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Nigeria four people died after a blast rocked a police base in the town of Kwami just north of the state capital of Gombe. 3 suspected Boko Haram members entered the Maiduguri home of Borno state Rep. Modu Bintube and shot him in the chest and head with Kalashnikovs.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Nigeria's military said it had arrested 50 suspected oil thieves in the past three months and destroyed some 2,000 illicit refineries this year in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, A Nigerian tribal king filed a lawsuit in a US court in Detroit, Michigan, seeking $1 billion from Royal Dutch Shell to compensate for decades of pollution that sickened his people and damaged their lands. The suit was brought on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local government area, where the UN team found the most serious groundwater contamination and people drinking water laced with cancer-causing benzene at 900 times World Health Organization guidelines.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram sect members killed four people in three separate attacks in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, The US Export-Import Bank signed a deal with Nigeria aimed at providing $1.5 billion in financing for investments in the country's woefully inadequate electricity sector.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 20, Nigeria's military arrested 46 suspects and seized a vessel laden with stolen refined petroleum products in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 21, Nigerian ex-militant leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, head of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, called Moamer Kadhafi a "martyr" and vowed that his killing would be avenged. Asari claims to have lived in Libya and to have had links with Kadhafi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 22, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead Zakariyya Isa, a reporter with the state-run Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), in the northern city of Maiduguri. The radical Boko Haram sect soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/22/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, In northern Nigeria gunmen shot dead a policeman at his home in an apparent targeted killing in Damaturu, Yobe state.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said a court has jailed 7 Nigerians and 2 Ghanaians for dealing in illegal petroleum products.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Nigeria hackers calling themselves NaijaCyberHacktivists hit the website of the top anti-corruption agency over a government official suggesting tighter Internet control.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Nigeria's military seized a ship laden with 5,000 tons of stolen oil amid rising cases of crude theft in one of the world's main oil producing regions.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria seized the MT Halifax oil tanker with over 20 crew.
(AFP, 11/3/11)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 3, In central Nigeria an attack took place on a church in Tabak, a village near Zonkwa, Kaduna state, leaving 2 people dead and 12 others were injured. Residents angered by the attack rioted into the next day.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Nigeria an attack started with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast. Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, leaving at least two people dead there. Another bombing alongside a road in Maiduguri killed four people. Suicide bombers driving a black SUV detonated outside a military base. At least 150 people died over the next 24 hours in the wave of bombings and shootings.
(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being members of Boko Haram shot dead a police officer at his home as he returned from Eid morning prayers in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 7, In central Nigeria 16 people were killed after two buses crashed head-on into each other on a highway in Kogi state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Nigeria it was reported that that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital, following Boko Haram attacks that killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Nigeria organizers said secret police in Nigeria have detained Wale Ajani, who was helping organize a planned hunger strike over the possible removal of fuel subsidies. In the northeast suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect killed two civilians in a police station blast in Mainok.
(AP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Shell said a pipeline fire in southern Nigeria has caused a cut in oil production in the country, with a spill also reported in connection with the incident.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 12, Nigeria evacuated from Mali 104 of its citizens, mostly women, either made to work as "sexual slaves" or suspected of involvement in human trafficking.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 12, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe vowed to help Nigeria in its fight against extremist groups as the country faces an intensifying Islamist insurgency. Nigeria is France's biggest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell reported a fresh spill from a key delivery pipeline in southern Nigeria, but said it has contained the leak.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 15, Nigerian airport officials fined British Airways $135 million and Virgin Atlantic $100 million amid a dispute over ticket prices. The airlines were given 14 days to respond and were ordered to compensate passengers. In 2012 a panel "cancelled the fines because at the time of the offence between 2004 and 2006, there was no law to make them culpable."
(AFP, 11/17/11)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2011 Nov 17, In Nigeria 3 hostages, two of them Americans, were kidnapped off the coast when gunmen attacked the MV C-Endeavour working with oil giant Chevron. The hostages were released on Dec 1.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Nov 18, Nigeria established its first sovereign wealth fund hoping to curb the plunder of oil revenues.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.56)
2011 Nov 18, In northeast Nigeria two soldiers and a child were killed after members of a radical Muslim sect ambushed them in Maiduguri. Two officers were killed after gunmen blew up a police station in central Nigeria and attacked a bank branch in Kabba.
(AP, 11/19/11)(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 18, The European Commission said an extra 10 million euros ($13.5 million) in humanitarian funding will go on addressing "major shortfalls" in food in the Sahel region. The crisis is affecting 7 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Nigeria at least seven people died in a clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the city of Jos.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 22, Nigerian authorities arrested and arraigned Sen. Mohammed Ali Ndume of the ruling People's Democratic Party for allegedly being the sponsor of Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, one of several spokesmen for Boko Haram. The senator belonged to a committee looking at possible peace talks with Boko Haram. A day earlier Konduga also implicated a former Nigerian ambassador, now dead, as well as a former governor in Nigeria's northeast in Boko Haram's creation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, Cameroon and Nigeria appealed for international funds to help mark the last 250 km (155 miles) of their disputed border that remains undecided.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Nigeria's president unexpectedly fired Farida Waziri, the female head of the lead anti-corruption agency, removing an official accused of being controlled by the political elite in this graft-prone nation. The president appointed agency deputy Ibrahim Lamurde as the commission's acting chairman.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Nigeria Muslim and Christian groups said 12 more people are dead after an apparent reprisal clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the city of Jos.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 26, In northeast Nigeria at least four people died in an apparent attack that saw churches and businesses burned to the ground in the city of Geidam, Yobe state.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (78), the secessionist leader during Nigeria's civil war in the late 1960s and a pivotal figure in the country's history, died in Britain. Ojukwu's 1967 declaration of independence for Biafra came largely in response to the killing of large numbers of Igbos in the country's north.
(AFP, 11/26/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
2011 Nov 29, Nigeria's Senate voted to criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection, the latest legislation targeting a minority already facing discrimination in Africa's most populous nation. The bill must be passed by Nigeria's House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) visited Kalaba community, Bayelsa state, and observed five spill points on the pipeline which was spewing oil into the environment. The pipeline was operated by Agip, the local subsidiary of Italian oil group Eni.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Nigeria suspected Muslim sect members shot and killed two people during a wedding ceremony in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 4, In northern Nigeria gunmen from a radical Muslim sect raided Azari town, Bauchi state, bombing police stations and robbing banks in an attack that killed at least six people.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Nigerian court convicted a man accused of being one of several spokesmen for the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, responsible for hundreds of killings this year. Ali Sanda Umar Konduga was sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nigeria a powerful explosion rocked the northern city of Kaduna, killing 7 people, wounding many others. A Red Cross report said two men on a motorbike had stopped in front of an auto parts shop in Kaduna just before the explosion went off. The police's anti-bomb squad had concluded that the blast was accidental.
(AFP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central Nigeria 3 bomb attacks, blamed on the feared Boko Haram radical sect, killed one person and wounded 11 others in Jos.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a powerful bomb blast targeting soldiers followed by gunfire rocked the troubled city of Maiduguri, with at least 10 people killed. The blast occurred ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan's presentation of his 2012 budget before parliament in Abuja.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a boat capsized carrying as many as 55 people going from Eagle Island to Mgbuodohia in Rivers state. At least 30 people died. 14 others were feared dead.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, In northern Nigeria assailants shot dead three officers after attacking a boarding school near the city of Kano. Gunmen attacked people gathered outside a shop in the city of Maiduguri. The drive-by assailants were carrying Kalashnikov rifles under their flowing robes and left 5 people dead. Authorities blamed the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Nigeria a gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Kano, resulting in a shootout which left one policeman dead and another seriously wounded.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, In Nigeria an explosion at a house allegedly used to make home-made bombs in the northeastern city of Maiduguri killed three suspected Islamist sect members. Police shot rifles and fired tear gas at protesters who were demonstrating against toll roads in Lagos.
(AFP, 12/17/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in 2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed five people in a pre-dawn attack in Kagoro town, Kaduna state, the epicentre of post-election violence earlier this year.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, Shell, the major oil producer in Nigeria, said an oil spill a day earlier likely occurred as workers tried to offload oil onto a waiting tanker. Shell estimated the Bonga spill likely was less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons. The oil slick affected 115 miles (185 km) of ocean along Nigeria's coast.
(AP, 12/22/11)(AFP, 7/17/12)
2011 Dec 22, In Nigeria unrest broke out in the city of Damaturu and two other northeastern cities, Maiduguri and Potiskum, leaving at least six people dead.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, In Nigeria a fresh round of explosions and gunfire hit the city of Damaturu as authorities battled suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram, a day after unrest killed six people.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 24, Nigerian police and a local rights group said the death toll from 2 days of attacks in the north attributed to the Islamist Boko Haram sect could reach 100.
(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Nigeria an explosion, claimed by Muslim extremists, ripped through a Catholic church during Mass killing at least 35 people at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near the capital, Abuja. The toll soon rose to 44 as more people died of their injuries. In Jos a second explosion struck near a Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church. Gunmen later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one police officer. 2 explosions struck the northeastern city of Damaturu. The bomber targeted a senior military commander and killed three officers in the attack.
(AP, 12/25/11)(AFP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 27, In southern Nigeria 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 and a teacher in Delta state. Gunmen in a late night attack shot dead a three-year-old girl and her parents near the volatile central city of Jos. The attackers were suspected to be Fulani tribesmen, a mostly Muslim group which has been blamed for previous raids on the village.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 30, In Nigeria gunmen killed two civilians in Maiduguri, a town plagued by attacks from a radical Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the nation, after a recent slew of deadly attacks blamed on a radical Muslim sect killed dozens of people.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 In Nigeria the Ikeja shopping mall opened in Lagos.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.60)
2011 In Nigeria the average annual income of $718 per person in the northernmost 19 states was half the figure of the remaining 17 states. With some 160 million people Nigeria was the world’s 7th most populous country. The UN estimated Nigeria’s population could grow to around 400 million by 2050.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.52)(Econ, 5/14/11, p.77)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2012 Jan 1, Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, announced immediate ends to subsidies on petrol, a policy that had held pump prices at 65 naira per liter ($0.40, 0.30 euros).
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 2, In Nigeria prices at many stations more than doubled to 140 naira or more per liter in a country where most of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. The country's main labor unions threatened mass action.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 3, Nigerian police fired tear gas and detained protesters while crowds blocked petrol stations amid rising anger over a controversial measure that has led to skyrocketing fuel prices. A top trade union accused police of shooting dead a protester. Two suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead the head of the Shehuri neighborhood in Maiduguri. Suspected sect members also killed the leader of a neighborhood in Damaturu during a simultaneous attack. A girl was killed in the crossfire after suspected sect members attacked a police station in the northern state of Jigawa. Sect members also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least 8 people.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 5, In Nigeria the two suspected Boko Haram members were killed after resisting arrest in the northeastern city of Maiduguri. Police fired tear gas and beat demonstrators who staged a protest in Kano against soaring fuel prices. Residents said an attack at Good Will Hotel in Mubi killed five people, all of them Igbos. Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a church on the outskirts of the city of Gombe, killing six people, including the pastor's wife.
(AP, 1/5/12)(AFP, 1/5/12)(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, In northern Nigeria gunmen fired on Christian mourners, killing at least 20 people. The attack occurred in Mubi in Adamawa state as Igbo traders held a meeting before opening up their shops for business. Boko Haram members attacked a beauty salon and fought government forces as part of its continuing sectarian battle against Nigeria's weak central government. At least eight worshippers died in an attack on the Apostolic Church in Yola, Adamawa state. At a nearby beauty salon, at least three others were killed in a similar attack. At least two people were killed In the town of Potiskum, Yobe state, as gunmen set two banks ablaze and started a gunfight with police.
(AFP, 1/6/12)(AP, 1/6/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 7, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan said he has ordered travel by political office holders be cut "to the barest minimum." He also said he has cut political office holders' salaries in the executive branch by 25 percent for 2012. In the northeast suspected gunmen of a radical Muslim sect, killed three people on an attack on a tea shop in Biu, Borno state. Boko Haram gunmen also shot and killed two Christian students who attend the University of Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/7/12)(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a military vehicle in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The attack killed three civilians and wounded six civilians and one soldier.
(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 9, Nigerian police and protesters clashed and people were shot dead as tens of thousands demonstrated nationwide over fuel price hikes and a general strike shut down the country. Suspected members of Boko Haram killed two Christians in separate attacks in Maiduguri despite an increased security presence in the area. Boko Haram gunmen killed a secret police officer in Biu. 6 people were killed in Benin as a crowd split off to attack a mosque and terrorize people in neighborhoods that are mainly Hausa.
(AFP, 1/9/12)(AP, 1/9/12)(AP, 1/10/12)(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 10, In Nigeria Imam Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect challenged the authority of Nigeria's president in an online video, promising more attacks in a nation increasingly overcome by unrest and divided by religion. Gunmen killed eight people, including five police officers, in a pub in Potiskum town in the northern state of Yobe before speeding off on a motorcycle. Gunmen also killed three people in an attack on a Christian village in Bauchi state. In the south a mob burnt part of the central mosque complex in the city of Benin. Local media reported that three others were killed in southwestern Ogun and Osun states, one by a police officer.
(AFP, 1/10/12)(AP, 1/11/12)(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Nigeria tens of thousands defied an order to end a three-day-old strike as unions threatened to halt output in Africa's top crude producer and a mob rampage left a police officer dead. Boko Haram gunmen attacked a bus in Yobe state carrying Christian Igbo traders on the outskirts of the city of Potiskum, killing four people. Two police officers were killed when a mob rampaged in the central city of Minna. A police station in the northeastern city of Yola was attacked by unknown gunmen, killing one officer.
(AFP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 12, In Nigeria a national strike entered its fourth day with oil workers threatening to halt production.
(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 13, A top Nigerian labor leader announced a two-day suspension of protests at the weekend as a national strike over fuel prices shut down the country for a fifth day running. In the northeast gunmen attacked two pubs, killing four people amid a wave of such violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/13/12)(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, Nigeria's government and union leaders ended talks without a deal to end a week-old strike that has shut down the country.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 16, Nigerian unions ended a week-old nationwide strike after President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to lower petrol prices, while security forces shot into the air and fired tear gas to disperse protesters. An unidentified gunmen shot dead three Chadian builders and stole their mobile phones in the northeastern city of Damaturu. 2 people were killed when gunmen invaded their homes in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/16/12)(AFP, 1/17/12)(AP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, Nigerian soldiers arrested six Islamists described as high-ranking members of the Boko Haram sect during a raid in Maiduguri. Troops shot dead four suspected members of the sect and injured five others in the same city and defused five bombs. Boko Haram gunmen shot dead 2 soldiers who were distributing food to soldiers on duty. Police acknowledged that Kabiru Sokoto, the suspected mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing, has escaped custody after being arrested in the country's capital.
(AP, 1/17/12)(AFP, 1/18/12)(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 19, Nigerian police fired tear gas in Lagos at hundreds of protestors as more than 200 defied police warnings and marched towards a park in the economic capital that has become the epicenter of mass mobilization against the removal of fuel subsidies.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Nigeria an explosion ripped through a zonal police headquarters in Kano, the largest city in the Muslim north. Bomb attacks targeting security forces and gun battles killed at least 150 civilians, 29 police officers, three secret police officers, two immigration officers and one customs official, bringing the death toll in Kano to 185 dead. A local television journalist was among those shot dead as he covered the unrest.
(AP, 1/20/12)(AFP, 1/21/12)(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 22, In northern Nigeria 11 people were killed overnight in an attack in Bauchi state.
(AP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 24, Nigerian security forces killed a man and his pregnant wife in an assault on a neighborhood in Kano. Suspected members of Boko Haram surrounded a police station in Kano, ordered civilians to get off the street, began chanting "God is great" and threw homemade bombs into the station while spraying it with assault rifles.
(AP, 1/24/12)(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Mauritania representatives from Sahel states (Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Algeria) and Nigeria vowed to help each other fight terrorism from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Islamist sect Boko Haram, which are said to have ties.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 26, In Nigeria a police source said some 200 people, mostly Chadian "mercenaries," have been arrested following last week's attacks in the northern main city of Kano. Gunmen killed 15 village traders returning from a market at night and set their bodies ablaze in northern Zamfara state.
(AFP, 1/26/12)(AFP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 27, Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least one officer after opening fire on a police station in the city of Kano. Police in southeastern Enugu state arrested 25 armed men believed to have come from the violence-plagued predominantly Muslim north while traveling on a bus headed to the mainly Christian south. The men were found with 19 home-made guns and some machetes during a search at a highway police checkpoint.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 29, In Nigeria gunmen stormed police station near a bus station in Kano, leaving two civilians dead. In the northern city of Potsikum, attackers traveling on a bicycle shot dead a guard outside a church.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2012 Jan 30, In Nigeria a Court of Appeals ruled that Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, the right-hand man for the feared military dictator Sani Abacha, should be hanged. He was accused of orchestrating the 1996 machine-gun killing of the wife of Moshood Abiola, a flamboyant businessman widely believed to be have won an annulled 1993 presidential election. Gunmen on motorcycles attacked a police station in Kano but were repelled by police. Boko Haram gunmen attacked an air force barracks, a police station and an army checkpoint, about 90 miles (150 km) north of Maiduguri, killing 5 people.
(AP, 1/30/12)(AFP, 1/30/12)(AP, 1/31/12)
2012 Jan 31, NUPENG, a Nigerian oil workers' union, launched a strike over a dispute with Shell, sparking fears of petrol shortages. The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, the smaller of Nigeria's two oil industry unions, represents blue-collar workers, including tanker drivers.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 1, In Nigeria several security sources said that a suspect believed to be the person who goes by the alias Abul Qaqa had been arrested, but authorities have not officially confirmed his detention or his identity.
(AFP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 5, In Nigeria gunmen reportedly shot dead a secret police officer in front of his house in the northeastern city of Damaturu. Soldiers guarding Jos, at the heart of ethnic and religious clashes, detained and later threw out journalists working for a French television station trying to cover the ongoing unrest there.
(AFP, 2/5/12)(AP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 6, In Nigeria three forged police ID cards, 11 police rifles and boots were allegedly recovered in an army raid on a Boko Haram hideout in which 8 suspected sect members died.
(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 7, In Nigeria explosions rocked an army barracks, a bridge and an air base in the northern city of Kaduna amid a wave of attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. One suicide bomber was reported killed.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Nigeria officers from the State Security Service and soldiers raided a home in Mutum Biyu, Taraba state, where Kabiru Sokoto, alleged mastermind of a radical Islamist sect's Christmas Day church bombing, was hiding. He had escaped a day after his arrest in January. They found Sokoto hiding behind a rack of drying laundry. Two explosions went off outside a customs building in Maiduguri, killing four bombers and wounding two soldiers.
(AP, 2/10/12)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 13, Suspected Nigerian pirates fired on a cargo ship around 110 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria killing the captain and chief engineer. The French navy came to the aid of the cargo ship.
(AFP, 2/13/12)(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 14, In Nigeria a bomb disposal officer was killed trying to defuse a bomb just minutes after another blast in Kaduna previously hit by a feared Islamist sect. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for another series of bomb attacks targeting two major military bases and a highway overpass that wounded an unknown number of people in Kaduna.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 15, In Nigeria attackers stormed a federal prison with heavy gunfire and explosives, killing one guard and freeing 119 inmates in Koton-Karifi, Kogi state.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot and killed two police officers in Minna, Niger state. 32 people were killed in a head-on crash between two buses in Bauchi state.
(AP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 17, Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara was named the new head of West Africa's regional bloc, outgoing chief Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria announced before the close of the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja.
(AFP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 18, In northeast Nigeria gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric and a local politician in separate attacks.
(AP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 19, In Nigeria a bomb planted in an abandoned car exploded outside a church in the middle of a worship service in Suleja near Abuja, wounding five people amid a continuing wave of violence by a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, In Nigeria some 30 people were killed when suspected Islamists opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/20/12)(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, A Shell oil official said oil companies in Nigeria are battling against a rising theft that is costing them an estimated 150,000 barrels of crude each day.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, Nigeria said it has renewed oil licenses which will let US energy giant ExxonMobil operate 3 big fields that produce about 500,000 barrels of crude a day for 20 years.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Nigeria gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead 2 policemen watching over a highway in Lapai, Niger state.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 23, In Nigeria gunmen on four motorcycles shot dead 4 policemen on foot patrol in Kano. 15 suspects were arrested.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 24, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram sect gunned down five worshippers inside a mosque as evening prayers ended in Kano. Gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram Islamists killed a dozen people when they razed a police station after failing to storm a jail in Gombe city.
(AFP, 2/25/12)
2012 Feb 25, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed two police officers in separate attacks in Kaduna and Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Nigeria a suicide bomber detonated an explosives laden car outside a packed church during Sunday service in Jos, killing three people and injuring dozens. Gunmen shot four people dead and wounded six in a rural area of the central state of Kaduna.
(AFP, 2/26/12)(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 27, Nigerian immigration services said they have repatriated around 11,000 foreigners mainly from Niger and Chad over the past six months to curb a growing Islamist insurgency. Gunmen in the north killed three policemen when they hurled explosives and opened fire on a police station in Jama'are, Bauchi state.
(AFP, 2/27/12)(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 27, James Ibori (49), former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state, pleaded guilty in a British court to charges of money-laundering, conspiring to defraud and obtaining a money transfer by fraud.
(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 28, In Nigeria assailants attacked Gamboru Primary School just after dawn and then, just over 3 miles (5 km) away, razed a newly renovated, secular coeducational school to the ground in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 28, Armed pirates opened fire on a cargo ship in an attack off the Nigerian coast, kidnapping the captain and chief engineer and robbing the crew before escaping. The assault targeted a Dutch-owned, Curacao-flagged, refrigerated cargo ship anchored near the coast.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, Heavily armed gunmen fired on an oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria. The Panamanian-flagged, Nigerian-owned vessel thwarted an attempted boarding by taking evasive action.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb, In Nigeria a private security company signed a $103 million deal with the government to patrol the West African nation's waterways against pirates. Former militant leader Government Ekpumopolo, aka Government Tompolo, endorsed hiring Global West Vessel Specialist Agency Ltd. to protect the waterways.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 1, In Nigeria gunmen shot and killed the four policemen as they were patrolling waterways in Bayelsa. The armed militant group MEND soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 2, In northern Nigeria gunmen shot dead a soldier in the city of Kano.
(AFP, 3/3/12)
2012 Mar 3, In Nigeria a bombing by suspected Boko Haram extremists killed three people at a political rally.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Mar 4, In Nigeria motorcyclist Mustapha Sani (25) was shot in the head and chest by soldiers at a checkpoint outside a bus terminus. An irate mob lit bonfires and marched through Kano to protest the alleged shooting. Residents have complained of harassment and extortion by security personnel at checkpoints that dot the city following the January 20 coordinated Boko Haram bomb and gun attacks that killed 185 people.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Mar 5, Nigerian troops in the northern city of Maiduguri shot dead three suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram sect as they allegedly tried to burn down a school.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot dead Adamu Amadu, a senior customs officer in charge of Yobe and Borno states, both recently been rocked by Islamist attacks. Islamists attacked a prison, police station and local government office, wounding at least three police officers in Konduga, Borno state.
(AFP, 3/6/12)(AFP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 7, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked a police station and two banks, killing at least four policemen, amid a wave of violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. A raid was conducted in the northern city of Zaria leading to the arrest of Abu Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian, and five others.
(AFP, 3/8/12)(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 8, In Nigeria a British-Nigerian operation involving 100 troops, military trucks and a helicopter attempted to rescue a pair of British and Italian hostages. At least two hostage-takers were killed in the operation in Sokoto. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara (48) and his British colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot by their captors. Italy’s PM Monti was only informed by Britain’s PM Cameron once the operation was under way. The two hostages were kidnapped by heavily armed men who stormed their apartment in Kebbi state in May 2011. Nigerian authorities detained five Islamist militants suspected of involvement in the kidnapping.
(AFP, 3/9/12)(AP, 3/9/12)Reuters, 3/10/12)
2012 Mar 8, South Africa apologized for barring 125 Nigerians from the country and unveiled new immigration procedures aimed at ending a diplomatic row between the continent's two powerhouses. Immigration officials at Johannesburg's main airport on March 2 refused entry to Nigerians, on the pretext that their yellow fever vaccination cards might be fake.
(AFP, 3/8/12)
2012 Mar 9, In Nigeria Abu Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian, died following bullet wounds sustained during a raid in Zaria 2 days earlier.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 11, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up outside St Finbar’s Catholic church in Jos, killing 7 attending mass. 4 suicide bombers, including two that drove the car and two on a motorcycle that escorted the car, were also reported killed. Soldiers opened fire to disperse a crowd of onlookers killing at least 3 more people. Gunmen later in the day shot dead three Christians in Jos.
(AFP, 3/11/12)(AFP, 3/12/12)
2012 Mar 12, In northern Nigeria attackers shot dead a policeman, a soldier and three bystanders at a checkpoint in the town of Mubi.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, In northern Nigeria suspected sect members shot dead two policemen in Kano. Soldiers killed one of the assailants during the attack.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 14, In central Nigeria a police helicopter crashed and burst into flames in Jos, killing four policemen on board, including a senior officer.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen raided a mainly Christian village in Kaduna State, killing 10 people, including a pastor and injuring four others.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Nigeria respected cleric Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, who was mediating in peace talks between the government and the Boko Haram Islamist sect, announced he was quitting the talks, accusing the government of insincerity.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria a spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram ruled out further talks with the government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending scores of deadly attacks. Abul Qaqa said the government could not be trusted.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led initiative, launched a campaign aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 21, Nigerian troops ambushed and killed 9 gunmen who had attacked a police station and a bank in the north of the country. 2 gunmen who were taken alive in Tudun Wada.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, In Britain a group of 35 Nigerian villages sued Royal Dutch Shell PLC claiming that the company’s slow response to two spills in 2008 left their delta region soaked in crude oil.
(SFC, 3/24/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 24, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect set off a suicide car bomb during a military raid on their hideout in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 25, In Nigeria 3 suspected members of Boko Haram were killed overnight in the northern city of Maiduguri in a shootout with soldiers deployed to crush the Islamist sect. About 20 gunmen had attacked a police station with rifles and explosives.
(AFP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 28, In northeastern Nigeria suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram bombed a police station and freed more than a dozen prisoners, while three of the attackers were killed in Damagun in Yobe state. Two gunmen shot dead a police inspector in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, In Nigeria suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram used bombs and gunfire to attack a police station and rob a bank in northeastern town of Askira Uba, with four people feared dead.
(AFP, 3/30/12)
2012 Mar 31, Nigerian troops clashed with suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram in a raid on an alleged hideout, leaving 11 dead, including a soldier and policeman in the Okene district of Kogi state. Suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram attacked three police stations in Yobe state, burning two of them.
(AFP, 3/31/12)(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 1, In northern Nigeria a petrol tanker crashed then later exploded and caught fire, killing at least 12 people who had rushed to the scene to scoop fuel from the damaged vehicle.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 1, Nigerian Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, donated 500,000 dollars to victims of last month's munitions blasts in Brazzaville, Congo, which killed at least 282 people.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 2, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a secret police officer at a barber's shop in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 2, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a $12-million grant to a project aimed at boosting yam production and doubling the income of west African farmers of the crop. The initial focus is on 200,000 smallholder farm families in Ghana and Nigeria.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 3, In Nigeria a gas leak occurred during the drilling of a new well in Rivers state, forcing Total to shut down the Obite gas plant. A snubbing intervention started on May 9.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 Apr 4, In northeast Nigeria suspected members of a radical Islamist sect opened fire on a crowded market in Maiduguri, killing at least 7 people in an area protected by federal troops.
(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, Nigerian authorities said they have recovered a cache of arms, including explosives and rocket launchers, in two separate raids in the restive northern city of Gombe and arrested six suspects.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 7, In Nigeria 22 people were killed and 31 others were injured in Benue state when their St Robert's Catholic Church caved in on them during Easter vigil in Adamgbe.
(AFP, 4/8/12)
2012 Apr 8, In central Nigeria a car bomb blast outside a church in Kaduna on Easter Sunday killed at least 39 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks. Islamists shot dead a seven-year-old girl during a failed attempt to kill her policeman father hours after group members killed three in a separate raid.
(AFP, 4/8/12)(AP, 4/9/12)(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 8, In Nigeria a bombing on an electoral commission office killed 16 people. Boko Haram extremists were suspected.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Apr 9, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen killed a policeman, a civilian and a local politician in coordinated attacks in Dikwa, Borno state. Three Boko Haram terrorists were reportedly killed as others escaped with bullet wounds. In the northeastern city of Potiskum, gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing the policeman's 6-year-old daughter.
(AFP, 4/9/12)(AP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 13, Nigeria's Pres. Goodluck Jonathan signed on a $31 billion budget for 2012 in Africa's largest crude producer amid concern it has not done enough to guard against a possible future slide in oil prices.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 13, In Nigeria The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked oil installations belonging to Italian firm ENI.
(AFP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 14, Nigeria's militant group MEND threatened to attack South Africa's investments, including telecoms firm MTN, in the Niger Delta, because of the terror trial of its leader, Henry Okah, in Johannesburg.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 16, Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American physician and head of Dartmouth College, NH, was appointed to head the World Bank. Challenger and Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Kim, but called for changes to the US-dominated selection process.
(AFP, 4/16/12)(Econ, 4/21/12, p.87)
2012 Apr 17, Nigerian troops killed one suspected member of the Islamist Boko Haram sect and arrested 13 others in dawn raids on two hideouts in Maiduguri city.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 17, In London James Ibori, former Nigerian state governor (1997-2007), was sentenced to 13 years in prison over a fraud involving $250 million of state funds.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 18, In northern Nigeria a customs officer was shot dead at Gamboru market in Maiduguri, while a water vendor was also killed in another area of the city on the same day.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 19, In northern Nigeria 5 people were killed by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram, in a bakery in Maiduguri. A policeman was killed outside his house in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 21, In northern Nigeria 5 suspected Islamist militants were killed when bombs they were assembling exploded during a shootout with government troops.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 24, Nigerian lawmakers called for a probe into an alleged $6.8 billion lost since 2009 through a graft-ridden fuel subsidy program.
(AFP, 4/24/12)
2012 Apr 24, In Nigeria gunmen killed five people, including a police officer and a politician, at a bar in Damaturu, Yobe state, in an area previously hit by a bomb blast blamed on Islamists. 5 people, including two children, were killed in Gwa-Rim village by suspected Fulani herdsmen. In Jos a blast killed one person and wounded nine soccer fans.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 26, In Nigeria a suicide attack at the Abuja bureau of ThisDay newspaper and a car bombing at another of its offices killed at least 9 people in the first such strikes against the country's media. 5 people were killed in Abuja and 4 in Kaduna.
(AFP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 27, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to the Boko Haram Islamist sect fatally shot a police inspector outside his home Yobe state. A car in which Edo state Gov. Oshiomhole normally rides was struck by an oncoming vehicle. 3 journalists were killed in the suspicious accident.
(AFP, 4/27/12)(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Apr 29, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked church services on the Bayero University campus in Kano, using small explosives to draw out and gun down panicking worshippers in an assault that killed around 20 people. On May 18 police arrested Augustine Effiong (25), aka Abubakar Garba, who confessed to have participated in a series of attacks including the attack and killings in Bayero University Kano (BUK).
(AP, 4/29/12)(AFP, 4/30/12)(AFP, 5/21/12)
2012 Apr 30, In Nigeria a suicide attack on a senior police official's convoy in the eastern state of Taraba killed 11 people, including one policeman.
(AFP, 4/30/12)
2012 May 1, Nigerian troops killed one suspected Boko Haram militant during a pre-dawn raid in Kano over weekend attacks against church services that left around 20 people dead.
(AFP, 5/1/12)
2012 May 2, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen started shooting in a Potiskum market, trying to steal cattle. Witnesses said three people at the market were killed, as a fourth man suspected to be part of the group of robbers was set afire while still alive and died of his burns.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 3, In northeastern Nigeria at least 34 people were killed after a failed cattle raid in a market In Potiskum, Yobe state, sparked a retaliatory attack by robbers angry one of their colleagues had been burned alive by herders. Olaitan Oyerinde, a popular labor activist and principal secretary to Edo State Gov. Adams Oshiomhole, was murdered in cold blood by unknown gunmen in Benin city.
(AFP, 5/3/12)(http://tinyurl.com/6sjbk73)
2012 May 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 2 warders and freed all inmates from a local jail in Kumshe town, Borno state. 23 Boko Haram suspects were arrested during an attack on a police station in Banki. In the eastern state of Taraba, gunmen disguised in military uniforms shot dead five residents near Babban Mutum town.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Shell announced a significant cut in its Nigerian oil production due to pipeline damage caused by theft, and warned that it might not meet contractual obligations as a result.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 5, In Nigeria 3 people were shot dead while four others, including two soldiers, were wounded when suspected Islamists opened fire at a wedding in Maiduguri. 2 of the suspected Islamists were arrested. Gunmen shot dead a resident in Kano.
(AFP, 5/5/12)(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 6, In northern Nigerian soldiers killed four suspected members of Boko Haram Islamist sect in a raid on their hideout in Kano. About a dozen suspected Islamists were arrested in the raid.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, In northern Nigeria gunmen in Kaduna state shot dead a Lebanese man and his Nigerian driver and abducted another Lebanese national. Crowds of protesters took to the streets of Potiskum over a deadly market attack last week that left 34 dead.
(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 7, Nigeria's military arrested 21 Ghanaians and five Nigerians for alleged oil theft as they operated two vessels in the country's main crude-producing region. Oil giant Shell said two new leaks had occurred on one of its pipelines in southern Nigeria after similar incidents in recent days blamed on crude theft.
(AFP, 5/8/12)(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 9, In northeast Nigeria at least two people were killed in an attack on a market in Maiduguri. The military blamed the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 11, Nigerian troops arrested a suspected leading Boko Haram militant in a raid in Kano hours after Maiduguri, where the Islamist group is based, was rocked by blasts and gunfire.
(AFP, 5/11/12)
2012 May 12, In Nigeria gunmen stormed Mafa police station in Borno state killing 2 policemen and one civilian.
(AFP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 13, In Nigeria a joint task force raided a suspected Boko Haram base in London Ciki, Maiduguri, killing two Islamists. Two locally made pistols were recovered and five suspects were arrested. Gunmen opened fire on card players in the northern city of Kano, killing three people including a prison warden. Around 500 attackers, believed to be nomadic Fulanis, stormed five villages in Lamurde district of Adamawa state. At least six people were killed in what was thought to be reprisals in a communal dispute.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 17, In Nigeria an explosion caused by dynamite on a bus in the oil hub city of Port Harcourt killed the driver and wounded two others. Rivers state Gov. Rotimi Amaechi said it appeared the alleged robbers were using the bus for transportation and the explosion happened accidentally.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 23, In Nigeria 3 police officers were shot dead by suspected Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 May 25, In northeastern Nigeria two people were killed when gunmen in a car opened fire at Potiskum's timber market.
(AFP, 5/26/12)
2012 May 26, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen killed a Muslim cleric and a retired prison guard in Potiskum, amid a wave of such killings blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. Gunmen shot dead three card players in the northern city of Kano, also rocked by deadly attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram
(AFP, 5/26/12)(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 28, In Nigeria an employee of the Italian building and civil engineering firm Borini Prono was abducted in Kwara State.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May 31, In Nigeria an operation to free German engineer Edgar Fritz Raupach, abducted last January, took place in Kano. 5 people, including a woman and Raupach, were killed in the operation. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had released a statement in March claiming they had Raupach and demanded that German officials release Filiz Gelowicz, a German woman convicted last year of supporting a foreign terrorist network.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, Nigerian police in Lagos used tear gas to try to disperse a crowd of several hundred university students angry at the president's decision to change the name of their school. On May 29 President Goodluck Jonathan said the University of Lagos, known as UNILAG, would be renamed Moshood Abiola University in honor of a political prisoner who died in jail over a decade ago.
(AP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, In Ghana a Nigerian Allied Air cargo plane overshot an airport runway in Accra and crashed into a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people. The 4 crew members of the plane survived.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 3, In Nigeria a suicide bomber attacked a church in northeastern Bauchi state, causing the building to collapse on the worshippers inside killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more. The next day Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/3/12)(AFP, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 3, In Nigeria a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 smashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos' Murtala Muhammed Int’l. Airport killing all 153 aboard, the country’s worst air disaster in nearly two decades. At least 6 more people perished on the ground. A probe into the crash traced the cause to the loss of two engines and non-functionality of the throttles on final descent from Abuja to Lagos.
(AP, 6/4/12)(AFP, 6/5/12)(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Jun 5, Nigerian soldiers killed at least 16 militants after gunfire and blasts rocked Maiduguri, where Islamists were believed to be hiding. In the northern city of Kano gunmen shot dead a former deputy Nigerian police chief, his driver and a bodyguard.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 8, In Nigeria a suicide blast outside police headquarters in Maiduguri killed 8 people and wounded others. Hours earlier a suspected bomber died when an explosive went off prematurely in another part of the city. Gunmen also shot dead a police constable outside his house in Boriya district on the outskirts of Potiskum. A nearby drug vendor, also hit and injured by the attackers' bullet, died later.
(AP, 6/8/12)(AFP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 9, In northern Nigeria 2 gunmen in Kano shot dead an official of the secret police, Aminu Isa, and fled. Isa's friend was shot in both legs and later died in the hospital.
(AFP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 10, In central Nigeria a suicide bomber drove his car at a church in Jos, killing at least 3 people. Gunmen opened fire on another church in the northeast killing at least one person and wounding dozens in Biu.
(AFP, 6/10/12)
2012 Jun 11, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated one of sub-Sahara Africa's biggest cement factories, with a capacity to produce 5.25 million metric tons a year. Dangote Cement's held ambitions of ranking among the top eight cement-producing companies in the world by the year 2015. Armed robbers in north Nigeria killed 27 people while attacking villages preparing for a local market day.
(AFP, 6/11/12)(AP, 6/11/12)
2012 Jun 12, Nigeria's stock exchange board announced that exchange regulator Arunma Oteh has been suspended from her post, weeks after she publicly clashed with politicians over corruption allegations.
(AFP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 15, Nigerian troops shot dead four suspected Boko Haram Islamists during a dawn raid on one of the group's presumed hideouts in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 17, In Nigeria bomb blasts damaged five churches in four cities in northern Kaduna state, injuring dozens of worshippers and leading to an immediate curfew. Suicide blasts on 3 churches carried out by Boko Haram Islamists and subsequent rioting killed at least 52 people.
(AFP, 6/17/12)(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 18, In northeastern Nigeria gunfire broke out in Damaturu and caused casualties, but that the streets were too dangerous for rescue workers to move around.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 19, Nigerian authorities slapped a round-the-clock curfew on Damaturu as fresh gunfire rocked the restive northeastern city. A radical Islamist sect unleashed multiple attacks in Damaturu, killing at least 25 people as fears swelled about the government's inability to corral rising sectarian violence. Habibu Bama, a suspect in the 2011 Christmas Day bombings that killed at least 44 people, was arrested in Damaturu, following a shootout with the military joint task force. Bama died soon after sustaining injuries from the gun battle.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(AP, 6/19/12)(AP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 19, Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man according to Forbes magazine, was reinstated as president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the position from which he was removed two years ago.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 20, In Nigeria new clashes between Christians and Muslims hit areas in and around the city of Kaduna, leaving at least five people dead. Days of violence left 106 people dead.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, Nigeria's Khalid al-Barnawi was one of 3 Nigerians labeled a "global terrorist" by the US government. He was alleged to be an Al Qaeda-linked militant with Boko Haram ties involved in kidnapping foreigners. Abubakar Adam Kambar was linked to Barnawi. Abubakar Shekau was widely believed to lead Boko Haram's main Islamist cell.
(AFP, 6/21/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 22, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan fired his national security adviser and defense minister, as fears mounted over spiraling unrest in the country's north. The new security adviser will be Sambo Dasuki, a retired colonel, prominent northerner and cousin to the Sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria's highest Muslim spiritual figure.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 24, In Nigeria attackers with guns and explosives raided a jail in Damaturu, leaving four prison guards dead and freeing 40 inmates. One of the inmates was re-arrested and another was killed. In Bauchi a home-made explosive device planted in an unfinished building next to a group of pubs went off injuring 9 people.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(AFP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, In Nigeria gunmen attacked five police posts and a prison across three cities, sparking responses from security forces, with the heaviest fighting concentrated in Kano. 3 policemen were shot dead in Taraba state when gunmen attacked a regional police headquarters in the town of Wukari. The clashes left at least 27 people dead.
(AFP, 6/27/12)(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria militants armed with guns and explosives attacked a police station in Adamawa state's town of Gulak. The building was destroyed by the subsequent blaze.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, In northeastern Nigeria security forces killed suspected Boko Haram sect members during a military raid on their hideout in Damaturu.
(AP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jun 30, Nigeria's military said it has arrested the leader of a gang responsible for a series of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region. Seifa Gbereke (25), known locally as "General Cairo," was also suspected of stealing crude from pipelines.
(AFP, 6/30/12)
2012 Jul 1, Nigerian hunters killed a hippopotamus in the town of Shelleng on the bank of the Benue river. The hippo had killed two fishermen a day earlier.
(AP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 2, Nigeria's Trade and Investment Ministry said Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US-based Vulcan Petroleum Resources Ltd. to build six oil refineries, in a project worth 4.5 billion dollars.
(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 2, In Nigeria attackers killed nine construction workers in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the base of the Islamist Boko Haram sect.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 7, In Nigeria assailants launched "sophisticated attacks" on several villages near Jos. At least 80 people were killed and more than 300 displaced people from the attacks. Similar raids have been blamed on Muslim herdsmen in the past.
(AP, 7/8/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Nigeria a federal lawmaker and a state lawmaker were killed in an ambush on their way to a mass burial for victims near Jos. At least 20 others were killed when gunmen stormed the funeral of those killed a day earlier. Boko Haram later claimed that it was responsible for the attacks.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 9, A spokeswoman for Italian oil major Eni SpA said in a statement that repair work was ongoing on its Nembe-Obama pipeline and blamed sabotage for the spill from one of its pipelines in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta.
(AP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 10, In Nigeria a bombing of a church killed 3 people. Boko Haram extremists were suspected.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck carrying fuel caught fire and exploded after it veered off the road into a ditch in the Niger Delta, killing over 100 who had rushed to the scene to scoop fuel.
(AP, 7/12/12)(AFP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 13, In north Nigeria a suicide bomber tried to assassinate Umar Garbai el-Kanemi, a key Islamic leader and Shehu of northeastern Borno state, outside his mosque after Friday prayers but missed his target and killed five others.
(AFP, 7/14/12)
2012 Jul 16, Nigeria fined Shell $5.0 billion over a December 2011 oil spill at the Bonga oilfield in the Gulf of Guinea. The next day Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said the fine was unwarranted as the company had acted quickly to contain the spill.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, In central Nigeria a ten-year-old boy was killed when an assailant fired a heavy weapon at an Islamic school in the city of Jos.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 18, Nigeria lifted a state of emergency it imposed six months ago in four states following a wave of attacks blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 19, In northern Nigeria gunmen in two separate attacks shot dead at least five people, including a policeman.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 20, Nigeria's first lady was sworn into a senior government post in the oil-rich state of Bayelsa, an appointment tagged as scandalous by some opponents.
(AFP, 7/20/12)
2012 Jul 22, In northern Nigeria a bomb blast killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded 10 others, in Bauchi city's Tundunwadan Dan-iya area, an area repeatedly targeted by a radical Islamist group.
(AFP, 7/22/12)
2012 Jul 23, In central Nigeria heavy rainfall overnight forced a dam to overflow, causing flooding that left at least 35 people dead and destroyed or damaged some 200 homes.
(AFP, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 26, In southern Nigeria suspected sea pirates attacked a speed boat transporting workers for Italian firm Agip, leaving at least one person dead.
(AFP, 7/27/12)
2012 Jul 29, In northern Nigeria a gun battle near a mosque in the city of Kano and two other shootings left at least eight people dead in the latest violence to hit the area.
(AFP, 7/29/12)
2012 Jul 30, In Nigeria explosions, including a suicide blast, rocked two police stations in the northwestern city of Sokoto, the historic seat of Islam in the country. Nigeria's military killed two suspected Boko Haram Islamists who were trying to smuggle heavy weapons into the country during a shootout on the border with Chad.
(AFP, 7/30/12)(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 4, Off the coast of Nigeria gunmen attacked a barge belonging to oil services company Sea Trucks Group, kidnapping four foreigners and killing two Nigerian sailors. The 4 foreign oil workers were released on Aug 22.
(AFP, 8/4/12)(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 5, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber rammed his car into a military patrol in the city of Damaturu, killing at least 6 soldiers.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 6, In central Nigeria gunmen opened fire on an evangelical church during a service, killing at least 19 people in Okene city, Kogi state.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Nigeria assailants shot at troops on patrol, sparking an exchange of fire that left two soldiers and two of the gunmen dead in Okene city.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 12, In Nigeria a senior officer said troops killed 20 suspected Boko Haram Islamists in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, an account quickly denied by the militant group. Military commander Victor Ebhaleme said one soldier had been killed and two others injured in the raid. Suspected Islamists attacked a military patrol in the northeastern city of Damaturu.
(AFP, 8/12/12)
2012 Aug 14, Nigerian officials said flooding in central Plateau state caused by heavy rains has killed at least 33 people, with many others still missing, while also destroying homes, bridges and farmland.
(AFP, 8/14/12)(AP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 14, In northern Nigeria 3 people were killed in a bomb blast on a Kaduna road leading to a mosque where a cleric had condemned the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 15, Nigeria cancelled a centuries-old Eid festival known for its elaborate horse pageant, officially due to Kano’s Emir Ado Bayero’s health, but residents suspected worsening violence was to blame.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 18, In Nigeria an ocean surge crashed into waterfront shanties in Lagos, leaving at least one person dead and 15 missing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 19, In Nigeria two gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on troops at a military checkpoint in the northern city of Kano, injuring a soldier.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 20, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen in Damagun, Yobe state, blew up part of a primary school overnight then attacked a Catholic church and police station before officers fought them off.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 24, Nigerian military forces stormed the hideout of a militant gang operating on the waters of oil-producing Cross River State and rescued 28 oil workers working for a Chinese petroleum company. They had been abducted a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/26/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 27, In Nigeria 10 people were killed in floods in Adamawa state following the release of water from a dam in Cameroon.
(SFC, 8/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 28, Nigeria's Finance Ministry said Nigeria will launch a $1 billion sovereign wealth fund in the coming months to invest some of the nation's oil revenue.
(AP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 28, Nigerian soldiers shot dead a man in Maiduguri who was pushing a wheelbarrow that contained explosives. A witness said stray bullets from the shootout wounded a woman and killed a baby strapped to her back.
(AP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 30, It was reported that a leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of Nigeria's State Security Service remained easily accessible on the Internet for days and had details about the agency's director-general, including his mobile phone number, bank account particulars and contact information for his son.
(AP, 8/30/12)
2012 Aug 31, In northern Nigeria 2 speeding buses collided head-on and burst into flames killing at least 29 people and injuring 16 others in Yobe state.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Sep 4, Pirates attacked and seized the MT Abu Dhabi Star, an oil tanker off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria, kidnapping an unknown number of sailors who were trying to hide from their assailants.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 5, Nigeria's navy retook the MT Abu Dhabi Star oil tanker, hijacked a day earlier off Lagos, freeing 23 Indian sailors held hostage by pirates who fled as the navy arrived.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 6, In Nigeria an association of mobile phone companies said at least 24 towers have been attacked across the north, likely causing damage worth millions of dollars. At least nine masts were burned down in Maiduguri. Hours later security forces killed seven suspected Boko Haram sect members in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/6/12)(AP, 9/7/12)
2012 Sep 7, In Nigeria more than 60 workers from Air Nigeria protested at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport's domestic wings, demanding four-months-worth of unpaid salaries from the company. The airline's owner, business tycoon Jimoh Ibrahim, fired nearly all of the company's 800 employees for "disloyalty" earlier this month.
(AP, 9/7/12)
2012 Sep 12, Nigeria’s Finance Ministry said China is offering it $1.1 billion in loans to help the West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for its capital city and communication system improvements.
(AP, 9/12/12)
2012 Sep 14, In central Nigeria soldiers opened fire to drive away young Muslims protesting a film critical of the Prophet Muhammad, as demonstrators elsewhere in the county's Muslim north burned a US flag.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Sep 16, In Nigeria Red Cross officials said they have found 25 corpses following a massive flood from the Benue River in Adamawa state.
(SFC, 9/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 19, Nigerian security forces fighting the Boko Haram Islamist sect in the northeast of the country killed two commanders from the group and arrested eight other members in two separate incidents.
(Reuters, 9/21/12)
2012 Sep 20, Nigeria's largest airline Arik Air Ltd. halted all its domestic flights indefinitely as its leaders alleged government corruption made it impossible for the carrier to fly. Domestic flights resumed on Sep 23.
(AP, 9/20/12)(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 23, In northern Nigeria a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside a Catholic church, killing himself and at least two other people. In the southeast 20 people died when a broken gasoline pipeline caught fire, burning alive those gathering the fuel in Abia state.
(Reuters, 9/23/12)(AP, 10/1/12)
2012 Sep 24, Saudi Arabian authorities began holding some 908 female Nigerian pilgrims heading to Mecca over a rule requiring them to travel with a husband or male companion.
(SFC, 9/27/12, p.A2)(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 25, In Nigeria government forces in Damaturu announced that they had killed 35 Boko Haram members in a single night-time raid with several arrested.
(Economist, 9/29/12, p.52)
2012 Sep 28, Saudi Arabia began expelling over a thousand Nigerian women on religious pilgrimage to the country because they had arrived without male guardians.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 29, In Nigeria three students were killed in an attack outside a university campus in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/2/12)
2012 Sep 30, In Nigeria Royal Dutch Shell PLC shut down a pipeline in the oil-rich southern delta after a fire and a suspected attempt to steal crude from one of its lines.
(AP, 9/30/12)
2012 Oct 2, In northeast Nigeria an overnight attack killed at least 25 people, including 22 students, outside the campus of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi in the town of Mubi.
(AP, 10/2/12)
2012 Oct 2, In Sudan 4 Nigerian peacekeepers were killed and 8 wounded in an ambush in West Darfur.
(SFC, 10/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 5, In northeastern Nigeria a bombing by suspected Boko Haram members killed an army lieutenant. This sparked a violent retaliation by soldiers.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 8, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers apparently attacked a neighborhood after a nearby bombing killed a lieutenant. Maiduguri General Hospital collected 32 bodies following violence.
(AP, 10/9/12)
2012 Oct 9, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed two police officers helping guard workers trying to give polio immunizations to local children in Kano. Police arrested several suspects in the killing.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 10, In northern Nigeria gunmen outside of Kano shot dead two officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, a federal traffic agency. The officials had been on a routine assignment checking vehicles. Officials said gunmen killed 14 people belonging to a Christian ethnic group in Plateau state, in the region in the Riyom local government area. The dead included three children and their mother. Near the local airport gunmen opened fire on a car killing two Christians.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 11, Nigerian farmers asked a Dutch court to rule that oil company Shell is liable for poisoning their fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines. Royal Dutch Shell PLC long argued that the case, which was launched in 2008, should be heard in Nigeria.
(AP, 10/11/12)
2012 Oct 14, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked Dogon Dawa village in Kaduna state killing at least 30 people. The attacked appeared to be between Muslim farmers and Muslim nomadic cattlemen. In Benue state herdsmen burned a village of the Christian Tiv people. Police blamed the killings on land disputes between the two groups.
(SFC, 10/15/12, p.A2)(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 14, In Niger men in two Toyota pickup trucks pulled up to a guesthouse in the town of Dakoro and seized 6 aid workers, 5 from Nigeria and one from Chad. The abductors were believed to be elements of AQIM. 5 workers were freed on Nov 3. Their colleague Aime Soulembaye had died of wounds received during the attack.
(AP, 10/15/12)(AP, 11/3/12)
2012 Oct 15, In Nigeria at least 15 separate explosions punctuated by gunfire echoed across Maiduguri, a city long under siege by the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. At least 24 people were killed. A gunman suspected to belong to Boko Haram shot dead a police traffic warden in the city within view of a military checkpoint.
(AP, 10/15/12)(AP, 10/16/12)
2012 Oct 15, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a ship operated by a French oil and gas services company off the coast of the oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six Russian sailors and an Estonian in the assault. The kidnapped sailors were freed on Oct 31.
(AP, 10/17/12)(AP, 11/1/12)
2012 Oct 18, In Nigeria Shuaibu Muhammed Bama was found "in a serving senator's home" in Maiduguri. Bama was described as a commander who organized attacks in Bama, a town just southeast of Maiduguri in Borno state.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 19, In Nigeria gunmen killed a Chinese construction worker in Maiduguri. An overnight raid in the nearby city of Potiskum left five others dead and several schools razed.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 19, In southwest Nigeria a bus carrying women crashed and plunged off a bridge into a river, killing at least 12 people. 6 people remained missing.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 20, In Nigeria gunmen raided the Potiskum home of a former Nigeria Customs Service official and killed him and his son.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 23, Nigerian authorities intercepted a ship and found on board several guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. 15 Russian sailors were soon charged with illegally bringing weapons into the country. All charges against the sailors were dropped in 2013.
(Reuters, 10/8/13)
2012 Oct 28, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber rammed an SUV loaded with explosives into a Catholic church holding Mass, killing at least 7 people and wounding more than 100 others in Kaduna. The attack sparked reprisal killings in the city.
(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Oct 30, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected to belong to a violent robbery gang raided a remote village in Kabaru, Zamfara state, killing 20 people in an attack highlighting the growing insecurity in the nation.
(AP, 10/31/12)
2012 Nov 1, In Nigeria an alleged member of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram set conditions for peace talks with the government, asking that negotiations to end its fight be held in Saudi Arabia and that former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari be involved. In the northeast soldiers shot dead more than 40 people, likely civilians, during an operation in Maiduguri, a city long under attack by the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 11/1/12)(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Nov 2, In Nigeria retired Gen. Mamman Shuwa was shot dead at his home in Maiduguri by gunmen suspected to be the Islamist extremists. A guest in the house was also killed.
(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Nov 5, In Nigeria the managing director and editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Compass daily newspaper was shot during an attack in Osun state.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 5, Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said 363 people died over months of flooding across the West African nation and 2.1 million others were displaced.
(AP, 11/5/12)
2012 Nov 7, In northeast Nigeria gunmen shot dead two Chinese construction workers in Borno state, a region under assault by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 11, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it has shut down a pipeline in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta after finding leaks it blamed on oil thieves.
(AP, 11/11/12)
2012 Nov 14, Nigeria said it has terminated a $24 million electricity contract with Canada's state-owned Manitoba Hydro, in a setback for plans to privatize a moribund power sector that is holding back economic growth.
(AP, 11/14/12)
2012 Nov 18, In central Nigeria a Christian vigilante group killed a Muslim resident who insisted on going through their illegal checkpoint, triggering riots that have left at least four people dead in Ibi.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 19, In northern Nigeria two road accidents that took place an hour apart claimed 25 lives.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 19, French oil firm Total SA said it has sold a stake in an offshore oil field in Nigeria for $2.5 billion to Chinese state oil company Sinopec Corp. The cash deal required approval by Nigerian authorities.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Nigerian official says the government owes its state-run oil firm more than $8.1 billion in gasoline subsidy payments.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 22, The British government banned Ansaru, a Nigeria-based Islamist group, it said was aligned with al Qaeda. Ansaru's full name is Jama'atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan, which translates as "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa." A minister said the oulawed organisation was probably responsible for the killing of Chris McManus, a Briton, and Franco Lamolinara, an Italian.
(Reuters, 11/22/12)
2012 Nov 25, In northcentral Nigeria a blast hit a church in military barracks in Jaji town, Kaduna state. The death toll in a twin suicide bombing rose to at least 30.
(AP, 11/25/12)(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Nov 26, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a major police station near Abuja that held members of Boko Haram a radical Islamist sect, freeing some 30 prisoners. 25 were quickly recaptured. Two policemen were killed. Gunmen in army uniforms sprayed bullets from a van as they sped along the road leading to Plateau state's airport. 9 people died in the attack on a Christian village.
(AP, 11/26/12)(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Dec 2, In northeast Nigeria at least 10 people were killed in attacks likely carried out by a radical Islamist sect in Chibok village, Borno state.
(AP, 12/2/12)
2012 Dec 9, In Nigeria Kamene Okonjo (83), the mother of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped from her home in the southern delta. She was released on Dec 14.
(AP, 12/10/12)(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 9, In northeastern Nigeria a shootout began between security forces and members of a radical Islamist sect after suspected sect members bombed a local police station and attacked a bank branch. By the next day at least 15 people were killed in Potiskum.
(AP, 12/11/12)
2012 Dec 15, A Nigerian navy helicopter crashed in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The governor of Kaduna state, Patrick Yakowa, died in the crash, along with five other people including former national security adviser, General Andrew Azazi.
(AP, 12/15/12)
2012 Dec 17, In northwest Nigeria 27 people riding atop a truck carrying livestock were killed when it tipped over and crashed.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2012 Dec 17, Gunmen stormed the SP Brussels tanker ship off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, ransacking the vessel and kidnapping five Indian sailors in the latest attack targeting foreign workers in the volatile region. On Jan 26 the Indian sailors were reported freed. Separately gunmen abducted four South Koreans and a Nigerian working for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. at a construction site in the Brass area of Bayelsa state.
(AP, 12/19/12)(AP, 1/26/13)
2012 Dec 17, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion took place in Ije Ododo, in a swampy mangrove forest in the western fringe of Lagos when locals tapped into the pipeline to steal the refined gasoline moving through it. Flames continued thru Dec 20.
(AP, 12/21/12)
2012 Dec 19, In northern Nigeria more than 30 assailants stormed a house, killing two people and kidnapping French engineer Francis Collomp in the town of Rimi, Katsina state. On Nov 17, 2013, it was reported that Collomp had escaped and was on his way to France.
(AP, 12/20/12)(Reuters, 11/17/13)
2012 Dec 22, In northern Nigeria twin suicide bombings targeted two major mobile phone operators, threatening communications in Kano. Authorities suspected the Boko Haram sect for the attacks.
(AP, 12/22/12)
2012 Dec 22, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid about $187,000 to free four South Korean workers and their local colleague abducted on Dec 17. Police learned of the kidnapping payment only after arresting one of three suspected kidnappers.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2012 Dec 23, Gunmen attacked a supply tug boat off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping 4 sailors, including 3 Italians. All 4 sailors were reported freed on Jan 9.
(AP, 12/24/12)(AP, 1/9/13)
2012 Dec 24, Nigerian security forces detained two journalists from a Hausa-language newspaper over articles they published regarding alleged military abuses during the country's fight against a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 26, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 28, In northeast Nigeria gunmen suspected to belong to the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect attacked the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats, killing at least 15. Boko Haram gunmen also attacked another village in Adamawa state on its border with neighboring Cameroon. At least 35 prisoners were released from a prison in the attack, though 11 were been recaptured. A civilian and a police officer were killed during the fighting. Authorities said at least seven people have been killed in recent days around Christian villages in the rural plateau around Jos.
(AP, 12/29/12)
2012 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala authored “Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons From Nigeria."
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.89)
2012 Noo Saro-Wiwa authored “Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria."
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.77)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 5, In northwest Nigeria suspected armed robbers raided three villages in Zamfara state, killing at least 7 people and wounding 7 more.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Nigeria a massive fire tore through a waterfront slum in Lagos, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 19, In northwest Nigeria gunmen attacked the convoy of a religious leader in Kano, killing at least 3 guards.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Nigeria 18 people were killed in an attack on a local market in Dambao, Borno state. The violence started after the local market banned a group of hunters from selling "bush meat" from slaughtered monkeys and other creatures.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 23, In southwest Nigeria a gasoline pipeline was attacked in Arepo, bursting into flames and starting a fire that continued to burn hours later. Officials blamed oil thieves. In the northeast suspected fighters from the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect beheaded three people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Nigeria John Yakubu Yusufu, a man who formerly helped oversee the country’s police pension program, pleaded guilty to stealing $145 million, but walked out of court a free man after agreeing to a plea bargain that saw him pay only a fraction of it back.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Feb 1, A Nigerian military official said 18 militants and one soldier have been killed during days of fighting in Sambisa Game Reserve, Borno state, pitting soldiers against suspected rebels with the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/1/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 1, Nigerian lawmaker Rep. Farouk Lawan, who led a probe into the nation's fuel subsidy program that saw billions of dollars lost through fraud, was charged, along with his aide Emenalo Boniface, with allegedly soliciting a $3 million bribe from someone targeted by the inquiry. The allegations stem from their investigation of Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd. and a powerful ally of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Nigeria 11 people were killed in fighting between nomadic cattle herders and farmers around the village of Ngandum, Adamawa state.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Pirates attacked an oil tanker anchored off Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, shooting one of the crew members. The Nigerian navy shot back at the attackers, driving them away. The wounded sailor died in transit to a hospital.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed in a shootout in the oil-rich southern delta involving a vessel operated by an Indian company.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 7, Pirates attacked the MV Esther C some 80 miles (130 km) off Nigeria's coast. On March 11 Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. of the United Kingdom said 3 captured sailors have been freed.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in Kano. Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris immediately ordered the arrest of three radio journalists for allegedly being responsible for the killings. Police claimed on-air comments about a vaccination campaign in the area sparked the attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 9, Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed 3 North Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians in Potiskum. They had lived in the state since 2005 as part of a medical program between Nigeria and the North Korean government.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 16, In rural northern Nigeria an Islamist group calling itself Ansaru attacked a camp for a construction company in Bauchi state, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. Ansaru is a acronym for “Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa."
(AP, 2/17/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 17, Gunmen attacked an oil vessel off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six foreigners. Three Ukrainians, two Indians and a Russian were taken from a vessel run by energy company Century Group.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Nigeria's secret police said they have broken up a terrorist group backed by "Iranian handlers" who wanted to assassinate a former military ruler and gather intelligence about locations frequented by Americans and Israelis. A suicide bombing in Maiduguri killed three civilians and injured soldiers.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Nigeria a suicide bombing hit a crowded market in the heart of Maiduguri and engulfed stalls in flames.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 23, In in northeastern Nigeria at least six people were killed in an attack in Ngalba, Yobe state. Local residents suspected the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Nigeria concrete and other structures in "a densely populated area" of Lagos were razed to the ground. On Aug 12 Amnesty International published satellite images and said 9,000 people have lost homes and livelihoods and thousands more were threatened in the slum destroyed by armed police and bulldozers.
(AP, 8/12/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Nigeria foreigners working for a construction company escaped a kidnapping attempt that killed 2 police officers in Taraba state.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Nigeria several bombs exploded in Maiduguri, which is hosting a meeting of opposition political parties.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, denied in a newly released video any peace talks with the government.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria fighters linked to the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram attacked a military base, killing at least 20 people in Monguno. A military spokesman said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Nigeria an attack by the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram killed eight people in Gwoza, Borno state.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said its Nigerian subsidiary lost some 150,000 barrels of oil a day over several days in late February after safety systems shut down its Nembe Creek Trunkline. Shell said the shutdowns came after thieves cut into the line.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 9, Ansaru, a breakaway Islamic extremist group in Nigeria, said it killed 7 foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria on Feb 16. Those kidnapped included three Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines — all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 12, Nigeria pardoned former Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former political benefactor of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan. He was convicted of stealing millions of dollars while serving as Bayelsa state governor (1999-2005).
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Nigeria a strike at Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., halted flights "temporarily."
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Nigeria's aviation ministry asked Dana Air to suspend all flights. A Dana Air crash on June 3 left more than 160 people dead, leading the carrier to lose its license. It resumed its operations two months ago. The suspension came days after another major airline halted its operations over a strike. The general suspension on Dana was lifted March 18, but one plane remained grounded.
(AP, 3/17/13)(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nigeria at least 41 people died in a suicide car bombing that struck a bus station in Kano. The explosion came hours after another attack blamed on Boko Haram killed a teacher and injured three students in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 21, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (82) died in Boston. His novels included “Things Fall Apart" (1958). “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Achebe's corpse arrived May 22 in his native Anambra state.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.90)(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Nigeria gunmen attacked the remote town of Ganye in the northeast freeing 120 inmates. The assailants also attacked a bank and a drinking spot killing 25 people.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Nigeria a British businessman was kidnapped in Victoria Island, a part of Lagos. Initial reports said the victim was an American. The British national was released on March 27.
(SFC, 3/25/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/26/13)(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 27, In central Nigeria an assault on a village in the Riyom local government area killed 28 people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 28, In central Nigeria an attack in the Bokkos local government area killed 18 civilians. The military killed six while trying to repel attackers in the assault.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 29, In central Nigeria attackers in the Barkin Ladi area raided a village called Bokkos and killed nine people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 31, Nigeria's military said soldiers have attacked a home in Kano believed to harbor Islamic extremists. The assault killed 14 people. At least 19 people were reported killed after gunmen, believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders, raided Ataka village in Kaduna state.
(AP, 3/31/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Apr 3, In central Nigeria 18 people were killed in a head-on collision between two buses near Gwagwalada, a town outside of Abuja.
(AP, 4/3/13)
2013 Apr 5, In southwest Nigeria at least 36 people were killed in a bus crash in which a gasoline tanker exploded in Edo state.
(AP, 4/6/13)
2013 Apr 6, In central Nigeria at least 11 people were killed in ongoing fighting between Christian and Muslim villagers in the region.
(AP, 4/7/13)
2013 Apr 9, Nigerian authorities arrested 251 suspected illegal immigrants at a busy market. Authorities were launching new immigration raids in the country as it faced threats from Islamic extremists.
(AP, 4/15/13)
2013 Apr 11, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists attacked a police station, killing four officers in a gun battle in Babangida, Yobe state.
(AP, 4/11/13)
2013 Apr 15, In central Nigeria leaders in two villages said at least 10 people were killed over the weekend in clashes between the Jukun people of Plateau state, a Muslim ethnic group, and the Tarok people, who are Christian.
(AP, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 16, Nigerian prosecutors filed criminal charges against journalists Tony Amokeodo and Chibuzo Ukaibe over a story they published on alleged plans by the nation's presidency to disrupt opposition parties. The charges are a sign of growing government pressure on the media.
(AP, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 17, Nigeria formed a panel that will create an amnesty program for Islamic extremists to try to quell a bloody guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings that's killed hundreds of people across its north.
(AP, 4/17/13)
2013 Apr 18, In Nigeria fighting erupted between security forces and Boko Haram extremists in the northeastern fishing town of Baga.
(Econ, 4/27/13, p.47)
2013 Apr 21, Nigerian officials said fighting between the military and Boko Haram Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in Baga, a fishing community in the nation's far northeast. An attack that began April 19 saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians. A day later the Red Cross said 187 people had been killed.
(AP, 4/21/13)(AP, 4/22/13)
2013 Apr 22, The Nigerian Communications Commission started a number exchange between the country's four main carriers, allowing customers to keep their number and switch carriers every 90 days for free.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 24, In northeastern Nigeria at least 7 people were killed in a shootout between soldiers and Islamic extremists in the fishing village of Gashua in Yobe state. Another attack killed four people in Bama.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 Apr 25, Pirates off of Nigeria attacked the German-operated “City of Xiamen" container ship. The ship’s 5 Pole and Russian crew members were released on May 11.
(http://gcaptain.com/nigerian-pirates-release-city-of-xiamen-crew/)
2013 Apr 29, A Nigerian military official said at least 17 people have been killed in fighting between Islamic extremists and security forces in Bama, Borno state.
(AP, 4/30/13)
2013 May 3, In Nigeria at least 39 people were killed in ethnic violence that pitted the Jukun people against the Hausa Fulani in the rural town of Wukari, Taraba state.
(AP, 5/4/13)
2013 May 6, In Nigeria two pilots were killed when their Alpha jet fighter went down 37 miles (60 km) west of Niamey.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 7, In Nigeria’s northeast coordinated attacks by Islamic extremists armed with heavy machine guns killed at least 42 people in Bama, Borno state. The military said two soldiers died in an attack on army barracks in Bama along with some 10 insurgents. Extremists took some women and children hostage in Bama. Fighters also raided a federal prison during their assault killing 14 guards and freeing 105 inmates. In central Nigeria an ethnic militia killed at least 30 police officers who launched a raid to try and arrest them in Alakio, Nasarawa state.
(AP, 5/7/13)(AP, 5/8/13)(AP, 5/9/13)(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 7, Scientists said Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is destroying entire crops of cassava and has spread out of East Africa into the heart of the continent. It is attacking plants as far south as Angola and now threatens to move west into Nigeria, the world's biggest producer of the potato-like root that helps feed 500 million Africans.
(AP, 5/7/13)
2013 May 10, In Nigeria workers barricaded the front of ThisDay newspapers in Lagos, hoping to force publisher Nduka Obaigbena into paying them as much as four months' worth of back salaries due to them. The crisis hit a man politically connected to the nation's ruling elite.
(AP, 5/10/13)
2013 May 13, A Nigerian federal judge ruled that Iranian Azim Aghajani and his accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, must serve a five-year prison sentence. The two men were arrested after authorities in Lagos' Apapa Port found a container full of 107 mm mortars, rifle rounds and other weapons in 2010.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 13, In Nigeria Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, in a newly released video, said his group has started kidnapping women and children as part of its bloody guerrilla campaign against the country's government.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 14, Nigeria's Pres. Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency allowing soldiers to arrest people at will and take over buildings suspected to house extremists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. An official in the Kaduna state said gunmen armed with assault rifles and suspected to be Hausa-Fulani cattle herders killed 11 people in a village there. In Benue state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed on Hausa-Fulani cattle herders there killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 5/14/13)(AP, 5/18/13)
2013 May 16, Soldiers in northeast Nigeria shelled suspected camps of Islamic extremists in the first military action of a new offensive against the insurgents, killing at least 21 people in the Sambisa Forest Reserve. In a firefight in the town of Daura near the Niger border, two government soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded while two members of Boko Haram were killed. Three other Boko Haram fighters died when their vehicle crashed while attempting to flee the scene.
(AP, 5/17/13)
2013 May 18, Nigeria's military declared a 24-hour curfew in several neighborhoods of Maiduguri as its campaign against Islamic extremists in the region continued.
(AP, 5/18/13)
2013 May 19, Nigeria's military said its offensive against insurgents in the country's restive northeast has killed at least 14 suspected Islamic extremists and three soldiers.
(AP, 5/19/13)
2013 May 24, Nigeria's military said it has rescued 3 women and 6 children taken hostage by Islamic extremists after a May 7 attack on a police barracks in Bama. A woman and 2 children remained missing.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 25, Gunmen boarded the fuel tanker MT Matrix I, some 40 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria's Bayelsa state, taking a number of the crew hostage.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 26, The Jascon 4, a tug boat working on behalf of Chevron Corp., went down off the coast of Nigeria's Delta state. 12 sailors were missing.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 30, Nigeria's House of Representatives voted to ban gay marriage and outlaw any groups actively supporting gay rights, endorsing a measure that also calls for 10-year prison sentences for any "public show" of affection by a same-sex couple.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 May 31, Nigeria's military and security forces said they've released 58 women and children previously held as suspected fighters in the Islamic insurgency now challenging the nation's government.
(AP, 6/1/13)
2013 Jun 7, In Nigeria vigilante Civilian JTF members found themselves a target of a suspected Boko Haram attack. Gunmen hid their assault rifles inside a coffin and opened fire on them in Maiduguri. At least 13 people were killed in that attack. The group started taking up arms after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe state.
(AP, 6/12/13)
2013 Jun 13, In Nigeria extremists sought out the Rev. Jacob Kwiza, a retired pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria. They found him picking mangoes in his father's garden in the Gwoza hills, about 150 km (90 miles) from Maiduguri. The fighters ordered Kwiza to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam on pain of death. When he repeatedly refused, they slit his throat.
(AP, 6/26/13)(http://allafrica.com/stories/201306170737.html)
2013 Jun 17, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram militants opened fire on students taking exams in Maiduguri. 9 students were killed. The attack came hours after extremists attacked the Government Secondary School, a boarding school for seniors in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing 7 high school seniors and 2 teachers. The military said 2 soldiers and 2 jihadists also were killed in what developed into a five-hour shootout.. Suspected extremists also gunned down a group of fisherman on a river bank in Alau, 20 km outside Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/18/13)(AP, 6/26/13)
2013 Jun 18, Nigerian officials warned that Islamic militants have driven 19,000 rice farmers from their land in the northeast, while a military crackdown prevented thousands more from working their fields, raising fears of imminent food shortages.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 20, Shell Nigeria said an explosion and fire caused by oil theft have forced it to shut down its Trans Niger Pipeline that carries 150,000 barrels of crude a day.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jun 30, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead two civilians overnight and then used explosives to free 175 inmates from a prison in the southern town of Akure.
(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jul 2, Nigerian police said they have recaptured 54 of 175 prisoners who escaped on June 30 from Olokuta prison in the southwest town of Akure after it was attacked by gunmen.
(Reuters, 7/2/13)
2013 Jul 3, In Nigeria Maj. Gen. Henry Ayoola said the military went on the offensive after 28 civilians were killed last week. He said soldiers killed more than 100 gunmen blamed for ethno-religious clashes started by cattle rustling in central Nigeria.
(AP, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, In Nigeria suspected Islamist gunmen doused a school dormitory and set it ablaze as students slept. 30 people were killed including 29 students and a teacher in the boarding school in Mamudo village, Yobe state.
(Reuters, 7/6/13)(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.A6)(AP, 9/29/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Nigeria gunmen fired on the premises of Nigerian-owned but Lebanese-run construction firm Setraco in Benin city, killing two soldiers, wounding a third and seizing a Lebanese construction manager. The manager was released on July 25.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 9, A Nigerian court sentenced 4 of 8 alleged Islamic extremists to life in prison for two bombings that killed 19 people last year. The eight had been found guilty of masterminding and carrying out an April 8, 2012, bombing on an electoral commission office that killed 16 people and a July 10, 2012, bombing of a church that killed three.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 10, In China Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the signing of accords between their governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 11, In northwest Nigeria security forces engaged Islamic extremists in a five-hour gunbattle that killed one suspect in Sokoto city.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 14, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Nigeria for an African Union summit on HIV/AIDS as his hosts chose to ignore an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 16, In Nigeria a British national was kidnapped shortly after arriving at Lagos airport. On July 22 a police superintendent said police officers have "safely and effectively" rescued the kidnapped Briton as well as two Chinese businessmen.
(Reuters, 7/19/13)(AP, 7/22/13)
2013 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria mobile phone services returned in Yobe state, ending two months of signal blackout after a state of emergency was declared in areas struck by Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 27, Niger and Nigerian intelligence agents arrested a Nigerian terrorist leader in a border area. His identify or group was not revealed.
(AP, 8/1/13)
2013 Jul 28, In Nigeria vigilante leader Aliko Musa said that his group stormed villages over the weekend to hunt Boko Haram members. He said they retaliated with big fire power and that 5 vigilantes and 20 civilians.
(AP, 7/28/13)
2013 Jul 29, In Nigeria multiple explosions at a bar and entertainment area in a Christian quarter of the northern and mainly Muslim city of Kano killed at least 27 people.
(AP, 7/30/13)(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Jul 30, Nigerian police said they have arrested 42 suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram in Lagos and the neighboring southwest state of Ogun. Extremists killed 8 people in an attack targeting teachers and Muslim clerics in the northeast.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Jul, In Nigeria police in Lagos arrested a gang of 10 kidnappers.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)
2013 Aug 4, In northeast Nigeria at least 35 people were killed in two separate gun battles between security forces and Islamist sect Boko Haram in Borno state. 12 soldiers and 7 police officers were also killed in the attacks. Momodu Bama, 2nd in command of Boko Haram, was killed along with 17 other members of the sect during clashes in Bama.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)(AP, 8/10/13)(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 11, In northeastern Nigeria an attack on a mosque by suspected Islamic extremists killed 47 worshippers at Konduga town. Another 12 civilians died in a simultaneous attack outside Maiduguri.
(AP, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 12, Nigeria became the first African country to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty marking "resolute and unyielding" efforts to deny arms to terrorists, pirates and bandits.
(AP, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 14, The Nigerian military said its soldiers have killed two top commanders of the Islamist sect Boko Haram during a four-hour gun battle in northeast Adamawa state. Police said Mohammad Bama and Abubakar Zakariya Yau, arrested last week, died in a gun battle that erupted after they took army officers to show them their hideout in Mubi. Several other sect members were also killed.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 15, In Nigeria security forces repelled gunmen who attacked the police station and a military post in Damboa, 85 km (50 miles) from Borno state capital Maiduguri. Other militants gunned down villagers and firebombed about 20 homes.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 19, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamist militants killed 44 people when they attacked Demba village in Borno state.
(Reuters, 8/23/13)
2013 Aug 20, In northern Nigeria suspected robbers in vehicles with sophisticated weapons targeted a police station and outgunned the officers there. At least 2 police officers were killed.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Aug 21, In northeast Nigeria Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked the Gwoza Police Station, killing 2 officers but losing 7 of its members.
(Reuters, 8/21/13)
2013 Aug 23, In Benin kidnappers snatched Mike Ozekhome, a Nigerian human rights lawyer. He was held and tortured for 20 days before being released During his abduction 4 policemen who tried to squash the kidnappers’ mission were killed in a gun battle.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)(http://tinyurl.com/o4zfhll)
2013 Aug 24, In Nigeria gunmen killed 4 policemen who attempted to prevent the abduction of a prominent lawyer on a road near Benin.
(AFP, 8/25/13)
2013 Aug 25, Nigerian Islamists killed 14 pro-government youth vigilantes in an attack on the northeastern town of Bama.
(Reuters, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 28, A Nigerian court granted a request for one of its citizens, Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi (32), to be extradited to the United States to face charges of assisting the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/28/13)
2013 Aug 30, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic sect members ambushed and killed at least 24 members of a youth vigilante group who were on a mission to find and fight the sect.
(AP, 8/31/13)
2013 Sep 5, In Nigeria gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists stormed the northeastern town of Gajiran, opening fire in a market and killing 15 people.
(AFP, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 6, In Nigeria Anglican Archbishop Ignatius Kattey and his wife were kidnapped in Port Harcourt. His wife was soon released.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)
2013 Sep 8, In northeast Nigeria an attack by suspected Islamic sect members on Benisheik, a town guarded by a vigilante group, killed at least 18 people and injured 17.
(AP, 9/8/13)
2013 Sep 10, Nigeria’s air force bombed two of Boko Haram's camps in a remote and sandy region of Borno state. Soldiers then pursued fleeing insurgents, killing 10 in a gunfight.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 11, A Nigerian spokesman said Pres. President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked nine ministers in his first major cabinet reshuffle since winning an election more than two years ago. Gunmen with explosives and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a police station in Ga’anda village, Adamawa state, killing two officers and injuring another.
(Reuters, 9/11/13)(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 17, In Nigeria extremists disguised in military fatigues attacked in about 20 pickup trucks and two light tanks firing anti-aircraft guns that overwhelmed soldiers armed only with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Borno state. Returning villagers the next day found the bodies of 143 civilians killed by the extremists in Benisheik. Two soldiers and three police officers also were killed.
(AP, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 18, Nigeria's military said it had killed 150 insurgents, including a commander, in an operation against Islamist group Boko Haram in which 16 of its own forces were also killed. Army spokesman Brigadier General Ibrahim Attahiru was quoted in local newspapers as denying a story on Nigeria's Premium Times website that Boko Haram had killed 40 soldiers in an ambush in the same area.
(Reuters, 9/18/13)
2013 Sep 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram insurgents killed at least 16 people in an attack on travelers plying a highway from Maiduguri to Bamboa.
(Reuters, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists opened fire on security agents conducting an operation near a residence for lawmakers in Abuja, starting a gunfight that caused deaths and injuries.
(AFP, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 26, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic militants armed with automatic rifles and explosives killed a pastor and his son and torched a church. The attackers also killed the village head at Dorawa, Yobe state.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms. As many as 50 students were killed in the assault that began at about 1 am in rural Gujba, Yobe state.
(AP, 9/29/13)
2013 Sep 30, Nigerian fighter jets bombed camps belonging to suspected Islamist militants in the northeast in response to a massacre of students at an agricultural college.
(Reuters, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 3, In Nigeria a chartered airplane nosedived into the ground and burst into flames meters from tanks of aviation fuel, killing 11 people shortly after taking off from Lagos. The plane was carrying mourners and the body of former Ondo state Gov. Olusegun Agagu, who died on Sep 13. The next day Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority suspended all the operations of Lagos-based Associated Airline.
(AP, 10/3/13)(AP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 5, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants lured the faithful to a mosque then gunned them down. The gunmen killed at least 7 people before being attacked by soldiers guarding Damboa village. 15 attackers were reported killed.
(AP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 9, Nigeria's military raided a bomb factory where Islamic extremists were plotting attacks on the northern city of Kano. At the same time Abubakar Sheka, the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network, threatened in a video more assaults "soon" using heavy weapons he said were seized in battles against the Nigerian military.
(AP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 9, Shell Nigeria said new leaks have forced it to close the Trans-Niger Pipeline that carries 150,000 barrels of crude daily, 10 days after the pipeline was reopened following repairs for leaks.
(AP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 10, In Nigeria armed gunmen, suspected to be cattle rustlers, killed 10 members of one family before six of the gunmen were shot dead by security forces in central Plateau state.
(AFP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 11, In central Nigeria 17 people died and 10 others were injured when the buses in which they were travelling collided with a tanker lorry.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 15, Amnesty International said hundreds of people are dying in military detention as Nigeria's security forces crack down on an Islamic uprising in the northeast. More than 950 people died in military custody in the first six months of this year. The rights group said said some people are shot outright, some starve and others suffocate to death.
(AP, 10/15/13)
2013 Oct 17, The UN General Assembly elected five new members to the Security Council. The uncontested seats included Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 21, Nigerian troops killed 37 Boko Haram Islamist militants in combined air and ground strikes on one of their northeast bases.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 21, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 50 people in the northwest in the past week.
(AFP, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 23, Pirates near the coast of Nigeria attacked a commercial ship, named C-Retriever, and kidnapped two US mariners.
(AP, 10/24/13)
2013 Oct 24, Nigeria's army reportedly killed suspected Boko Haram fighters in a raid on insurgent camps in restive Borno state. The attack continued for a 2nd day and bodies in military uniform were soon brought to the morgue in Damaturu. At least 95 militants, 23 soldiers and 8 police officers were killed.
(AP, 10/25/13)(AFP, 10/28/13)(AP, 10/29/13)
2013 Oct 31, In Nigeria dozens of Boko Haram gunmen riding on motorcycles and in pickup trucks stormed Bama town in Borno state, killing 27 people and razing some 300 homes.
(AFP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 1, Nigeria formally scrapped its inefficient and graft-ridden electricity firm and handed its assets to private investors in a bid expected to improve power supplies.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 2, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamic militants attacked a wedding convoy and killed more than 30 people including the groom.
(AP, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 2, In eastern Nigeria at least 24 people died during a stampede at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Uke, Anambra state.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 4, Nigeria's army shot dead 7 suspected Boko Haram fighters during a raid in a northeastern area where the Islamist rebels have killed dozens in the last week.
(AFP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 6, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan asked lawmakers to extend a state of emergency declared in the northeast in May for an additional six months, saying the Islamist insurgency had not yet been contained.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 7, Nigerian lawmakers approved a request by the country's president to prolong emergency rule in the restive northeast by a further six months to try to quell a bloody Islamist insurgency.
(AFP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 9, In central Nigeria gunmen attacked five farming villages in Benue State. Police the next day said Fulani cattle herdsmen killing six Tiv people and burned many houses. Local media said 36 people were killed in the mayhem. In the north shootouts killed 2 soldiers and 5 suspected Islamic extremist insurgents in Kano.
(AFP, 11/10/13)(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 10, Spanish police said they have busted a gang of 25 Nigerians who were engaged in human trafficking for sexual exploitation, Internet fraud and money laundering.
(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, The US State Department said it has designated two Nigerian militant groups, Boko Haram and Ansaru, as foreign terrorist organizations to help US and other law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute suspects associated with the two extremist networks.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 14, Nigerian forces reportedly killed 9 militants in the Damboa region of Borno state.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 15, A Nigerian court sentenced suspected Islamist Umaru Umaru Mustapha (34) to life imprisonment for the bombing of a complex housing several newspapers that killed four people in the April 2012 bombing in the northern city of Kaduna. Nigerian troops said they had killed 20 suspected members of Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in a gunfight in the country's northeast.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 21, In northeastern Nigeria militants screaming "God is great!" killed at least 12 civilians and set homes ablaze as they rampaged through Sandiya village in an area that has been attacked several times.
(AP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 26, Gunmen in central Nigeria's Plateau state killed 37 people in a pre-dawn raid. The area has been gripped by a decade-long sectarian conflict between Muslim herdsmen and Christian agriculturalists.
(AFP, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 27, In Nigeria Islamic police shouted "God is great" as an earthmover shattered 240,000 bottles of beer in a widening crackdown in the northern city of Kano. Alcohol was banned under Shariah law imposed here in 2001 but authorities had turned a blind eye to its consumption in hotels and the Sabon Gari Christian quarter.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 27, Five key governors said they have defected to Nigeria’s new coalition opposition in a blow to President Goodluck Jonathan’s governing party and its chances for re-election in 2015.
(AP, 11/27/13)
2013 Nov 28, Nigeria's government stepped in to stop a long-running strike by university lecturers, ordering an immediate end to the dispute and vowing to sack teachers who refused to cooperate. 17 people died in a an attack when gunmen in pick-up trucks torched more than 100 shops and vehicles in the Sabon Gari area of the Damboa district. 7 fishermen were ambushed and killed in another attack in Baga, a fishing community on Lake Chad.
(AFP, 11/28/13)(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 2, In northeastern Nigeria hundreds of Islamic militants in trucks and a stolen armored personnel carrier attacked an air force base on the outskirts of Maiduguri before dawn. 24 insurgents were reported killed along with 2 air force personnel. Authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew following the attack.
(AP, 12/2/13)(Reuters, 12/2/13)(SFC, 12/3/13, p.A3)
2013 Dec 3, Nigerian university lecturers vowed to press on with their five-month strike over pay and conditions, on the eve of a government ultimatum to go back to work or be sacked.
(AFP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 4, Nigerian police said that they raided a home and freed 16 pregnant girls and young women allegedly being forced to have babies to be sold.
(AFP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 7, The Italian foreign ministry said Marcello Rizzo (55) has been kidnapped in the Niger felta of Nigeria. Rizzo was said to have disappeared several days earlier.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 13, Nigerian air raids in the northeast reportedly killed scores of fighters attending the burial of fellow insurgents.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 17, Greek authorities said an oil tanker came under armed attack overnight about 35 nautical miles south of Nigeria, and the ship's Ukrainian captain and Greek first engineer have been kidnapped.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 18, Nigeria's faction-ridden ruling party lost its majority in the House of Representatives as 37 legislators defected to a new opposition coalition, in a major blow to President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 20, In Nigeria a Federal High Court sentenced Kabiru Sokoto (30), the alleged mastermind of a 2011 Christmas Day bombing of a Catholic Church, to life in prison for "facilitating the commission of terrorist acts" in northern Sokoto state between 2007 and 2012, including last year's bombing of the police headquarters in Sokoto city.
(AP, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamist sect fighters, armed with anti-aircraft guns and grenade launchers, attacked a barracks in Bama in the volatile northeast and battled soldiers for several hours.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 23, Nigeria's military reportedly killed at least 50 Islamist rebels fleeing towards Cameroon in a battle in which 15 of its own soldiers and five civilians also died.
(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 28, In Nigeria few voters straggled to polls to elect local councils in northeastern Yobe state battling Islamic militants who say democracy in corruption-riddled Nigeria is an enemy of the people. The opposition All Progressives Congress swept every seat in the Yobe state elections. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead 8 people and injured five more in an attack on a wedding party in Tashan Alade village, Borno state. Nigerian government forces reportedly killed at least 56 Islamist Boko Haram fighters in a combined air and ground offensive in the northeast Alafa forest.
(AP, 12/28/13)(AP, 12/30/13)(AFP, 12/30/13)(Reuters, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists killed four people in the Christian Kwajffa village, Borno state.
(AP, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec, In Nigeria two private letters to Pres. Jonathan were leaked. One by central bank governor Lamido Sanusi accused the state oil company of failing to account for $50 billion in oil sales. The 2nd by former president Obasanjo slammed Pres. Jonathan’s poor performance and told him not to stand for re-election.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.78)
2013 Nigeria created the 7th Division to defend Maiduguri, but it was poorly equipped, disillusioned and dwindled due to desertion and losses.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.47)
2013 Nigeria’s population stood at about 170 million.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.55)
2014 Jan 6, In Nigeria gunmen shot and killed at least 30 people, burned down 40 homes and made off with scores of cattle from a mainly Christian village in Plateau state. Muslim Fulani herdsmen were blamed.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 6, In Nigeria a dozen men were formally charged by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission with belonging to a gay club and having received funding from the United States for an apparent membership drive. Four were convicted on March 6. Seven were granted bail on March 11. A Christian suspect awaited his case heard before a secular court.
(AFP, 3/28/14)
2014 Jan 7, In Nigeria gunmen shouting "God is great" fired into a mosque in Kwankwaso village, Kano state. 3 people were killed and 12 wounded.
(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 9, Nigeria's military reportedly killed as many as 38 Boko Haram fighters early today during counter-insurgency operations in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 10, Nigeria's military confirmed that it was to release 167 people who were detained as part of counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram militants in three northeast states.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 13, A spokesman said Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013 banning gay marriage and same-sex partnerships. The law also criminalizes homosexual associations, societies and meetings.
(AFP, 1/13/14)(SFC, 1/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 14, Local and international groups fighting AIDS warned that a new Nigerian law criminalizing same-sex marriage and gay organizations will jeopardize the fight against the deadly disease. Human rights activists reported that dozens of gay men were being arrested in northern Nigeria in an apparent response to the law.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, In northeaster Nigeria a car bomb exploded at a military post in a Maiduguri, causing pandemonium with blood-spattered bystanders running away and vehicles colliding as drivers rushed to flee. 19 people were killed.
(AP, 1/14/14)(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 15, Civilians from the Nigerian town of Banki fled across the border to Cameroon to escape heavy gunfire. Cameroonian forces responded to repel Boko Haram attackers who also tried to cross over. One woman in Cameroon was killed and five other shooting victims were taken to hospitals.
(AP, 1/16/14)
2014 Jan 16, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan replaced his entire military leadership without explanation as he struggles with an Islamist insurgency and political crisis within his ruling party.
(Reuters, 1/16/14)
2014 Jan 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram suspects tracked a man to his house in Wulgo, killed him and injured another man who was hospitalized.
(AP, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 21, In Nigeria suspected Islamist extremists attacked a farming settlement in northeast Borno state, killing 10 people and razing homes.
(AP, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 22, In northern Nigeria thousands of protesters threw stones into the Shariah court in Bauchi city, urging the speedy convictions and executions of 11 men arrested for belonging to gay organizations. Suspected Islamist extremists attacked another farming settlement in northeast Borno state, killing another 8 people and razing homes.
(AP, 1/22/14)(AP, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 26, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists used explosives to attack Kawuri village in the northeast, killing 52 people and razing more than 300 homes. Boko Haram gunmen fired on worshippers during a service at the Wada Chakawa village Roman Catholic church in neighboring Adamawa state. At least 26 people were killed.
(AP, 1/27/14)(AFP, 1/28/14)(SFC, 1/28/14, pA2)
2014 Jan 31, In Nigeria gunmen ransacked the mainly Christian village of Sabon Garin Yamdula in Adamawa state, killing a pastor before vigilante youths firing guns set them to flight and soldiers later deployed. A bus set off an improved explosive device on the highway through nearby Kuthra village, Borno state, killing 7 passengers.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 6, Nigeria's secret police said that it was holding Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, leader of the outlawed Niger Delta Volunteer Force, in the latest crackdown on potential trouble before elections next year.
(AFP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 11, In northeast Nigeria gunmen from Islamist sect Boko Haram killed 51 people in an attack on Konduga, Borno state.
(Reuters, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 12, Nigeria said it would open a probe into claims of state-sponsored killings dating back to the era of military rule, raising hopes that perpetrators will finally be brought to book.
(AFP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 13, Nigeria's Senate said it is ordering a forensic audit to track down billions of missing petrodollars after the Senate Committee heard that the amount of unaccounted petrodollars has grown to $20 billion. The World Bank has estimated that at least $400 billion has gone missing from government coffers since independence.
(AP, 2/14/14)(Econ, 2/15/14, p.43)
2014 Feb 13, In Nigeria a mob armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, screaming that they were going to "cleanse" their neighborhood of gay people, dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them in Gishiri, a shantytown with mud roads near central Abuja.
(AP, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram Islamists reportedly killed as many as 63 people, mostly Christians, in Izghe village, Borno state.
(AFP, 2/16/14)(SFC, 2/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Feb 17, Niger security officials said they have arrested about 20 Boko Haram Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria who were suspected of planning attacks in Niger's south east border town of Diffa.
(Reuters, 2/17/14)
2014 Feb 19, In northeast Nigeria an attack on Bama town by suspected Islamic extremists left 115 people dead.
(AP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 23, Nigeria’s military said it has sealed its northern border with Cameroon in an effort to shut out Islamist militants using its neighbor as a launch pad for attacks.
(Reuters, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 25, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen from the Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school early today, killing 59 people, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground in Buni Yadi, Yobe state.
(AFP, 2/25/14)(Reuters, 2/26/14)
2014 Feb 26, Nigerian soldiers abandoned checkpoints and fled into the bush, leaving five northeastern villages and a town at the mercy of Islamic extremists who killed at least 33 people and firebombed a theological college in overnight attacks that lasted hours.
(AP, 2/27/14)(SFC, 2/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 27, French Pres. Francois Hollande arrived in Abuja and said France stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nigeria in its battle against Boko Haram. He arrived as a guest of honor for celebrations to mark 100 years since Nigeria's unification.
(AP, 2/27/14)
2014 Mar 1, In Nigeria twin car bombs at a bustling city marketplace in Maiduguri blasted buildings to rubble and tore apart bodies the same night an attack on the Mainok farming village razed every thatched-roof hut. At least 90 people were reported killed.
(AP, 3/2/14)
2014 Mar 2, In Nigeria 32 people were killed in an attack on the northern village of Mafa, after soldiers fled the area, outgunned by suspected Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants killed 3 policemen in Katsina. The police were killed while pursuing four gunmen on motorcycles who had attacked a checkpoint.
(SFC, 3/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 4, Nigeria said it has released fuel from its reserves to ease a crippling shortage that has caused long queues of vehicles at petrol stations across the country. Shell closed its Forcados export terminal following an under-sea pipeline leak. The major installation held capacity to handle 400,000 barrels of crude a day.
(AFP, 3/4/14)(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 6, In northern Nigeria four young men were convicted of gay sex and whipped publicly as punishment in an Islamic court in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/6/14)
2014 Mar 11, In northern Nigeria gunmen on motorbikes began attacking Marabar Kindo village in Katsina state. Fulani herders were blamed for the attacks on Hausa farmers that left over 100 dead.
(SFC, 3/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 12, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a forensic audit by international firms into some $20 billion allegedly missing from petroleum sales, following weeks of public outrage and demands by a Senate committee and the finance minister.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 13, In northern Nigeria attackers returned to Marabar Kindo village in Katsina state and gunned down another 7 villagers.
(SFC, 3/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 14, The Nigerian Navy said it has destroyed 260 illegal oil refineries and burned 100,000 tons of contraband fuel, but critics say this targeting of small-time criminals fails to confront the biggest culprits in oil thefts — the politically-connected criminal cartels who sell on the international market.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 14, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists attacked the Giwa military base in Maiduguri and freed dozens of insurgents from custody. A military counter attack left some 500 people dead.
(AFP, 3/14/14)(SFC, 3/15/14, p.A6)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.49)
2014 Mar 15, In central Nigeria some 40 assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed the villages of Angwan Gata, Chenshyi and Angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torching their homes on Kaduna state. The overnight attacks left at least 100 dead. Local residents, mostly Christians, blamed the bloodshed on Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Nigeria at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured in Abuja after thousands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a government recruitment drive at the national stadium.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AFP, 2/23/16)
2014 Mar 20, In northeast Nigeria an explosion at Ngurosoye village market near hideouts of Islamic extremists killed 29 people. Three more died of their wounds over the next few days.
(AP, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 21, Nigerian police raided a home near Lagos where eight pregnant girls, most under age 20, were staying with plans to sell each of their newborns for nearly two thousand dollars.
(AFP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 22, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants detonated a bomb late today in a crowded northeastern marketplace killing at least 20 people in Bama, Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions in Maiduguri killed 11 people, including 5 policemen who were believed to have been targeted.
(AFP, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 25, In central Nigeria police recovered 7 bodies following an attack on Agena village, Benue state, in renewed violence between herdsmen and farmers.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 28, Nigeria’s military said they have arrested two Britons and 10 local citizens on charges of trying to bribe a military officer to facilitate oil theft. Security sources have said the sheer scale of oil theft would not be possible without systematic collusion by various security agencies.
(Reuters, 3/28/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Nigeria 21 detainees, reportedly suspected Boko Haram insurgents, were killed during an attempted jailbreak after one inmate reportedly overpowered a guard and seized his weapon.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 31, A Nigerian court ruled that lawmakers who defected to the main opposition coalition in December must vacate their seats. This was a victory for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of what will be a closely fought election in February 2015.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Mar, Lagos, Nigeria, (population 21 million) disgorged about 10,000 metric tons of waste per day. Municipal government were reckoned to collect 40% of this. Only 13% of recyclable material was being salvaged.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.42)
2014 Apr 1, A Nigerian Shariah court freed two men accused of gay sex and belonging to a homosexual club, saying the prosecution failed to prove its case. The two were among 12 detained in northern Bauchi state in January.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 3, Nigerian troops reportedly killed 32 Fulani tribesmen in the Keana local government area central Nasarawa state. Defense officials denied the charge.
(AFP, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 3, Nigeria’s Nollywood was reported to knock out some 2,000 titles a year, making it the third-largest earner in the movie world, after Bollywood and Hollywood. The $250-million industry employed more than a million people.
(AP, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 5, In northern Nigeria gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen stormed a meeting in Yar Galadima, Zamfara state. The clashes between suspected Fulani cattle rustlers mounted on motorbikes and local youth vigilantes left 72 people dead.
(AFP, 4/6/14)(Reuters, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 5, In Nigeria Umar Sani (35) hosted a small wedding celebration at his home in the small Kano village of Unguwar Yansoro. Wasila Tasi'u was 13 when she married Umar Sani. Prosecutors later claimed that Tasi'u prepared food and laced it with rat poison before serving it to her guests. Four people, including Sani, died within hours of eating the meal. On June 9, 2015, a judge ordered Wasila Tasi'u to be released from juvenile detention.
(AFP, 5/20/15)(AP, 6/10/15)
2014 Apr 10, Nigeria police said child bride Wasila Tasi'u (13), forced into marriage last week, killed the groom, Umaru Sani (35), and three of his friends with a poisoned meal on April 5 at the wedding party in the village of Unguwar Yansoro village. On May 20, 2015, prosecutors withdrew murder charges against the girl.
(AP, 4/10/14)(AFP, 5/20/15)
2014 Apr 11, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed 19 people, including 6 college teachers, over the last 24 hours in three separate attacks in the troubled northeastern Borno state.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 14, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a bus station during the morning rush hour in Abuja, killing at least 72 people and wounding 164 in a bombing that marked the bloodiest terrorist attack ever in the capital. Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped more than 100 girls from a secondary school in northeastern Borno state.
(AP, 4/14/14)(AP, 4/15/14)(SFC, 4/15/14, p.A4)(AFP, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 15, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped 129 girls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School in northeastern Borno state. 20 soon escaped, but 109 remained missing. A military spokesman the next day said all but 8 of the girls were freed, but the school principal said the girls were still missing. The number of kidnapped girls was later raised to over 270.
(AFP, 4/15/14)(AP, 4/17/14)(SFC, 4/18/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 Apr 16, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants struck for a fourth time in three days, killing 18 people in Wala, Gwoza district.
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 19, Nigerian officials said another 14 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast have escaped, leaving 85 missing.
(AFP, 4/19/14)
2014 Apr 21, In Nigeria parents of kidnapped girls told the governor of Borno state that officials would not listen to them when they drew up their list of names of missing children and that the total reached 234.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 26, In central Nigeria violence erupted when a militia from the Eggon tribe attacked the Gwandara village of Egan following a dispute over farmland. At least 34 people were left dead with homes and barns torched.
(AFP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr 30, In Nigeria a civil society group reported that scores of girls and young women kidnapped from a school are being forced to marry their Islamic extremist abductors.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 May 1, In Nigeria a car bomb in Abuja killed at least 19 people with 66 wounded.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)
2014 May 1, Nigerian police said the number of kidnapped schoolgirls missing has risen to 276, up by more than 30 from a previous estimate. The actual number abducted by Islamic extremists on April 14 was more than 300. The number of girls and young women who have escaped also rose to 53.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 4, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered top security chiefs and officials to secure the safe release of 223 schoolgirls abducted three weeks ago by suspected Islamists.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls from a village late today near one of their strongholds. After leaving Warabe the gunmen stormed the Wala village, five km. (three miles) away, and abducted three more girls.
(Reuters, 5/6/14)(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 5, In Nigeria Islamic militants attacked the northeastern border town of on Gamboru Ngala. At least 50 bodies were recovered from the debris of burned shops as the market reopened on May 7. Reports of 300 people killed were soon reduced to 100.
(AP, 5/7/14)(AP, 5/8/14)(SFC, 5/8/14, p.A6)(SFC, 5/9/14, p.A3)
2014 May 7, Nigerian police offered a $300,000 reward for information leading to the rescue of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 7, In Nigeria the World Economic Forum on Africa kicked off in Abuja.
(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 9, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, British experts arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 12, Boko Haram released a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 13, In Nigeria vigilante villagers of Kalabalge, Borno state, after learning about an impending attack by militants, ambushed two trucks with gunmen. At least 10 militants were reported detained, and scores killed. At least 12 soldiers were killed in an ambush after they were commanded to travel rather than spend the night in Chibok, the village from which some 270 schoolgirls were kidnapped on April 15.
(AP, 5/14/14)(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 May 16, Suspected Boko Haram rebels from Nigeria attacked a Chinese work site near Waza in northern Cameroon and at least 10 people were believed to have been kidnapped.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.43)
2014 May 17, France and five African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria) declared war on the Boko Haram extremist Islamic sect. West African leaders met in Paris to improve cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram and other militant groups.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(SSFC, 5/18/14, p.A5)
2014 May 20, Nigeria's parliament approved a six-month extension to a state of emergency in three northeast states hit by Islamist militant violence. Two bomb blasts by Boko Haram in the city of Jos killed at least 118 people. Most victims were women and children vendors. Hours later assaults by Boko Haram in three villages killed 48 people.
(AFP, 5/20/14)(AP, 5/21/14)(SFC, 5/22/14, p.A3)
2014 May 20, UN diplomats said Nigeria has formally asked the UN Security Council al Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 5/20/14)
2014 May 22, In Nigeria many schools closed around the country to protest the abductions of schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the government's failure to rescue them and the killings of scores of teachers by the Islamic extremists. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in Borno state, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground.
(AP, 5/22/14)(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 24, In Nigeria a car bomb killed at least 3 people in Jos.
(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 25, The leader of Nigeria's Muslims called for followers of the faith to unite against Boko Haram extremists, pledging the government full support to ensure their defeat. The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, also said the government should address issues of inequality towards Muslims.
(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suspected Boko Haram attack on a military base and police station left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 5/28/14)
2014 Jun 1, In Nigeria a bombing at a football match killed at least 40 people in Mubi, Adamawa state.
(AFP, 6/2/14)
2014 Jun 3, Nigerian media said ten generals and five other senior military officers have been found guilty in courts-martial of providing arms and information to Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 3, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram militants dressed as soldiers slaughtered at least 200 civilians in three villages and the military failed to intervene even though it was warned that an attack was imminent. The killings occurred in Danjara, Agapalwa, and Antagara, Borno state.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, In Nigeria suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants kidnapped up to 30 women from nomadic settlements in the northeast, close to where the group abducted more than 200 schoolgirls. The kidnappers demanded cattle in exchange for the women.
(Reuters, 6/10/14)
2014 Jun 6, Nigeria’s military searched trucks carrying newspapers after receiving intelligence "indicating movement of materials with grave security implications across the country using the channel of newsprint related consignments."
(AP, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 7, Nigerian soldiers continued for a 2nd day to confiscate copies from newspapers including Leadership, ThisDay, Daily Trust, Sun, Pilot, Newswatch, and The Mirror.
(AP, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 8, In Nigeria Lamido Sanusi (52), a former central bank governor, was appointed as the new emir of Kano, a key religious and traditional post for the country’s Muslims.
(SFC, 6/13/14, p.A3)
2014 Jun 11, Nigerian soldiers in Adamawa state, at the heart of an Islamist revolt, shut down all venues preparing to screen live World Cup matches, saying they wanted to protect fans from militant attacks.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 15, In Nigeria at least 4 people were killed and houses torched in ethnic clashes between rival groups in eastern Taraba state. Media reported that more than 25 people were feared dead after the clash. At least 15 people were killed when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed a market in the farming community of Daku, Borno state.
(Reuters, 6/16/14)(AFP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, In Nigeria at least 14 people were killed and 26 wounded in a bomb blast as soccer fans were viewing the Brazil-Mexico match in Damaturu, Yobe state. A “terror kingpin" was reported captured among 486 suspects in a convoy of 33 buses in Enugu state.
(AP, 6/18/14)(SFC, 6/19/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 21, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants stormed Koronginim village, Borno state, killing several people and torching houses close to where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped two months ago.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamist militants kidnapped as many as 91 villagers, most of them women and young girls, in Borno state. 63 girls and women managed to escape on July 4.
(Reuters, 6/24/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jun 23, In northern Nigeria an explosion tore through Kano State School of Hygiene, killing at least 8 people. It was not immediately clear if Islamist militants were behind the blast.
(Reuters, 6/23/14)(Reuters, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 24, In Nigeria extremists overran a military checkpoint in the northeast and killed at least 21 soldiers.
(AP, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 25, In Nigeria an explosion at a mall in Abuja left 22 people dead. Soldiers shot and killed one suspect as he tried to escape, and police detained a second suspect. The government said two explosions at a fuel depot in Lagos, which left 2 people dead, were caused by gas canisters. Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for both attacks.
(AP, 6/26/14)(AFP, 7/13/14)
2014 Jun 27, In Nigeria police acting on a tip-off defused a bomb consisting of 13 cylinders of explosives next to the Jumat Praying Ground in Kano. Insurgents killed 7 soldiers in the village of Goniri, Yobe state.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)(Reuters, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria an explosion overnight in a brothel in the city of Bauchi killed 11 people and wounded 28.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)
2014 Jun 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants sprayed gunfire on worshippers in four churches in an attack on a village less than 5 km (3 miles) from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls in April. At least 30 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 6/29/14)(AFP, 6/30/14)(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 1, In Nigeria a car bomb exploded in a market in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram Islamic extremists, reducing stalls, goods and vehicles to piles of trash. At least 56 people were killed.
(AP, 7/1/14)(AFP, 7/1/14)(SFC, 7/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 1, The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project said it is suing Nigeria's president and attorney general for dropping corruption charges against Mohammad Abacha, the son of the former military dictator accused of helping to launder millions in stolen funds.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 3, In Nigeria Mubarak Bala (29), a chemical process engineer released from a mental ward to which his Muslim family committed him by force, said he is getting death threats for blaspheming against Islam and declaring himself an atheist.
(SFC, 7/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 4, Nigerian soldiers blocked roads, fired shots into the air and burned several buses in Lagos after a soldier was killed in a bus accident.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In Nigeria at least 50 alleged insurgents were killed during clashes with Nigerian soldiers as security forces repelled an attack on a military base in the northeastern state of Borno. 6 soldiers, including the commanding officer, died in the assault on the base and a nearby police station in the town of Damboa. 63 girls and women abducted by Islamic extremists in Borno state on June 22 managed to escape.
(AP, 7/6/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 12, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists bombed a major bridge on a northeastern highway, further limiting access to base camps in the Sambisa Forest where scores of kidnapped girls are believed to be held captive.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, In northeastern Nigeria at least 26 people were killed when suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants stormed Dille village, Borno state, and a government warplane opened fire to repel the attackers. Cannon fire from the government jet killed at least 6 civilians, 4 women and 2 children.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 16, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sought parliamentary approval to borrow up to $1 billion (730 million euros) in foreign loan to fight an insurgency by Boko Haram militants which has claimed thousands of lives in the past five years.
(AFP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 16, In Nigeria a German worker at a technical skills training center was taken at gunpoint from his car in Gombi town of Adamawa state as he drove to work. On Jan 21, 2015, Cameroon announced the release of Nitsch Eberhard Robert following an operation by its military and allies.
(AP, 7/17/14)(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2014 Jul 19, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 46 villagers early today and set homes ablaze in Damboa. The town had been under siege for two weeks since Boko Haram dislodged soldiers from a new tank battalion camp on its outskirts.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(AP, 7/19/14)(Reuters, 7/21/14)
2014 Jul 23, In Nigeria a bomb targeting an Imam in the center of Kaduna killed 32 of his followers. A 2nd bomb blast in Kaduna killed 50 in the crowded Kawo market. Boko Haram attackers entered the village of Garubula, in Biu district, late today and dragged victims out of their homes before shooting 12 of them.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)(AFP, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 23, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria pledged to mobilize a joint force to tackle the growing regional threat posed by Boko Haram Islamist militants operating mainly in Nigeria.
(Reuters, 7/24/14)
2014 Jul 25, Nigerian security forces say they have arrested Michael Ogun (44), a suspected internet fraudster, accused of stealing nearly $6 million from people who thought were paying fees to apply for government jobs.
(AP, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 25, Nigeria said that Ebola caused the death of a Liberian national who died in quarantine in Lagos, confirmation that the worst-ever outbreak of the virus has reached Africa's most populous country. Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian national who moved from Minnesota to Liberia to work for the country's ministry of finance, died in what health officials determined to be the first probable case of the Ebola virus in Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/25/14)(Yahoo News, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 26, In Cameroon Boko Haram, Nigeria's Islamist militant group, carried out two cross-border attacks overnight, killing at least 4 soldiers at the village of Bargaram and prompting the Cameroonian army to send reinforcements to the area.
(Reuters, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Nigeria a bomb attack on a Catholic church in the northern city of Kano killed 5 people and wounded eight. In a separate incident, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded two of the officers.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Cameroon Boko Haram militants from Nigeria kidnapped the wife of Cameroon's vice prime minister and killed at least 3 people in a cross-border attack involving more than 200 assailants in the northern town of Kolofata.
(Reuters, 7/27/14)
2014 Jul 28, In Nigeria two separate blasts by female suicide bombers killed 3 people and injured 13 in Kano.
(AFP, 7/28/14)(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Potiskum, Yobe state, killing at least 6 people and injuring several others.
(AFP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 30, In Nigeria a female suicide bomber killed 6 people at a college campus in Kano city, the fourth time Boko Haram Islamists were suspected of using a female attacker in as many days.
(AFP, 7/30/14)
2014 Aug 4, Nigerian authorities said that a doctor in Lagos who treated a Liberian victim of Ebola has contracted the virus, the second confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa's largest city.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 5, Amnesty International released footage it obtained that appeared to show Nigerian soldiers slitting the throats of Boko Haram suspects and dumping their bodies in a mass grave. Amnesty said the killings occurred shortly after Boko Haram’s attack on a detention center in Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, on March 14.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, Nigeria confirmed five new cases of Ebola in Lagos and a second death from the virus. Authorities said a nurse who treated Ebola victim Patrick Sawyer is now dead and five others are sick with one of the world's most virulent diseases, as the death toll rose to at least 932 people in four West African countries.
(AFP, 8/6/14)(AP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, In northern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked Gwoza town. The raid left dozens dead and sent others fleeing to a mountain near the Cameroonian border.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 7, The US Justice Department said it has taken control of more than $480 million looted by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his associates after a court ruling. The money stolen during Abacha's 1993-1998 de facto presidency and stashed in banks around the world will be returned to the Nigerian government.
(Reuters, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 8, Nigeria's president declared the containment of the Ebola virus a national emergency as officials confirmed two new cases of Ebola, bringing the total number of infections in Africa's most populous country to nine, including 2 deaths.
(AP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 9, In northern Nigeria hundreds of people who escaped a Boko Haram attack on Gwoza and fled to a nearby mountain said they were without any food.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 10, In Nigeria Boko Haram abducted some 100 people in Doron Baga in the Kukawa area near the border with Chad. The terrorists were stopped as they crossed the Chad border by Chadian soldiers who killed most of them and set free most of the captives.
(AP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 11, Nigeria confirmed a new case of Ebola in Lagos, bringing the total number of people in the country with the virus to 10.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 11, In Nigeria about 300 women and 500 children gathered at the gates of a military base in the Borno state capital, claiming that their spouses were ill-equipped to take on the Islamist militants. The military wives had staged a similar protest in Maiduguri on Aug 9.
(AFP, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 14, The UN health agency said the death toll from the worst outbreak of Ebola in four decades had now climbed to 1,069 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The WHO said the scale of the Ebola epidemic has been vastly underestimated and that "extraordinary measures" were needed to contain the killer disease.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 10, In Nigeria Boko Haram abducted some 100 young men and several women in Doron Baga in the Kukawa area near the border with Chad. 28 older men were reported killed. The terrorists were stopped as they crossed the Chad border by Chadian soldiers who killed most of them and set free 65 men and 22 women. More than 30 were still suspected to be held by the extremists.
(AP, 8/15/14)(Reuters, 8/15/14)(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 17, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 10 people as they stormed the villages of Durwa and Maforo in the Marte district where people had fled to escape repeated attacks by the insurgents.
(AFP, 8/18/14)
2014 Aug 19, Air France said some of its flight crews were refusing to board planes bound for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria over fears of the Ebola outbreak.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 20, In Nigeria mutineers said dozens of soldiers have refused to deploy for an offensive against Boko Haram Islamists until they receive better weapons. Islamists attacked a training academy just outside the town of Gwoza. 35 police officers deployed to the academy were missing following the Boko Haram attack.
(AFP, 8/20/14)(AFP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 20, Nigeria’s health ministry said a senior doctor who treated the country’s first Ebola patient has died, taking the death toll in Africa's most populous country to five.
(AFP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 22, Nigeria confirmed two new cases of Ebola. 213 people were under surveillance. A Nigerian a doctor died in Port Harcourt after treating a patient who had contact with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer. This brought to six the number of people who have died from the haemorrhagic fever in Nigeria. 15 people have been confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 8/22/14)(AP, 8/26/14)(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 24, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, said in a video that he has created an Islamic caliphate in Gwoza, Borno state, seized by the insurgents earlier this month.
(AFP, 8/24/14)
2014 Aug 24, Nigeria’s striking public sector doctors said they would suspend a nearly two-month strike to help combat the Ebola outbreak.
(AFP, 8/24/14)
2014 Aug 25, In northeast Nigeria a Boko Haram attack on a border town forced thousands of people to flee to Cameroon, in a fresh assault indicating the militants' growing ability to strike at will. Some 480 Nigerian soldiers also fled across the border, where they gave up their weapons to Cameroonian authorities before returning to Nigeria.
(AFP, 8/25/14)(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 27, Cameroon's army attacked the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, shelling one of their camps across the border and reportedly killing "many" fighters.
(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 27, In central Nigeria clashes broke out in Nasawrawa state, a week after some Eggon villagers accused Fulanis of stealing cattle. Fighting between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers from the Eggon ethnic group left at least 60 people dead, mostly from machete cuts.
(Reuters, 8/28/14)
2014 Sep 1, Nigeria confirmed a third case of Ebola disease in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, bringing the country's total confirmed infections to 16 with some 200 under surveillance.
(Reuters, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 1, In northeastern Nigeria Islamists launched an attack on the town of Bama, 70 km (45 miles) from Maiduguri. Several Nigerian troops were killed at the Bama armory by a fighter jet targeting the insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Nigeria announced that a seventh person had died from Ebola and another person was confirmed as having the virus.
(AFP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 6, Nigerian soldiers fought off rebels advancing on Maiduguri, Borno state, headquarters of the military campaign against the insurgency and the birthplace of Boko Haram. The nearby towns of Duhu, Shuwa, Kirshinga and others fell in assaults over the last 24 hours. Army soldiers fled when hundreds of insurgents in stolen military armored personnel carriers, trucks and motorcycles attacked Gulak, an administrative headquarters of Adamawa state.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 8, A Nigerian official said the military has recaptured the town of Bama in northeast Borno state from Boko Haram and blocked the Islamist militants' advance towards the state capital Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 9/8/14)
2014 Sep 11, In Nigeria two pilots and an Alpha jet went missing after it left the northeastern town of Yola on a bombing mission against Boko Haram. On Oct 3 a new Boko Haram video showed the beheading of a man identified as the pilot of the missing Nigerian Air Force jet and burnt out parts of a plane.
(AP, 10/3/14)
2014 Sep 12, Nigerian soldiers reportedly killed some 200 militants in Konduga town. The dead included a Boko Haram commander named Amir. Insurgents attacked a market outside Maiduguri. At least 4 people were killed.
(AFP, 9/13/14)(SSFC, 9/14/14, p.A5)
2014 Sep 12, In Nigeria a multistory building serving as a shopping mall and guesthouse at the sprawling campus of televangelist T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations, collapsed on the outskirts of Lagos. Four days later one woman was saved from the rubble. The final death toll was 115 people killed. 74 of the dead were from South Africa.
(AFP, 9/14/14)(AP, 9/16/14)(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Sep 16, In Nigeria 12 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny after shots were fired at their commanding officer in the restive northeast city of Maiduguri on May 14.
(AFP, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep 17, In Nigeria gunmen stormed a government teacher training college in the northern city of Kano, firing repeatedly on fleeing students and setting off an explosion. At least 15 students were killed and 34 others wounded when police fought a battle with suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers in Kano.
(Reuters, 9/17/14)(AFP, 9/17/14)(SFC, 9/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 18, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen stormed a crowded market in northeastern Borno state, killing several people and carting away food.
(AFP, 9/20/14)
2014 Sep 18, Amnesty Int’l. charged Nigeria’s police and military with the routine torture of men, women and children. Detainees have been reportedly denied access to family and lawyers and have suffered beatings, shootings, rape, electric shocks as well as teeth and nails pulled by pliers.
(SFC, 9/19/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 19, A Nigerian watchdog group demanded an international investigation into the Nigerian government for flying $9.3 million in cash to South Africa to buy weapons. South African customs officials last week seized the money in $100 bills in three suitcases that arrived on a private jet from Nigeria at Johannesburg's Lanseria airport. The plane was leased by Ayo Oritsejafor, leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria and a close friend of Pres. Jonathan.
(AP, 9/19/14)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.58)
2014 Sep 19, In Nigeria Islamsit Boko Haram fighters stormed the northeastern town of Mainok, sparking a gun battle that killed at least 36 people and continued into the next day.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Nigeria a woman (20), one of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted last April by Islamist Boko Haram rebels in Chibok, was reportedly "dropped off by suspected Boko Haram militants" at Mubi in Adamawa state.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Oct 13, In northern Nigeria 9 teenage girls died and three were listed missing after a passenger boat capsized on a river in Kano state.
(AFP, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 15, Nigeria's former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari declared he would run for president, criticizing President Goodluck Jonathan's administration for corruption and failing to tackle the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
(Reuters, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 17, Nigeria's official news agency said the government and Boko Haram Islamic extremists have agreed to an immediate cease-fire. Suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked the village of Abadam late at night, killing at least one person and ransacking homes.
(AP, 10/17/14)(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram attacked the village of Dzur leaving at least 8 people dead. Boko Haram insurgents abducted 80 girls and women in Adamawa state. Older women in the group were released the following day. The extremists kept about 40 younger women and girls.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 20, Nigeria was declared free of Ebola by the World Health Organization.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 22, In northern Nigeria a bomb blast at a bus station in an area previously targeted by Boko Haram killed 5 people in Azare, Bauchi state.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, A multinational force including troops from Nigeria and Niger wrested back control of a town held by Boko Haram on the western shores of Lake Chad. More than 20 insurgents were reported killed in fierce fighting at Abadam.
(AP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 24, In southwest Nigeria gunmen killed one German national and abducted another after opening fire on two vehicles near the town of Sagamu, Ogun state. The man who died was a subcontractor, while the hostage was a staff member of the Julius Berger construction firm.
(AFP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 24, In Nigeria gunmen on a speedboat in the oil-producing south killed 4 policemen and kidnapped six Nigerian employees of the Agip energy firm in the Nembe Creek area of Bayelsa state.
(AFP, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed several people in a village in Kukawa, Borno state. Police initially intercepted and engaged the insurgents on the outskirts of the town but were forced to retreat because of the gunmen's superior firepower.
(AFP, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Nigeria a car bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop in the northeast city of Gombe. At least 10 people were killed and several wounded near the end of the morning rush hour. Vigilantes in the Borno town of Biu said they and troops had decapitated 41 Boko Haram fighters who were planning a raid in the village of Sabon Gari.
(AP, 10/31/14)(AFP, 11/6/14)
2014 Oct 31, In a new video Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremists, said that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off. He also denied there is a cease-fire with the Nigerian government.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 3, In northeast Nigeria a suicide bomber killed himself and 32 people in a procession of Shi'ite Muslims marking the ritual of Ashoura in Potiskum, Yobe state. In central Kogi state gunmen using explosives blew their way into a prison overnight in the city of Lokoja, killing one person and freeing 145 inmates.
(Reuters, 11/3/14)(SFC, 11/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters stole dynamite and pick-up trucks from a French-owned cement works after robbing a bank, in a raid to fund and pursue their campaign of violence in the northeast.
(AFP, 11/5/14)
2014 Nov 5, Nigerian troops rounded up 17 people, including an imam, from the Dogo Tebo area of Potiskum in Yobe state as they left a mosque after morning prayers. The bodies of all but the imam were found hours later in the morgue at the Potiskum General Hospital.
(AFP, 11/6/14)
2014 Nov 7, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb concealed in a black plastic bag killed at least 7 people outside a commercial bank in Bauchi state. The governor of Adamawa state said Boko Haram has taken over at least five municipalities and called for more troops to halt further Islamist gains.
(AP, 11/7/14)(AFP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 10, In Nigeria a suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern town of Potiskum.
(Reuters, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 12, In Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a teacher training college in Kontagora, killing at least one other person in the second such attack on an educational institution this week.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 13, In Nigeria 3 servicemen were killed in a military helicopter crash in the restive northeast. The aircraft involved was a ground attack helicopter on an armed patrol in Adamawa state. Islamic extremists seized Chibok, forcing thousands of residents to flee from the northeast town from which the insurgents kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in April.
(AFP, 11/14/14)(AP, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 14, Nigerian officials said about 200 vigilantes and hunters armed with home-made guns, spears, clubs, bows and arrows, and machetes had taken back Mubi, Adamawa state, from Boko Haram rebels. Officials said the retreating fighters had invaded Hong, 50 km (30 miles) south on the way towards Yola, and Gombi, to the northwest of Mubi.
(AFP, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 15, The Nigerian army regained control of Chibok, the northeastern town where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Islamic extremists more than six months ago.
(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants reportedly killed about 45 people in the Azaya Kura village in Borno state as they carted away food and livestock.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 20, Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark suspended legislative proceedings after police fired tear gas to prevent the House of Representatives from convening. The speaker of the House recently changed allegiance from the president's party to the main opposition party. Police then withdrew his security clearance, triggering today’s standoff.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 22, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram insurgents entered Doron Baga, Borno state, and fired from motorcycles killing some 60 people.
(Reuters, 11/23/14)(SFC, 11/24/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 24, In Nigeria insurgents attacked Damassak town. Some 16,000 people fled Damassak in Niger, to a makeshift emergency camp at Gagamari village.
(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Nov 25, In Nigeria 2 teenage female suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 44 people.
(AP, 11/25/14)(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 26, The Central Bank of Nigeria said it has devalued the naira, setting the new official exchange rate at 168 to the dollar from its previous rate of 155 due to falling oil prices.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, In northeast Nigeria a roadside bomb tore through a bus station near a busy junction, killing 40 people including five soldiers at the Marabi-Mubi junction.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, In Nigeria at least 102 people were killed and over 150 wounded in a series of bomb blasts at the central mosque in Kano.
(AP, 11/28/14)(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Dec 1, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists struck two state capitals, with twin blasts at a crowded market and the destruction of a police base leaving at least 77 people dead. The suspected Boko Haram insurgent attack on the Yobe state capital killed at least 39 people, including 33 policemen and 6 soldiers. 20 militants also died in their raid on Damaturu. A separate bomb attack in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/1/14)(Reuters, 12/2/14)(AP, 12/2/14)
2014 Dec 6, In central Nigeria gunmen freed over 200 prisoners in Tunga, Niger state.
(SFC, 12/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 10, In Nigeria a blast ripped through a busy textile market in the north city of Kano. 4 people were killed when two female suicide bombers attacked the Kantin Kwari textile market.
(AFP, 12/10/14)(Reuters, 12/10/14)
2014 Dec 11, In central Nigeria twin explosions killed about 120 people in downtown Jos. Extremists attacked Gajigana, a border town between Niger and Nigeria, and 11 people were killed. Major buildings were burned down but Boko Haram did not succeed in capturing the town.
(SFC, 12/12/14, p.A9)(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 14, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists killed 35 people and kidnapped at least 185 in an attack on Gumburi, 20 km from Chibok, the town where nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped earlier this year.
(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 17, Cameroon army troops reportedly killed 116 Nigerian fighters from the Islamist Boko Haram group at its northern army base in Amchide on the border with Nigeria.
(AFP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 18, In northeast Nigeria fleeing villagers reported that extremists were rounding up elderly people and killing them in two schools in Gwoza.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Nigeria a new video from the home-grown Boko Haram extremists showed gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in a dorm, and a leader saying they are being killed because they are "infidels" or non-believers.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 21, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen stormed Geidam, Yobe state, setting fire to several buildings and forcing residents to flee to the bush.
(AFP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 21, In Nigeria pirates hijacked a military gunboat and 3 soldiers were missing after the ambush in the southern oil-rich state of Bayelsa.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 22, In northeastern Nigeria a bombing at a bus station killed at least 20 people at the Dukku motor park on the outskirts of Gombe city. An explosion at the main market in Bauchi city killed 7 people and injured 25 others.
(AFP, 12/22/14)(AFP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 28, In northern Cameroon some 1,000 suspected Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria attacked five towns over the weekend and briefly occupied a military camp today before being removed by the air force.
(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec 29, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamist militants opened fire in a remote town, killing at least 15 people. The attack targeted Kautikari, near the Cameroon border.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)
2014 Dec 29, Cameroon's government launched its first ever air strikes against Nigerian Islamic extremists to dislodge about 1,000 fighters who had seized a Cameroonian military base.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 31, In northeastern Nigeria a woman suicide bomber was killed as she tried to enter a military barracks in Bolari. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped 40 boys and young men in a remote village in northeastern Borno state.
(AFP, 12/31/14)(AP, 1/2/15)
2014 Dec, A Nigerian court banned a new autobiography of former Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo on the grounds of libel. The book flailed current Pres. Goodluck Jonathan and his entourage.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.48)
2014 In Nigeria Ipob was founded by Nnamdi Kanu. It sought independence for Igbo-speaking parts of south-eastern Nigeria. In 2017 it was proscribed as a terrorist group.
(BBC, 11/3/20)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 2, Nigerian Islamist militants overran an army base in the remote northeastern town of Baga. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed, while others drowned in Lake Chad. The death toll was later said to have killed as many as 2,000 civilians. Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A4)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A4)(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Jan 7, It was announced that Royal Dutch Shell will pay more than $80 million to people in Bodo, a Nigerian fishing community "devastated" by two serious oil spills in 2008. The clean-up could take years.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 10, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria, including one at a crowded market in Maiduguri, by a girl suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old. 19 people were killed.
(AFP, 1/10/15) (Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighters from the Islamist group Boko Haram launched an attack on a military base in the northwest Cameroonian city of Kolofata.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cameroonian soldiers killed at least 143 Boko Haram fighters when the Islamist militant group attacked a military base along the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The UN said that the latest wave of Boko Haram's "vicious, ruthless attacks" in northeastern Nigeria has sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by Islamist rebels on the northeastern town of Biu, killing several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Danish government said it is allocating 12.5 million kroner ($2 million) to help the victims of the Boko Haram extremist group in Nigeria.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 16, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 11 near a marketplace in Gombe.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 17, Chad sent troops, about 400 military vehicles including tanks and armored vehicles, and several attack helicopters to Cameroon and Nigeria to aid in the fight against the Islamist militants. It was reported that Cameroon, Chad and Niger have launched a regional bid to combat the Boko Haram Islamists. In Chad tens of thousands marched in the capital to show support for the fight against Boko Haram chanting in French and Arabic: "Kick the forces of evil out of our territory."
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed 4 people and wounded dozens in an attack on a bus station in Potiskum.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northern Cameroon Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria kidnapped at least 60 people during an attack on Mabass village. A number of people were killed. Some of the hostages escaped and 30 were freed following a gun fight between Boko Haram and the Cameroon military.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 21, Nigeria confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters killed 15 people in Kambari village and set the hamlet to blaze. Kambari is near Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on Borno state capital Maiduguri. The assault killed over 200 combatants, mostly insurgents. In Adamawa state insurgents continued scorched-earth attacks on six villages.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 26, Nigerian troops backed by air strikes fought to recapture the northeastern town of Monguno from Boko Haram insurgents who had seized it a day earlier. At least 15 soldiers were killed along with more than over 25 civilians.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 29, Chad sent a warplane dropping bombs and ground troops to drive Islamic extremists from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists. Boko Haram fighters made a second attack in a week on Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, African Union leaders opened a two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The 54-member bloc called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 31, Chadian aircraft bombed the Nigerian town of Gambaru in a raid targeting extremist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Chadian aircraft struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gambaru for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Nigeria’s military repelled a Boko Haram assault on Maiduguri. Two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint. A suicide bomb attack targeting a political meeting killed 7 people in Potiskum city.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 2, In northeastern Nigerian a car bomb went off near a stadium in Gombe, a few minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left a party rally there. A female suicide bomber was the only fatality.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 3, Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern Nigerian towns of Gambaru and Ngala in a bid to break the Islamist insurgents' grip on the town bordering Cameroon. More than 200 extremists and 9 Chadian troops were reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 4, Cameroon's army killed at least 50 Boko Haram insurgents and lost six of its own soldiers in clashes with the Nigerian Islamist group in the border town of Fotokol. Boko Haram fighters went on a rampage in Fotokol, massacring civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 6, Forces from Chad and Niger repelled Islamic extremists from Nigeria as they attacked Bosso town inside Niger, marking the second foreign country attacked by Boko Haram this week. 109 Boko Haram fighters were killed by soldiers responding to attacks in fighting in the towns of Bosso and Diffa near the border with Nigeria. 4 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.
(AP, 2/6/15)(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Nigeria’s election body chairman Attahiru Jega announced that the presidential and parliamentary polls would be postponed from February 14 to March 28, while gubernatorial and state assembly elections would be held on April 11.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigerian authorities came in for heavy criticism over the decision to postpone national elections in the face of relentless Boko Haram violence.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted about 30 people including eight Cameroonian girls and killed 7 hostages in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Niger Boko Haram fighters waged a new attack on Diffa, a southeastern border town, where a blast killed at least 5 people and injured at least 10. Aid workers said the assailants had come from Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/8/15)(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, In northeast Nigeria scores of militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a police station in the town of Kanamma in Yobe state. Several police officers were reported killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 9, Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighboring Niger overnight.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 11, Chadian soldiers killed 13 fighters from Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a battle in the Nigerian town of Gambaru. One Chadian soldier was reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Niger two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the frontier town of Diffa, following days of cross-border attacks by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 12, In northeastern Nigeria at least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on Akida and Mbuta villages near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Nigeria’s human rights commission (NHRC) said political violence in the 50-day run-up to elections has killed 58 people, with rising "hate speech" between rival camps threatening to spark further unrest.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Suspected Boko Haram militants staged their first attack in Chad, hitting the third country outside Nigeria base in recent days.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 14, Nigeria's military repelled an attack on the northeastern town of Gombe by Boko Haram Islamic extremists who, as they retreated, warned residents not to participate in the country's elections in March.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Niger said it has arrested several dozen people suspected of having links to Nigeria's Boko Haram, since the start of cross-border attacks by the Islamist group on Feb 6.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded bus station in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing 13 people and wounding 30.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigeria said its troops backed by air strikes have recaptured the northeastern towns of Monguno and Marte from Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country, wounding several soldiers.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Potiskum, killing two people and wounding 12. Near the town of Biu 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack by 3 men on a motorized tricycle at a checkpoint.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, The United States military said it will provide communications equipment and intelligence to help African nations in the fight against Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 18, Nigeria claimed to have killed more than 300 Boko Haram militants in a counter-offensive, as Chad pushed into rebel-held areas. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the Tamsu-Shehuri village on where they killed more than 12 people.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, Nigerian warplanes bombarded training camps and caches of weapons and vehicles belonging to the Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeasterly Sambisa forest. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen hit the village of Ladi-Shehuri, where they killed and burned a man in his car. Soldiers from Konduga responded and killed about a dozen of the attackers.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants fleeing an army offensive killed at least 30 people in attacks near the village of Chibok, close to where the rebels abducted more than 200 schoolgirls last year. The rebels were fleeing a land and air offensive to clear them out of the Sambisa forest when they raided the smaller villages of Gatamarwa, Makalama and Layhawul.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, Nigerian forces backed by air strikes seized the northeastern border town of Baga from Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria a girl suicide bomber, who appeared no more than 10 years old, blew herself up and killed 4 others in an attack on a market in Potiskum.
(AFP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In central Nigeria masked gunmen kidnapped Rev. Phyllis Sortor, an American woman doing missionary work for the Free Methodist Church, with ransom the suspected motive for the attack. Sorter was released on March 6.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked bus stations outside Potiskum and in Kano, killing at least 34 people.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Biu, while a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosives. At least 18 people, including 3 women, were reported killed. Two blasts targeting a bus park in the central city of Jos killed at least 17 people.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria a crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze. A second suspect, also a teenage girl, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 2, Nigerian troops repelled an attack by Boko Haram on Konduga, killing more than 70 insurgents. In the northeast Chadian forces regained control of Dikwa, a town occupied by the militants for weeks, but not before the defeated Islamic extremists killed hundreds of civilians.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Nigeria at least 68 men and boys were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants at dawn in Njaba, a remote village of northeast Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, The African Union endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against Boko Haram, believed to have not more than 6,000 fighters.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 7, Nigeria-based Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, after repeated indications that it was seeking a formal tie-up and a series of Nigerian military successes against the rebels.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Nigeria three bombings in Maiduguri killed 58 people and wounded 139 others.
(AFP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 8, The armies of Chad and Niger launched a major ground and air strike against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 10 Chadian soldiers died in fighting to free two towns in northern Nigeria previously held by Boko Haram. A Niger military source said about 300 Boko Haram militants had been killed. About 30 Nigerien and Chadian soldiers were wounded in clashes over Malam Fatouri and Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Nigeria a suspected female suicide bomber killed at least 34 people at a crowded market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 11, Nigeria said that 36 towns had been retaken from Boko Haram since the start of a four-nation military offensive, voicing hope that the operation could lead to the group's total defeat.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said that a pledge by Nigeria-based Boko Haram has been accepted and that now “no one can stand in its path." The agreement mirrors the steps taken by other Sunni jihadist groups in Libya and Egypt.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Nigeria's military said that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In central Nigeria gunmen abducted three Chinese workers after a shootout that left a police officer dead at a quarry outside Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state. The workers were freed the next day through a joint operation by the police and other security agents.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, Cameroonian troops began attacking Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists near the Nigerian village of Ndaba, killing several of the militants over the next 24 hours and destroying some of their equipment.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 14, Nigerian soldiers detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in Maiduguri. Two men suspected of planting the explosives were arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Troops from Chad and Niger seized Damasak in northeastern Nigeria in the latest defeat for the militants. Soldiers from Niger and Chad soon discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many of them beheaded, dumped near a bridge outside Damasak. It was later reported that Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 400 women and children from Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 18, In northeast Nigeria Islamists returned to the border town of Gamboru, killing 8 people. 3 more were killed there the next day.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Nigeria multiple witnesses said dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their "husbands" before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the killing of women began 10 days before Bama was liberated.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northeast Nigeria Chadian troops returned to the border town of Gamboru, after Boko Haram took advantage of a lack of military presence to kill 11 people on March 18-19.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, Nigeria's military announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen beheaded 23 people and set fire to homes in Buratai, on the eve of general elections. Elsewhere in the restive northeast, suspected Islamist militants killed at least 7 people in separate attacks in the Gombe state.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, Nigeria held elections. Polling in the country's presidential and parliamentary election was suspended in some places because of glitches with new voter ID card readers. Boko Haram extremists killed at least 41 people, including a legislator, and scared hundreds of people from polling stations in three northeastern states. Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari (72) was declared the winner on March 31.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.12)
2015 Mar 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked polling stations and destroyed election material in in Kirfi and Alkaleri towns.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Nigeria some 2,000 women protesting against the conduct of elections in Rivers state were teargassed as they tried to register their complaints with electoral officials.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria 8 suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed during fighting in Gombe and Bauchi states.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Niger militants tried to attack the town of Bosso, just over the border with Nigeria. Troops from Niger and Chad intervened, killing 47 militants and destroying several of their vehicles and mortars.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Nigeria the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, Nigerian election winner Muhammadu Buhari congratulated outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for peacefully relinquishing power.
(Reuters, 4/1/15)
2015 Apr 1, In northeastern Nigeria 9 Chadian soldiers were killed and 16 wounded after being ambushed by Boko Haram fighters between Malam Fatori and the border town of Bosso in Niger.
(AFP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 1, Amnesty Int’l. released its latest annual report on the death penalty. It said Egypt and Nigeria had accounted for over 1,000 of the 2,466 death sentences in 55 countries reported last year.
(SFC, 4/3/15, p.A3)( http://tinyurl.com/k4kowoz)
2015 Apr 2, In northeastern Nigeria an explosion near the Bauchi motor park, a bus station in Gombe, left 10 people dead.
(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Apr 3, In Nigeria gunmen stormed two communities in the southern oil state of Rivers, killing at least 9 people and injuring two others. Militants of the Urhobo minority ethnic group blew up a natural gas pipeline in Delta state.
(AFP, 4/4/15)(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, In Nigeria at least four people were killed when suspected Boko Haram fighters raided a local market in a village near the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on villagers and torched a number of buildings in a new attack in Kwajaffa, Borno state.
(AFP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 9, The UN launched an appeal for $174 million to give "life-saving aid" to the almost 200,000 Nigerians who have fled the country due to attacks by Boko Haram.
(AFP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 15, In Nigeria election results posted late today identified Buruji Kashamu (56) as a senator-elect in southwest Ogun state. In 1988 he was indicted in America for allegedly smuggling heroin, in a court case that was the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black." He returned home in 2003 from Britain despite a US extradition order to become a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan's party. Kashamu has said Chicago prosecutors really want the dead brother he closely resembles.
(AP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 15, In Nigeria a mysterious disease broke out in Ode-Irele town and soon left 18 people dead. The disease, whose symptoms include headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, killed the victims within 24 hours of their falling ill. On April 20 Nigerian health authorities said that ethanol poisoning from a local gin may have been responsible for the sudden deaths. By April 27 the toll reached 23.
(AFP, 4/18/15)(AFP, 4/20/15)(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 17, Nigeria air traffic controllers suspended a strike that had grounded all domestic flights, but warned that a more damaging work stoppage would be launched next week if their demands were not met.
(AFP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 18, In Nigeria at least 23 villagers died in clashes over the last 24 hours between two mainly fishing and farming communities in central Nigeria's Benue state.
(AFP, 4/19/15)
2015 Apr 23, In Nigeria a civilian vigilante said Boko Haram fighters have amassed in the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold. Government soldiers were forced to retreat because of the extensive use of landmines in the area, one of which exploded killing a soldier and 3 vigilantes. Over 2,000 Boko Haram fighters appeared from various directions and engaged the soldiers in Kirenowa town and adjoining communities in Marte, Borno state. They fought with soldiers over the night and the fighting continued into the next day, forcing hundreds of soldiers to flee.
(AFP, 4/23/15)(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 24, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters disguised as soldiers intercepted a group of people trying to return to their homes to collect abandoned food supplies in Bultaram village, Yobe state. 21 men were shot dead.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 25, In northeaster Nigeria over a hundred victims were buried in 20 mass graves after hundreds of people were found dead in the Damasak.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen were reported to have shot dead 21 people in who were trying to return home to recover abandoned food supplies at Bultaram village, Yobe state.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 28, Nigeria’s military carried out a mass rescue of 200 girls and 93 women from the Sambisa Forest stronghold of Boko Haram. 160 civilians were also rescued. An additional 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the Sambisa Forest bringing the total to 677 females. Several women were crushed mistakenly by a military armored car. 3 women were killed by a landmine as they walked to freedom.
(AP, 4/29/15)(AFP, 4/30/15)(AP, 5/2/15)(SFC, 5/4/15, p.A2)
2015 May 2, Nigerian troops over the last 24 hours raided communities suspected of harboring militiamen in central Plateau state. Local media said at least 30 people died when soldiers stormed into Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata areas.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 4, Niger said it was planning a military operation to remove Boko Haram extremists. Soldiers arrived at the fishing village of Lelewa on Lake Chad and ordered some 3,000 Nigerian fisherman and refugees to return to Nigeria. A dozen people were later reported to have died on the 3-day trek.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A4)
2015 May 6, Nigerian troops rescued 25 more children and women from Boko Haram early today as the soldiers destroyed seven more of the extremists' camps in the northeastern Sambisa Forest stronghold.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 8, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked a business school with gunfire and two bomb blasts before being overcome by security forces in Potiskum.
(AP, 5/8/15)
2015 May 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram fighters launched an attack on Maiduguri, but were repelled by government troops after intense clashes. At least 12 people were killed. Boko Haram fighters raided Bale and killed 25 people. At least 30 people were killed by Boko Haram in Kayamla village and surrounding settlements.
(AFP, 5/14/15)(Reuters, 5/15/15)(AFP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram insurgents launched a quick strike on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, In northeastern Nigeria a girl aged about 12 carried out a suicide attack at a bus station, killing 7 people and injuring 31 in Damaturu. The deputy governor in neighboring Borno state said Marte, located on a strategic trading route between Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon and Chad, had fallen to Islamists.
(AFP, 5/16/15)
2015 May 17, Nigeria's military claimed it had overrun 10 Boko Haram camps in the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 20, Nigeria’s army said 579 officers and troops faced charges for alleged offenses related to the campaign against Boko Haram.
(SFC, 5/21/15, p.A2)
2015 May 22, Nigeria's military reportedly killed of scores of Boko Haram insurgents and rescued 20 more hostages during an operation in the Sambisa forest. Boko Haram fighters hacked to death 10 people in the remote Pambula-Kwamda village.
(AFP, 5/23/15)(AFP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 23, Nigerian airlines grounded flights and radio stations were silenced as a months-long fuel shortage worsened, aggravated by a strike disrupting fuel deliveries in Africa's biggest oil producer.
(AP, 5/23/15)
2015 May 25, Nigeria’s defense spokesman Chris Olukolade said troops had thwarted an attack on Mafa, 50 km (30 miles) east of Maiduguri. About 30 Boko Haram fighters were reported killed and "many others" wounded.
(AFP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 25, Nigerian fuel marketers agreed to resume distribution after weeks of disruption led to chronic fuel shortages, bringing phone companies, banks and airlines to a standstill days before the inauguration of the country's new president.
(Reuters, 5/25/15)
2015 May 28, Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Andreu said he has agreed to hear a lawsuit against Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram and its leader Abubakar Shekau for crimes against humanity and terrorism.
(AFP, 5/28/15)
2015 May 29, Nigeria held inauguration ceremonies for President Muhammadu Buhari (72). He pledged to take personal charge of the fight against Boko Haram Islamic extremists and said he will root out human rights violations by the military.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, In northeastern Nigeria rocket-propelled grenades exploded into several home, killing at least 29 people in Maiduguri before dawn as Boko Haram unleashed a new kind of violence in the birthplace of the extremist group.
(AP, 5/30/15)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 May 31, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off in the Gamboru market in Maiduguri, killing one person. A runaway oil tanker truck exploded late today in a crowded bus station in southern Anambra state, igniting 12 buses and burning 69 people to death.
(AP, 5/31/15) (AP, 6/1/15)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency said it has arrested six senior officials from the country's central bank and 16 from commercial banks over alleged currency fraud. The former governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako (72), turned himself in for questioning at the country's anti-graft agency following claims of money laundering.
(AFP, 6/1/15)(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 1, In southeast Nigeria armed robbers shot and hacked to death Denis Dagnan (62) a French tourist camping with his wife in the bush. His wife Lavaud Liana Dagnan (53) was unharmed.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 2, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram attacked Maiduguri with deafening explosions from the west and a suicide bombing near the center killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 6/2/15)(AFP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Nigeria an explosion on the Baga Road in Maiduguri killed 18 people.
(AFP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 3, Amnesty International said more than 8,000 people have died while being held prisoner by Nigeria's armed forces in the campaign against Islamist group Boko Haram, many of them deliberately killed. Amnesty Int’l. issued a 133-page report "Stars on their Shoulders. Blood on their Hands: War crimes Committed by the Nigerian Military" and named six serving or retired army officers whom it said should be probed to establish whether they were responsible for murder, torture and disappearances.
(Reuters, 6/3/15)(AP, 6/15/17)
2015 Jun 4, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber struck in the main market in the city of Yola, killing 35 people. 10 more people died by the next day bringing the death toll to 45. A suicide bomber exploded a car at a checkpoint outside a military barracks and killed 8 soldiers in Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 6/5/15)(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb blast hit a cattle market in Borno state late today, with as many as 16 people dead.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, In Nigeria Bukola Saraki, a former governor of Kwara state, was elected as head of the Senate and the third most powerful figure in the country. 3 women wearing explosive vests blew up near Maiduguri in an apparent failed suicide bombing attack on the city.
(AP, 6/9/15)(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 11, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 37 people in overnight raids on five villages around Maiduguri, Borno state.
(Reuters, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 12, Nigerian health officials said dozens of people were dying of poisoning from possibly adulterated home-brewed alcohol, days after they banned ogogoro (a home-made gin). About 70 people died since May 31 in Rivers State.
(AP, 6/12/15)(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 15, In Nigeria two suspected Boko Haram bomb attacks in the northeastern city of Potiskum killed 10 people.
(Reuters, 6/15/15)
2015 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria at least 13 people were killed and 53 others injured when an explosive device detonated late today. The device was picked up by one vigilante as they traveled back to the town of Monguno, Borno state, from a military operation against Islamists in Marte.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 17, Chad warplanes bombed Boko Haram positions in neighboring Nigeria to avenge twin suicide bombings in the capital this week blamed on the jihadists. The government also announced it was banning the burqa nationwide in a security clampdown.
(AFP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 22, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari slammed the state of the country's finances, claiming his predecessor had left Africa's biggest economy deep in debt and the treasury "virtually empty". A girl thought to be aged about 17 killed at least 20 at a bus station near a fish market in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/23/15)(AFP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 23, In northeastern Nigeria about 40 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants who torched houses and shot people as they fled late last night and into today in Debiro Biu and Debiro Hawul villages in Borno state. A girl thought to be aged just 12 detonated explosives she was carrying at a market in Wagir, Yobe state, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.
(Reuters, 6/24/15)(AFP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 29, In Nigeria two suicide bombers blew themselves up prematurely in a village outside Maiduguri just an hour before the arrival of Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo.
(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jun 30, In Nigeria extremists invaded the village of Musaram and killed 48 men.
(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 1, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants gunned down 97 people including some women and children in Kukawa, Borno state.
(AFP, 7/3/15)(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 2, In Nigeria 6 children drowned in Lagos when the boat ferrying them to school capsized after colliding with a bigger vessel on the city's lagoon.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 2, In northeastern Nigeria a young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she blew herself up in a mosque in a Borno village.
(AFP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 3, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram militants killed 11 men in Miringa village, dragging them from their homes and shooting them for escaping forced conscription by their group. At Malari village, just outside Maiduguri, an explosion from a teenage girl at the market killed at least 10 people. Minutes later a woman in a taxi blew up at a military checkpoint and killed a soldier and two passengers.
(AFP, 7/3/15)(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 5, In Nigeria more than 60 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 7/6/15)(SFC, 7/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 6, In Nigeria a young girl thought to be aged just 13 blew herself up near a major mosque in the city of Kano as worshippers gathered for prayers but caused no deaths or injuries.
(AFP, 7/6/15)
2015 Jul 7, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari approved a bailout of more than $2 billion for states to resolve a crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid for months. Eighteen of Nigeria’s 35 states had unpaid workers.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 7, In northern Nigeria at least 25 people were killed when a bomb blast ripped through a packed government office in Zaria.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 9, Nigeria said its troops have arrested the mastermind of bombings in the central cities of Jos and Zaria this week that killed at least 69 people.
(Reuters, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Nigeria an accidental explosion on an oil pipeline operated by Italian energy giant Eni left 12 people dead and three injured in the southern Niger delta region.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 10, Nigeria's head of state's spokesman Garba Shehu said Pres. Muhammadu Buhari will take only half of the salary paid to former head of state Goodluck Jonathan. In the northeast at least 10 people were killed when a large commando of Boko Haram Islamic extremists attacked Ngamdu village, Borno state, and took over a major highway in the region. Later reports said four villages were attacked and some 43 people killed. Boko Haram gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire residents returning to Gamboru killing 5 men and 3 women.
(AFP, 7/10/15)(AP, 7/11/15)(AFP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 10, In northeastern Nigeria commercial flights resumed into Maiduguri, nearly 18 months after the airport was shut in the wake of a daring Boko Haram raid.
(AFP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, In northeastern Nigeria an attempted bomb attack at Maiduguri’s largest bus station failed when an explosives-ladden tuk-tuk was prevented from entering the site early today. The tuk-tuk exploded, killing the driver and 3 of its occupants.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, In southern Niger suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in Diffa late today, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari sacked his army, navy, air force and defense chiefs, a widely anticipated move as the former general has made crushing Islamist militant group Boko Haram his top priority. A suicide bomber hit a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 7/13/15)(AFP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 14, In northeastern Nigeria at least 30 people were killed in three attacks by Boko Haram Islamists. Boko Haram insurgents raided Ngamdu, the border town of Damasak and attacked Warsala in Borno state.
(AFP, 7/15/15)(Reuters, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 14, Nigeria's Ministry of Information announced that it had "successfully jammed the signals" of Radio Biafra, because it is unlicensed. The station dedicated to creating a breakaway state for the Igbo people remained on the airwaves.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Nigeria two bombs killed at least 49 people buying goods for the holiday at the market of Gombe town.
(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria 3 young female suicide bombers killed at least 13 people in Damaturu as worshippers gathered to mark the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Army spokesman Sani Usman gave a toll of 9 dead and 18 wounded.
(Reuters, 7/17/15)(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 20, In northern Nigeria at least 2 people were killed by a car suicide bomb at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damaturu, capital of Yobe state.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, Barack Obama welcomed Nigeria's freshly elected Pres. Muhammadu Buhari to the White House, lending a personal endorsement after the country's first ever democratic transition.
(AFP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said markets and farms in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana have been hit with the deadly H5N1 virus over the past six months.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 22, In Nigeria bomb blasts blamed on Boko Haram killed 37 people at bus stations in Gombe. President Muhammadu Buhari warned that the US refusal to sell his country strategic weapons is "aiding and abetting" the Islamic extremist group.
(AP, 7/23/15)(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram militants attacked the villages of Kopa, Maikadiri and Yaffa in southern Borno state. At least 21 people were killed in Maikadiri and 4 more in Yaffa.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 25, In central Nigeria 8 people were killed and some 100 treated in hospital after inhaling chlorine gas following an explosion at a water treatment plant in Jos.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In northeastern Nigeria a blast set off by a female suicide bomber tore through a crowded market in the city of Damaturu, killing at least 15 people.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists slit the throats of 10 men in villages near Baga on the shores of the Lake Chad. This included 4 fishermen in Bundaram, 2 in Fishdam and 4 in Kwatar Mali.
(AFP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 29, In northeastern Nigeria at least 10 people were killed when Boko Haram Islamist gunmen raided a village in Yobe state in a revenge attack against local vigilantes.
(AFP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, Nigeria's Pres. Muhammadu Buhari headed home after meeting with his Cameroon counterpart for two days of talks focused around the threat posed by Boko Haram.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 31, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber struck the crowded market city of Maiduguri killing 6 people.
(Reuters, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Benin's Pres. Thomas Boni Yayi vowed to contribute 800 troops to a regional force intended to combat the Boko Haram group during a visit from Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari that coincided with Benin's independence anniversary.
(AP, 8/2/15)
2015 Aug 2, Nigeria's military besieged Boko Haram positions in the Islamist militant group's heartland in Borno state after setting free 178 hostages, mainly women and children. 13 bodies were recovered following an assault on Malari village about 20 km from Maiduguri.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Cameroon said it has expelled more than 3,000 Nigerians as part of the fight against Nigeria's Islamic extremists who have launched attacks across borders. At least 6 people were killed and about 50 others were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants in an overnight raid on Tchakarmari village near the northern border.
(AP, 8/4/15)(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AFP, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Nigeria suspected pirates traveling by speedboat killed 4 soldiers and a policeman and stole weapons in a raid late today on a military base in the oil-rich southern delta region.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 11, In northeastern Nigeria a blast at a market in Borno state killed at least 50 people and injured another 51.
(Reuters, 8/11/15)(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In Nigeria a helicopter, owned by Bristow Group of Houston, Texas, crashed as it traveled from an oil rig into a lagoon in Lagos, killing 6 people.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 12, Chad’s Pres. Idriss Deby said Boko Haram has a new commander named Mahamat Daoud, said to have replaced Abubakar Shekau, and that Daoud is willing to negotiate with Nigeria’s new government.
(SFC, 8/13/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari swore in a new set of military chiefs, ordering them to end Boko Haram's bloody six-year Islamist insurgency within three months.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 16, Nigeria's ruling party called on the country's people to support efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover billions of dollars lost to government corruption and punish the perpetrators in the graft-plagued nation.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram, denied he had been killed or ousted as chief of the jihadist group in an audio recording released today and attributed to him by security experts.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 22, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters ambushed a convoy carrying the head of the Nigerian army, sparking a firefight in which 10 militants and a soldier were killed in Faljari village.
(AFP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 25, In northeastern Nigeria a young female bomber killed 6 people and wounded dozens outside a bus station in the heartland of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in Damaturu. In the northeast Boko Haram extremists killed 24 people in an attack on Marfunudi.
(AFP, 8/25/15)(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 27, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram extremists attacked the fishing village of Kafa, killing 4 people.
(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 28, Nigeria's domestic intelligence agency warned travelers to be ready for an attack on the capital's airport after announcing it had smashed a spy network run by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. The Department of State Services (DSS) said in a statement that it had arrested a 14-year-old at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja who admitted he had been ordered to spy on security procedures.
(AFP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 28, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback reportedly killed 68 people in an attack on Baanu village in Borno state. A government official put the death toll at 56.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed 4 people in Karnuwa village, Borno state.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 29, A Nigerian Air Force plane crashed into a house in the northern city of Kaduna, killing all 7 people on board.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 30, Nigeria's secret police said it had arrested notable Boko Haram suspects, including a key commander, linked with several suicide attacks across the country. The Department of State Services (DSS) said that Usman Shuiabu, also known as Money, and other frontline members of the hardline Islamist group were picked up in Lagos, Kano, Plateau, Enugu and Gombe states between July and August.
(AFP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 30, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed 7 people in Hambagda village, Borno state, and injured five others.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 2, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed at least 5 villagers in a raid in Mainari village, Borno state, before being repelled by government troops. The Nigerian army said it has reinstated some 3,000 soldiers who were dismissed for alleged indiscipline in the battle against Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast.
(Reuters, 9/3/15)(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 8, Nigeria's military said it has banned the use of horses in the northeastern state of Borno to stop deadly raids by Boko Haram gunmen.
(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off in an internally displaced persons camp on the outskirts of the Adamawa state capital Yola, killing at least 7 people.
(AFP, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In Nigeria a one story, mud-brick school building collapsed, killing 4 students and injuring 24 at the Abu Naima Islamic School.
(AP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 17, Nigerian troops rescued 23 men, 33 women and 34 children from Boko Haram Islamists in the villages of Dissa and Balazala, which lie in the vicinity of the town of Gwoza in Borno state.
(AFP, 9/18/15)
2015 Sep 17, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said cholera has killed 16 people in three camps in Nigeria housing over one million people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency.
(Reuters, 9/17/15)
2015 Sep 20, In northeastern Nigeria at least 54 people were killed and 90 wounded in a multiple bomb attack in Maiduguri, Borno state. A suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at a mosque in Ajilari and some insurgents also threw IEDs at a viewing center. More than 20 people were killed in a bomb attack in the garrison town of Monguno.
(Reuters, 9/21/15)(AFP, 9/23/15)
2015 Sep 25, Nigeria's military said more than 200 members of Boko Haram surrendered as troops regained control of the northeastern town of Banki, from where attacks had been launched into Cameroon.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Oct 1, In northeastern Nigeria 4 suicide bombers killed at least 10 people in Maiduguri late today. The army blamed Islamic extremists for the attack and for trying to poison water sources. In a separate incident five people were killed earlier in the day by suspected Boko Haram militants in Kirchinga.
(AP, 10/2/15)
2015 Oct 2, In Nigeria multiple bombs detonated in two satellite towns of Abuja, killing at least 18 people.
(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 2, Nigeria's former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London. She was minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck Jonathan The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its International Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on suspicion of bribery and corruption offences.
(AP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 6, Nigeria reported the arrest of Atlantic Energy chairman Olajide Omokore on corruption and money laundering charges, as part of a widening graft investigation in Africa's biggest petroleum producer that has also netted former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
(Reuters, 10/6/15)
2015 Oct 7, In northeastern Nigeria at least 40 people were killed in two separate suicide bomb attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Damaturu, Yobe state and in Gubio town, Borno state. An overnight attack at a military camp in Yobe state was repulsed with at least 100 insurgents reported killed.
(AFP, 10/7/15)(SFC, 10/8/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 10, A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a bombing mission against Boko Haram crashed in a windstorm in the country's northeast, killing the pilot.
(AP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 13, In northeastern Nigeria three bombs exploded within minutes in Maiduguri killing at least 7 people.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 13, Amnesty Int’l. opened an office in Nigeria promising to investigate allegations of abuses from oil pollution and forced evictions to charges of military killings of civilians in the fight against Boko Haram extremists.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 16, In Nigeria 4 women suicide bombers blew themselves up when challenged by soldiers as they tried to enter Maiduguri, killing at least 18 people and themselves. The attack came just hours after two bombs exploded near a mosque, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 17, Nigeria said Brig. Gen. Enitan Ransome Kuti has been dismissed from the army and jailed for losing a major battle in which Boko Haram Islamic extremists killed hundreds of civilians at the Jan. 2 battle for Baga.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 19, Gunmen kidnapped two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors off southern Nigeria. The ship, flagged in the Comoro Islands, was attacked near Port Harcourt.
(http://tinyurl.com/oo7rmo9)
2015 Oct 23, In northeastern Nigeria 42 people were killed and 11 wounded in bomb attacks at mosques in Maiduguri, Borno state, and in Yola, Adamawa state.
(Reuters, 10/23/15)(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 24, A Nigerian court nullified the election of the governor of the oil-rich Rivers state on the grounds of irregularities and ordered a fresh vote within 90 days. Governor Nyesom Wike, of former president Goodluck Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been declared winner of the election.
(AFP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 24, In northeastern Nigeria 4 women suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one other person and wounding 10, when civilian guards prevented them from entering the city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 26, MTN Nigeria said it has been fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered cellphone subscribers. The $5.2 billion is at least two average years' profit for MTN Nigeria, by far the MTN Group's most lucrative subsidiary.
(AP, 10/2615)
2015 Oct 27, Nigerian troops freed 338 people, almost all of them women and children, held by Boko Haram Islamists near the group's Sambisa forest stronghold. Troops killed 30 suspected jihadists and seized a cache of arms and ammunition in the area.
(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 27, Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC started auctioning annual crude grades on live television and vowed to cut contract holders by a third as part of a drive to boost transparency at an institution hit by corruption.
(Reuters, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 30, In Nigeria seven were jailed for 10 years after being arrested with nearly 1,500 tons of contraband petrol. They were among the crew of the MT Good Success, which was stopped by a navy patrol boat off the coast of Lagos in February last year.
(AFP, 10/31/15)
2015 Oct 31, It was reported that Nigeria's army has begun posting a photographic collage of 100 wanted Boko Haram militants that features the shadowy leader whom they claim to have killed on at least three occasions.
(AP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 1, Nigerian troops drove Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned northeastern primary school in a shootout that killed 4 militants.
(AP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 3, South African-based MTN Group said that the Nigerian Communications Commission is extending its operating license to 2021 at a cost of $94.2 million even as the company faces a multibillion-dollar fine there. Last week, the commission fined MTN $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect millions of unregistered cellphone subscribers.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 9, Sifiso Dabengwa, the CEO of South Africa-based MTN Group, Africa's biggest telecommunications company, resigned because of a $5.2 billion fine meted out to MTN Group's Nigerian subsidiary.
(AP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 10, In Nigeria police in Port Harcourt fired shots and teargas to disperse hundreds of pro-Biafra supporters as they marched for the release of a key activist.
(AFP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 17, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the country's former national security adviser, accusing him of stealing around $2 billion received for phantom arms contracts.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 17, In Nigeria a blast struck a market in the northeastern city of Yola, killing 32 people and wounding 80 others.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 18, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the former National Security Advisor, accusing him of stealing funds through phantom arms contracts and hampering the fight against the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Nov 18, In Nigeria two suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram attackers drove off with an army T-72 tank and
dozens of new camouflage uniforms. 107 soldiers were missing in the attack.
(http://tinyurl.com/p32bwn5)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 27, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up among crowds at a Shia Muslim procession outside the north city of Kano, killing at least 21 people.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, Pirates attacked the Cyprus-registered Szafir, a Polish-owned cargo vessel, off the Nigerian coast and kidnapped its captain and four crew. The five Polish seamen were reported freed on Dec 8.
(Reuters, 11/27/15)(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Nov 29, In Nigeria Boko Haram destroyed a military base as soldiers fled. Self-defense fighters prevented the insurgents from retaking Gulak town. Extremists kidnapped dozens of girls and set ablaze hundreds of buildings in Bam, Borno state.
(AP, 11/30/15)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 30, Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria and killed about 150 people near the Banki border post according to refugees who walked for days to Adamawa’s Fufore transit center. Cameroon’s government denied the charges.
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 1, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Bashir Yuguda, the former minister of state for finance, has been arrested along with some other people in connection with a $2 billion arms deal that is currently being investigated.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 4, In Nigeria at least 3 people were killed and six others injured in suicide attacks in northeastern Borno state blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 4, South Africa-based MTN announced that its fine by Nigeria's communications agency had been reduced to 674 billion naira ($3.4 billion). Spokesman Tony Ojobo said there was a typo and the actual amount is 780 billion naira ($3.9 billion).
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 5, Nigeria's intelligence agency said it has arrested nine alleged Boko Haram extremists plotting attacks on Abuja, the capital, over the festive season. All nine were detained in the past month and had infiltrated the capital in central Nigeria from the country's northeast.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 12, In northern Nigeria soldiers besieging the home of Ibraheem Zakzaky, the leader of a Shiite movement accused of trying to assassinate Nigeria's army chief, shot and killed at least 20 people in Zaria.
(AP, 12/13/15)(AP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 13, In northern Nigeria Zeenah Ibrahim, the wife of Shiite movement leader Ibraheem Zakzaky, was shot and killed hours after she called The Associated Press to report that soldiers were besieging her home in Zaria. On Aug 1, 2016, a commission of inquiry said that 348 people were killed in Zaria in three days of clashes, December 12-14, between Nigerian troops and Zakzaky’s Iranian-inspired Islamic Movement.
(AP, 12/14/15)(AFP, 1/15/16)(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A2)
2015 Dec 14, Nigerian prosecutors charged former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki (60) with corruption. He pleaded innocent to embezzling $2.1 billion meant to purchase arms to fight Boko Haram, and said some of the money was diverted on the order of former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan to try to get himself re-elected.
(AFP, 12/14/15)(AP, 12/14/15)(SFC, 12/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 15, Nigerian police opened fire on unarmed Shiite Muslim protesters in the northern city of Kaduna, leaving 3 dead. Activists accused soldiers of having killed hundreds of Shiites in "a massacre" in a nearby town in recent days.
(AP, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 17, In Nigeria insurgents killed 14 people, some of whom were decapitated, when they raided Kamuya village.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 18, A Dutch appeals court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell may be held liable for oil spills at its subsidiary in Nigeria, potentially opening the way for other compensation claims against multinationals in the Niger Delta and elsewhere.
(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Nigeria said its military has commuted the death sentences handed to 66 soldiers for mutiny over claims they refused to fight Boko Haram Islamists. Instead, each soldier will serve a 10-year prison term.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen launched a dawn raid on Buratai, Borno state, the hometown of the army chief, triggering a fierce gunbattle with troops.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In Nigeria 3 young suicide bombers set off explosions that killed six others and injured at least 24 people in Benisheikh, northeastern Borno state. A military spokesman said troops have killed 12 Boko Haram fighters and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from the hardline Islamist group whose six-year insurgency has claimed thousands of lives.
(AP, 12/21/15)(AFP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 20, Cameroonian troops killed at least 70 residents while chasing Islamic insurgents in the Gwoza area of Borno state in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 23, Human Rights Watch said Nigerian soldiers fired on unarmed Islamic Shiite children with no provocation in Dec 12-14 raids in Zaria that killed hundreds of the minority group.
(AP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 24, In Nigeria blast at a gas plant engulfed the southeastern industrial city of Nnewi. 9 people were killed and three others remained in critical condition.
(AFP, 12/25/15)(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 25, In northeastern Nigeria at least 14 people were killed and several others injured by Boko Haram gunmen in an attack on Kimba village, Borno state.
(AFP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, In northeastern Nigeria an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed 21 people in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck Maiduguri for the first time in months with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers. At least 50 people were killed and the death toll could go higher. Another twin suicide bombing killed at least 30 people in Madagali, a town 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/28/15)
2015 Mike Smith authored “Boko Haram: Inside Nigeria’s Unholy War."
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.85)
2015 The World Bank estimated Nigeria’s population to be about 182 million based on census figures from 2006.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.36)
2015 Tuberculosis claimed the lives of an estimated 1.8 million people around the world this year, 60% of whom lived in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.
(AFP, 3/23/17)
2015 The World Economic Forum (WEF) rated Nigeria 124th out of 140 countries on the quality of its institutions; 133rd for its infrastructure and last out of 140 on its primary education.
(Econ, 4/16/15, SR p.11)
2016 Jan 1, Nigeria unveiled a nine-meter tall statue of Jesus Christ carved from white marble in the village of Abajah, thought to be the biggest of its kind in Africa. It was commissioned by Obinna Onuoha, a local businessman who hired a Chinese company to carve it and placed it in the grounds of a 2000-capacity church that he built in 2012.
(AFP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 4, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen wearing soldiers' uniforms and female suicide bombers unleashed separate attacks on Izghe, a village 123 km (76 miles) southwest of Maiduguri. At least 18 people were killed.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 5, In Nigeria three female suicide bombers sneaked into Izghe and detonated bombs hidden under their garments, killing 7 other people and destroying three houses. A male suicide bomber also blew himself up, killing himself and 4 other people.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 6, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers arrested Duhu village teacher Habu Bello and two other men, Idrisa Dele and Umaru Hammankadi. The men's bodies were later found dumped, with bullet wounds.
(AP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 7, The United States donated 24 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to Nigeria's military, to enable the country's soldiers to combat Boko Haram Islamic insurgents who continued cutting a bloody path through the northeast.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 8, Nigeria’s Health Minister Isaac Adewole said 40 people have died in a suspected outbreak of Lassa fever in 10 states across the country.
(AFP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 14, A Nigerian court ordered the arrest of former Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo on theft and money laundering charges totaling more than $175 million.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 18, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed said state governors, ministers, business leaders, public officials and bankers allegedly stole $6.7 billion in public funds in seven years.
(AFP, 1/18/16)
2016 Jan 24, In Nigeria gunmen believed to be ethnic Fulani herders killed a policeman and 19 civilians and torched homes in northeastern Adamawa state in a spat over grazing rights.
(AFP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 25, It was reported that sales of rat poison have taken off in Nigeria following an outbreak of Lassa fever that has left at least 76 people dead and sparked fears of contagion across the country.
(AFP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 27, In Nigeria at least 13 people were killed when three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the northeastern town of Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April, 2014.
(AFP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Human Rights Watch said Nigeria's new government is violating rights on many fronts in its fight against Boko Haram's Islamic uprising and in bringing corrupt politicians to book.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, In northeastern Nigeria a child suicide bomber blew himself up in a market, killing at least 10 people in Gombi, Adamawa state.
(AFP, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 30, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists firebombed huts in Dalori village and two nearby camps husing 25,000 refugees. 3 female suicide bombers blew themselves up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing 86 people.
(AP, 1/31/16) (AP, 2/1/16)
2016 Jan – 2016 May, In Nigeria at least 149 detainees at the Giwa barracks in Borno state died during this period. Some 1200 people, including children, were reported to be incarcerated there.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.42)
2016 Feb 6, Nigerian health authorities released data that showed a growing Lassa fever outbreak has killed 101 people, as it battles to contain a flare-up of the virus.
(AFP, 2/6/16)
2016 Feb 13, In northeastern Nigeria gun and knife-toting assailants on bikes and in vans stormed the remote villages of Yakshari and Kachifa over the last 4 hours. At least 30 people were killed in the Boko Haram raids.
(AFP, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 14, Cameroon ended a four day operation during which its special forces reportedly killed 162 Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's northeastern town of Goshi, destroying bomb factories and weapons to retake the extremist stronghold.
(AP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 22, Nigeria's anti-graft agency arrested former interior minister Abba Moro, under then-president Goodluck Jonathan, over the death of at least 20 people in a stampede tragedy on March 15, 2014.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 23, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman before traveling on to Qatar. Analysts forecasted Nigeria’s eventual support for an output freeze to stabilise oil prices.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 27, The commander of Cameroonian forces said Cameroonian and Nigerian forces have freed several hundred hostages in a border town held by Boko Haram including young girls who were being trained as suicide bombers.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 29, Nigerian officials said Pres. Muhammadu Buhari is launching a probe after week-long clashes between Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers left "hundreds" dead. Up to 300 people were reported killed.
(AFP, 2/29/16)(Econ, 4/2/16, p.47)
2016 Feb 29, In Nigeria three girls who were abducted by armed men from their school in the eastern suburb of Ikorodu at the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School on the outskirts of Lagos.
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 4, In northeastern Nigeria the Borno state government said it has suspended trading in four cattle markets to prevent the sale of stolen livestock to raise funds for Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 7, A Nigerian court charged retired air chief marshal Alex Badeh with a string of corruption charges, in the latest case involving a high-ranking official.
(AFP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, In Nigeria a five-storey building under construction collapsed in an upmarket area of Lagos. At least 34 people were killed.
(AP, 3/9/16)(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 10, Nigeria’s governing All Progressives Congress charged that at least 32 of its members have been shot, clubbed and beheaded to death over the last two weeks in Rivers state, a stronghold of the opposition Democrats.
(SFC, 3/10/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 14, Nigerian drug agents said they arrested four Mexicans last week helping Nigerian criminals build a "super-lab" capable of producing billions of dollars' worth of methamphetamine. Four Nigerians were also arrested.
(AP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 16, In northeastern Nigeria an attack by two female suicide bombers killed 25 people and wounded 23 during dawn prayers on a mosque on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/16/16)(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 23, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen abducted 14 women and two girls in a remote area of Adamawa state.
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 24, Nigeria’s presidency said it has accused 300 firms and individuals, including army officers, of embezzling 48 billion naira ($241.45 million) through overpaid defense contracts or fraud, in a widening a crackdown on graft.
(Reuters, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 26, Cameroon authorities said a teenager who surrendered before carrying out a suicide bombing attack in the north has said she was one of the 276 girls abducted from a Nigerian boarding school by Islamic extremists nearly two years ago.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 27, In Nigeria 3 people were killed and several wounded when an oil pipeline belonging to Italy's ENI exploded during repair works in the southern Delta region. Workers had been repairing the pipeline when it caught fire.
(Reuters, 3/29/16)
2016 Apr 1, Nigeria's army reportedly arrested Khalid al-Barnawi (aka Usman Umar Abubakar), leader of the Islamist militant group Ansaru, in the city of Lokoja. Ansaru is a splinter faction of Boko Haram that has been accused of kidnapping and killing Westerners.
(Reuters, 4/4/16)(SFC, 4/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 5, In Nigeria angry motorists queued overnight at petrol stations across the country and lines of cars blocked traffic in the commercial capital Lagos as the worst fuel shortages for years hit Africa's top oil producer.
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 9, Nigerian secret police accused a Biafra separatist group of killing 55 people after discovering their bodies in shallow graves in a thick forest in the country's southeast. The Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria's domestic spy agency, said the graves were found in Umuanyi forest in Abia state, home to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement.
(AFP, 4/10/16)
2016 Apr 11, Nigeria’s Kaduna state government secretary Balarabe Lawal told a commission of inquiry that dozens of soldiers and state officials transported 347 bodies from a mortuary and an army base to a bush site where they were buried after the Dec. 12-14 military raids on Shiite compounds in northern Zaria town. The Shiites say those killed number closer to 1,000.
(AP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 20, In northeastern Nigeria two female suicide bombers killed at least 8 people in Banki at a camp for people displaced by the jihadist Boko Haram insurgency. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed at least 11 people overnight in Zango village, Yobo state.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)(AFP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 25, In Nigeria 20 young Fulani herdsmen descended from the hills and emerged from the palm tree forest, shooting AK-47 assault rifles in the air and waving machetes in the village of Nimbo. At least 10 people were thought to have been killed and scores injured.
(AFP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 4, In southern Nigeria militants used explosives to blow up the Okan platform, a collection facility for offshore oil and gas that feeds the Escravos terminal. This caused Chevron to lose 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of net crude oil production.
(AFP, 5/7/16)
2016 May 6, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it is suspending aid to Nigeria’s AIDS agency over evidence that $3.8 million was stolen by its workers and consultants.
(SFC, 5/7/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, In Nigeria 3 soldiers guarding an oil installation were shot and killed when they came under fierce attack. The Niger Avengers claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 11, In Nigeria Shell closed the terminal exporting the country’s benchmark Bonny Light crude oil as was evacuating workers as renewed militant attacks cut production.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, In northeastern Nigeria 7 people including 2 police officers were killed when a suicide bomber tried to attack government offices in Maiduguri.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 14, In Nigeria regional and Western powers gathered for talks on quelling the threat from Boko Haram as the UN warned of the militants' threat to African security and ties to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 16, The UN said more than nine million people in the Lake Chad region are in desperate need of food aid as the violent insurgency continues being waged there by Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have significantly weakened Boko Haram but have been unable to vanquish the Islamists entirely.
(AFP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 17, In Nigeria teenager Amina Ali Darsha, the first of more than 200 schoolgirls missing for over two years after they were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, was found carrying a baby near the Sambisa forest close to the border with Cameroon.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 20, In Nigeria former militants of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) called for a halt to a resurgence of attacks on oil and gas facilities in Nigeria's Niger Delta, saying it is an unnecessary distraction for President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 24, Nigeria’s agriculture commissioner Manzo Daniel said the Tuta absoluta moth, dubbed "tomato Ebola" by local farmers, has destroyed more than 80 percent of tomato farms in the northern state of Kaduna. Tomato prices have been steadily climbing for months, caused by unrest in northern and central states where the crop is grown and this has affected farmers' ability to plant and harvest.
(AFP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 26, In Nigeria a bomb attack forced US-based oil major Chevron to halt onshore activities at its 160,000-barrel a day Escravos export terminal. Participants in a stakeholders' meeting in Warri accused the government of a heavy-handed military response and warned such a campaign will not stop attacks that have cut oil production by more than 40 percent.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, In Nigeria militants attacked the Nembe pipeline in the Delta region, hours after the Niger Delta Avengers militant group claimed a strike on the facility.
(Reuters, 5/28/16)
2016 May 28, In Nigeria militants blew up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip in an increasingly fierce campaign that has chopped Nigeria's oil production in half.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to keep and "re-engineer" a controversial amnesty program for Niger delta militants designed to stem attacks that have slashed oil exports but set to be scrapped.
(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 29, In Nigeria at least 10 people were killed during protests by pro-Biafra campaigners. Activists wanting a separate state for the Igbo people in the southeast were commemorating the 49th anniversary of the declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967.
(AFP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 30, In Nigeria protests by pro-Biafra campaigners, wanting a separate state for the Igbo people in the southeast, commemorated the 49th anniversary of the 1967 declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra. Amnesty International later said at least 17 were killed and nearly 50 injured in Onitsha alone in violence linked to the commemoration.
(AFP, 6/10/16)
2016 May, In Nigeria annual inflation jumped to almost 16%.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.53)
2016 Jun 2, In Geneva OPEC oil ministers ended a meeting without reaching any kind of consensus on regulating the price and supply of crude, a result that triggered an immediate drop in energy markets. The OPEC oil cartel said that it has appointed Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary general.
(AP, 6/2/16)(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, In Niger 28 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists at Bosso on the border with Nigeria. The dead soldiers included 26 from Niger and 2 from Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/4/16)(AFP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 4, Nigeria announced that it has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets over the past year under Pres. Buhari’s anticorruption campaign.
(SSFC, 6/5/16, p.A4)
2016 Jun 8, In Nigeria the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group rejected a truce offer to end attacks on key oil infrastructure and claimed another strike. The Nigerian Navy said nine suspected militants blamed for previous attacks around the port city of Warri had been arrested.
(AFP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 8, Chad reportedly sent some 2,000 troops to neighboring Niger, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week. On June 18 Chadian troops were reported to be in Nigeria but not in Niger.
(AFP, 6/8/16)(Reuters, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 10, Nigeria fired dozens of senior officers accused of corruption and the theft of billions of dollars meant to buy arms to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 10, In Nigeria the Niger Delta Avengers militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a trunk line owned by Agip ENI.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 16, In northeast Nigeria Boko Haram militants opened fire at a funeral, killing 18 mourners including many women and children in the Madagali area of Adamawa state near the Sambisa forest.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 20, The Nigerian naira depreciated 30% as the government allowed the currency to float, with business welcoming the move as an overdue step towards reviving Africa's biggest economy. The central bank released the naira from its peg of 197-199 to the dollar.
(AFP, 6/20/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.62)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.35)
2016 Jun 21, Nigeria said it has agreed a one-month ceasefire with militants behind recent attacks on oil facilities in its southern Niger Delta, as efforts continue to end the unrest that has pushed crude output to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a group of construction workers in an ambush that killed their driver. All seven were on assignment for Australian mining contractor Macmahon Holdings.
(SFC, 6/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 29, In Cameroon a young male suicide bomber belonging to Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram killed at least 11 people when he blew himself up close to a mosque near the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, Nigerian officials said authorities in Lagos have shut down dozens of churches, mosques and hotels in a bid cut noise pollution.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jun, Interpol and Nigeria's anti-fraud agency arrested a Nigerian, identified as Mike (40), accused of scamming $60 million from companies around the world through fraudulent emails after months of investigation. He was arrested along with a 38-year-old accomplice in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Nigeria kidnappers seized Alfred Nelson-Williams, Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner, as he was on his way to Kaduna from Abuja. They demanded a $40 million ransom in the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. The diplomat was freed on July 5 but it was not clear whether or not a ransom was paid.
(AFP, 7/2/16)(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A2)(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 4, Nigeria’s central bank dismissed the management of Skye Bank, the country’s eighth biggest lender by assets, amid concerns that it had failed to keep thick enough buffers of capital to absorb losses on bad debts..
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.57)
2016 Jul 4, In Nigeria suspected militants blew up a pipeline in the southern Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State. Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers said in a short statement on their website that they carried out the attacks.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, Twitter suspended the account of Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria in the last few months which pushed the country's crude production to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Niger Delta Avengers attacked more oil infrastructure in southern Nigeria, ignoring a call for unity from Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 11, Nigeria said gunmen believed to be nomadic Fulani herdsmen have killed scores of villagers in Benue State in a long-running conflict over grazing rights. Nigeria's Channels television put the number of dead at 81 in the past two weeks after attacks on farming villages in the Logo and Ukum areas of the state.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 19, The IMF slashed its growth forecast for the Nigerian economy this year, saying a combination of plunging oil revenues and weakened investor confidence will push it into recession.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy in Borno state. Three civilians including a UNICEF employee and contractor for the International Organization for Migration were wounded, along with two of the soldiers escorting the humanitarian workers. The UN in response suspended its missions outside Maiduguri, where it says a half million people are starving. A day later UNICEF said it was returning to full operations in the area.
(AP, 7/29/16)(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nigeria’s army said its troops backed by a regional force have recaptured the northeastern town of Damasak where Boko Haram killed more than 200 and abducted hundreds of children two years ago. The Chad-based MNJTF comprises troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Nigeria 5 Islamists were killed as troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicenter of the seven-year insurgency.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nigeria said it has resumed the payment of allowances to former Niger delta rebels under an amnesty scheme, after low global crude prices plunged the oil-rich country into a financial crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Islamic State group's newspaper identified a new leader of the group's West Africa Province, popularly known as Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists, who promises not to attack mosques or markets used by Muslims. The Arabic-language newspaper al-Nabaa identified Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new "Wali," a title previously used to describe long-time leader Abubakar Shekau.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 6, Nigeria said 11 troops have been killed in clashes with gunrunners and bandits in the violence-wracked north central region. Soldiers and airmen, came under attack from gunmen during operations to confiscate illegal weapons from the villages of Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw in Niger State.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Nigeria a previously unknown group called Delta Greenland Justice Mandate said it had attacked a crude pipeline belonging to state oil firm NNPC and local firm Shoreline Natural Resources in Urhobo in Delta state.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Nigeria protesters continued to block the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the restive southern region for a third day. A youth and protest leader said militants blew up another crude pipeline in the Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Nigeria military helicopters rushed polio vaccines to dangerous parts of the northeast, where Boko Haram operates and two paralyzed toddlers were recently discovered.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 14, Nigerian militant group Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 19, Nigeria's air force reportedly killed a number of senior Boko Haram fighters and possibly their overall leader inside the Sambisa forest. Abubakar Shekau was believed to be fatally wounded.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 20, Nigeria’s Niger Delta Avengers' (NDA) said on its website late today that it would "observe a cessation of hostilities," although not without conditions.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 22, In northern Nigeria a Muslim mob killed 8 people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy. A mob of Muslim students in the town of Talata Mafara were enraged over alleged derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed by their Christian schoolmate, who they attacked.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug, In northeastern Nigeria an estimated that 240,000 children in Borno state were suffering from severe acute malnutrition according to UN estimates.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.41)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported that President Barack Obama has issued waivers that continue millions of dollars in US military assistance for troubled South Sudan and six other nations where child soldiers have been used, disappointing advocates who say his administration hasn't made curbing the use of children in combat a higher priority. Waivers also have been granted to Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Iraq and Myanmar.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Nov 5, In northern Nigeria one of some 270 schoolgirls abducted by jihadist group Boko Haram from their school in Chibok in 2014 was found by soldiers screening escapees from Boko Haram's base in the Sambisa forest. Maryam Ali A was discovered to be carrying a 10-month-old son, named Ali.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Nigeria armed bandits killed 36 gold miners at the informal mining site at Gidan Ardo in northwest Zamfara state. 20 miners were reported missing.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Nigeria a blast rocked a pipeline operated by the state-run oil firm NNPC that feeds the Forcados terminal in the southern Niger Delta energy hub. The explosion occurred while the pipeline was being repaired following an attack last week.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 9, Nigerian militants said they have again blown up an oil pipeline carrying crude oil for export from Shell’s Forcados terminal. This was the third attack in eight days on the Trans Forcados pipeline network.
(SFC, 11/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 15, The UN warned that 75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger grips the country's ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of children have died of starvation in the Boko Haram ravaged northeast.
(AFP, 11/15/16)(SFC, 11/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Nov 18, In Nigeria five suicide bombers targeted a police checkpoint and a bus station near a transit camp in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing four of themselves and two civilian self-defense fighters. The fifth bomber was arrested.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Nigerian troops gunned down a suicide bomber at a transit camp for refugees from Boko Haram in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 21, An attack by Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists against a Lake Chad army base manned by an anti-insurgent regional force left six Cameroonian soldiers dead.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In northeastern Nigeria local leaders said Boko Haram fighters are overrunning villages near Chibok, forcing hundreds of people to flee as the insurgents loot and burn in the area where nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped in 2014.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 24, Amnesty International accused Nigeria's security forces of killing at least 150 pro-Biafra protesters and injuring hundreds since August 2015.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Nigeria a woman suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a checkpoint. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and the baby.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 2, A Nigerian court ruled that Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), should be released along with his wife after being held without charge for nearly a year by the country's security agency. Founders of the Nigerian sect were inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Shi'ite Iran.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In central Nigeria a petrol tanker skidded off the road and exploded, killing at least 14 people in the transit town of Tegina, Niger state.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Nigeria two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the northeastern town of Madagali, killing 57 people and wounding 177.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In southeastern Nigeria at least 160 people were killed by the collapse of the Reigners Bible church in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials. The Akwa Ibom state government later said only 23 people died in the tragedy, an apparent attempt to cover up a death toll of more than 150 when metal girders and the corrugated iron roof crashed onto a crowded service.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Nigeria two girl suicide bombers died when they exploded in a crowded area near a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Nigeria African leaders at the 50th summit of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for a swift resolution of the political impasse in Gambia after disputed elections in which long-term president Yahya Jammeh is refusing to concede defeat.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Nigeria a faction of Boko Haram allied to the Islamic State group attacked an army barracks in northeastern Yobe state. President Muhammadu Buhari said troops defeated Boko Haram in its Sambisa Forest stronghold in Borno state.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Nigeria three convicted criminals on death row for about two decades were secretly executed in the first hangings in the country since 2013. The executions were said to breach a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 24, Nigeria’s Pres. Muhammadu Buhari declared that the Boko Haram extremist group has finally been crushed, driven from its last forest enclave with fighters on the run and no place to hide.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Nigeria two people were killed when part of a two-storey building in a police training college collapsed in Lagos.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 26, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle market in the restive city of Maiduguri. One of the bombers was killed, while the other was arrested.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 27, Nigerian minister Mohamed Bazoum said 31 young people from Diffa, who were enrolled a few years ago in Boko Haram, have decided to surrender.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Nigerian police said a plot to blow up a major bridge in Lagos has been foiled following the arrest of a 43-year-old man suspected of being part of a gang that planned to carry out the attack.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, In a video posted on YouTube, Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced: "I am here, well and alive" and that "the battle is just beginning." He urged his followers, in graphic terms, to continue the campaign.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Stephen Ellis, a British expert on African affairs, authored “This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organized Crime."
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.76)
2016 Dec 31, In northeastern Nigeria one person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged around 10 blew herself up in a New Year's Eve attack in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2016 Ngugi wa Thiong’o if Nigeria authored “Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening."
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.74)
2016 The Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) split from Nigeria's Boko Haram. In 2018 analysts estimated that ISWA has 3,000-5,000 fighters in the Lake Chad area and that its territory extended more than 100 miles into the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno and Yobe.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2017 Jan 3, Nigerian anti-drug officers said they found 9.15 kg (20 pounds) of cocaine worth $4.7 million "factory-packed" inside a new pair of shoes that arrived at Abuja airport on a flight from Brazil.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 5, Nigerian soldiers found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly three years ago wandering in the bush with her baby near the Islamic extremist group's forest stronghold. More than 200 of the girls remain missing.
(AP, 1/5/17)(SFC, 1/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 5, A Nigerian official said three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead. The girls were intercepted at Bakin Dutse village, some five km from Madagali.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 5, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said women in the Lake Chad basin, where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, have been forced to sell sex to survive due to an insurgency by Boko Haram fighters that has driven millions from their homes and left children to starve.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 8, In Nigeria five suicide bombers trying to infiltrate the northeastern city of Maiduguri and died in explosions that killed at least three civilians.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 13, In northeastern Nigeria three female suicide bombers killed at least six people and injured 14 in a crowded market in the town of Madagali. Gunmen kidnapped five students and two staff, including a Turkish national, from an international school in the southern state of Ogun.
(Reuters, 1/13/17)(Reuters, 1/14/17)(SFC, 1/14/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 16, In Nigeria three suicide bombers, including a child, exploded at dawn at the northeastern University of Maiduguri, killing a university professor and another child. The bombers also died.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 17, A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp, killing at least 76 refugees and wounding more than 100 in northeast Rann. Estimates later rose to as many as 236 people killed in the botched air strike.
(AP, 1/17/17)(Reuters, 1/18/17)(AFP, 1/21/17)
2017 Jan 26, Britain’s High Court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell cannot be sued in London over oil spills in Nigeria, in a setback to attempts to hold British multinationals liable at home for their subsidiaries' actions abroad. The court also said the claimants should be able to use Nigerian courts.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 26, German geologist Kay Holtzmann, contracted by the Dutch-British multinational Royal Dutch Shell's Nigeria subsidiary, wrote a letter to the Bodo Mediation Initiative saying the company "fiercely opposed" environmental testing and is concealing data showing thousands of Nigerians are exposed to health hazards from a stalled cleanup of the worst oil spills in the West African nation's history.
(AP, 3/24/17)
2017 Jan 27, In Nigeria armed jihadists from the Islamic State-supported Al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram launched a midnight attack on troops in the village of Kamuya. At least three Nigerian soldiers were killed. Boko Haram claimed it killed five soldiers.
(AFP, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 27, The World Food Program said around 1.8 million people are at risk of starvation in northeast Nigeria, victims of an Islamist insurgency that is undermining efforts by the WFP.
(Reuters, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 28, In Nigeria gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamic extremists attacked a convoy of motorists along a recently secured highway. At least 15 trucks laden with food were seized when the Islamists struck at the Korowaso forest. More than 20 people were feared dead.
(AP, 1/29/17)(AFP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan, Nigeria seized OPL 245 oil block, labelling it the proceeds of a crime. In 2011 Eni and Shell had paid $1.3 billion for the block. Prosecutors alleged that over $500 million ended up in front companies for former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan.
(Econ, 3/4/17, p.54)
2017 Feb 2, Nigeria’s government said it will soon pay all the overdue cash stipends it owes former militants who signed up for an amnesty in 2009 in the Niger Delta oil hub.
(Reuters, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 4, James Ibori, who as governor of oil-rich Delta State became one of Nigeria's richest and most powerful men, returned to the country after serving a sentence for corruption in Britain. Ibori served half his 13-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 6, Hundreds of Nigerians marched to protest poverty and corruption as President Muhammadu Buhari's prolonged absence abroad for medical tests raised political and economic tensions.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 7, Nigerian troops saved the life of a young woman strapped with explosives and killed another suicide bomber, apparently primed by Boko Haram Islamic extremists to attack the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 8, The Russian embassy in Nigeria said seven Russian sailors and a Ukrainian have been kidnapped in Nigerian waters from the BBC Caribbean, a cargo vessel flagged in Antigua and Barbuda.
(AP, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 9, In Nigeria more than 700 people took to the streets in Abuja to protest against the government's economic policy in a sign of mounting public anger in the oil producer grappling with recession.
(Reuters, 2/9/17)
2017 Feb 9, In northern Nigeria Boko Haram killed one person and abducted a seven-year-old boy from the village of Kaumutaiyahi near Chibok.
(AFP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 10, In northern Nigeria at least eight soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram ambush in the Mafa area east of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 17, Nigerian troops and civilian self-defense fighters repelled multiple suicide bombers in Maiduguri. Nine bombers and two civilians were reported killed.
(SFC, 2/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 21, UNICEF said nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk" of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
(Reuters, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria at least seven soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on military positions in the town of Gajiram.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 23, UN aid agencies and donor countries gathered in Oslo for a two-day meeting to raise emergency aid for millions of people threatened by famine in the Lake Chad region, which comprises northeast Nigeria, northern Cameroon, western Chad and southeast Niger.
(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 24, In Norway fourteen donor countries, with the US conspicuously absent, pledged $672 million in emergency aid for people threatened by famine after eight years of Boko Haram violence in the Lake Chad region, but the sum is just a fraction of what the UN says is needed.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 27, South Africa deported 97 Nigerians for various offences following a series of raids, amid heightened bilateral tensions over anti-immigrant violence in South Africa.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 2, Nigeria filed criminal charges of corruption against oil multinationals Royal Dutch Shell and Eni over the $1.1 billion sale of one of Africa's richest oil blocks. Malabu Oil, secretly set up by former Oil Minister Dan Etete, was awarded OPL 245 while he was oil minister. Nigeria's government got only $210 million from the deal.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 6, Nigeria’s former Adamawa state governor James Bala Ngilari was jailed for five years after being found guilty of corruption related to procurement of cars while in office.
(Reuters, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 8, Nigeria's capital was cut off by air, as Abuja airport closed for at least six weeks for repairs, forcing flights to divert and lengthening travel times for passengers.
(AFP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari returned home after nearly two months' medical leave in Britain but did little to quell fears about the state of his health by saying he would not start work again immediately.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN warned that the world is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II, with more than 20 million people facing starvation and famine in four countries (northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen).
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 13, South Africa and Nigeria said they would launch a jointly run "early warning" system to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerian migrants.
(AFP, 3/13/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Nigeria three suicide bombers suspected to be members of Boko Haram detonated explosive devices strapped on their bodies late today, killing at least four people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 21, The UN said more than 2,600 Nigerians who fled into northern Cameroon to escape Boko Haram jihadists have been forced to go home since the start of the year.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, In northeastern Nigeria at least four suicide blasts rocked a camp for migrants fleeing Boko Haram insurgents, killing at least three people and wounding 20.
(AFP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, The International Red Cross appealed for $400 million to help some 20 million people facing famine or the risk of it in four conflict-ridden countries: Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria.
(AP, 3/22/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.39)
2017 Mar 27, The foreign minister of Nigeria visited Poland an effort to develop economic, military and security ties with the fast-growing economy in central Europe.
(AP, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 30, In Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists raided the village of Pulka near border with Cameroon and kidnapped 18 girls. Jihadists outside Dumba killed a herdsman who had tried to escape after refusing to pay protection money. They shot dead 50 of his cattle and took four women from his family along with the rest of his herd.
(AFP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 2, In Nigeria three suicide bombers blew themselves up attempting to get into the northeastern city of Maiduguri. A dog grappled with a suicide bomber at a wedding in Belbelo village near Maiduguri until her explosives detonated, killing the animal as well.
(AP, 4/2/17)(SFC, 4/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 9, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Lagos.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2016 Apr 9, In southeastern Nigeria two Turkish were kidnapped from a hotel room in the town of Eket, Akwa Ibom state.
(Reuters, 4/11/17)
2017 Apr 12, Nigeria's military destroyed 13 illegal refineries in the restive Niger Delta oil hub, in an operation in which two soldiers died in clashes with "sea robbers".
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 19, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an investigation into corruption allegations against a senior civil servant related to the use of funds intended for handling a humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the country. Buhari suspended two key aides over an alleged contract scam and for keeping an unauthorized stash of cash in a private home.
(Reuters, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 24, In northeast Nigeria four people were killed in two separate suicide attacks blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 4/24/17)
2017 May 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari (74) missed his weekly cabinet meeting for the third straight time as concerns mounted about his health.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 6, Nigeria secured the release of 82 of some 270 girls, kidnapped in Chibok in 2014, in exchange for five Boko Haram leaders.
(Reuters, 5/7/17)(AP, 5/7/17)
2017 May 11, The US Center for Disease Control said more than 1,000 people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria, but added that the spread of the disease is slowing. A new strain of meningitis C was first reported in Zamfara last November.
(AFP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists killed six farmers who were working on their land near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 5/15/17)
2017 May 15, In northeastern Nigeria three female suicide bombers killed two people and injured six others in an attack late today on a village Borno state.
(Reuters, 5/16/17)
2017 May 20, Nigerian troops fought Boko Haram in the Lake Chad area, killing 13 of the Islamic extremists and arresting 10 others, including 6 women believed to have helped smuggle supplies to the insurgents.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 Jun 7, In Nigeria at least 13 people were killed after Boko Haram launched the deadliest attack in months on Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist group. The attack came just hours before a visit by Yemi Osinbajo, the country's acting president.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 11, Nigerian soldiers battled Boko Haram extremists in Jarawa village in Borno state. A large number of rebels were reported killed, including Abu Nazir, who was on the military's wanted list. The soldiers also rescued nine abducted children.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 14, The leader of Nigeria's Senate, Bukola Saraki (54), was cleared of corruption charges, ending of one of the most high-profile trials in President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-graft campaign.
(AP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 15, The EU announced a support package of nearly $160 million for recovery and reconstruction in Nigeria's Borno state, which has been devastated by attacks from homegrown Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 19, In northeastern Nigeria 12 people were killed after suicide bombing attacks by five female bombers in Kofa, not far from Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Nigeria seven suicide bombers, six of whom were women, targeted the campus of Maiduguri University and residential buildings in a district just northeast of the city. Nine people along with the seven suicide bombers were left dead.
(AFP, 6/26/17)
2017 Jul 8, US President Donald Trump promised $639 million in funding for humanitarian programs, including $331 million to help feed starving people in four famine-hit countries - Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen. Trump's pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 11, In Nigeria a graphic video seen by AFP showed Boko Haram publicly executing eight villagers in the northeast Nigeria who opposed the enforcement of its hardline form of Islam.
(AFP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 11, In northeastern Nigeria four Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 19 people late today and injured 23 in Maiduguri.
(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 16, In Nigeria violence erupted between herders and farmers in Kajuru village, 50 km (30 miles) outside the city of Kaduna. Two days of violence left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in Maiduguri. Two others were killed shortly before midnight while the third was intercepted shortly after.
(AFP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 23, In northeastern Nigeria female suicide bombers attacked two camps for those displaced by the Boko Haram conflict outside Maiduguri. At least 8 people were killed and another 15 wounded.
(AP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 25, In Nigeria eight people were killed when a four-storey building collapsed after heavy rains in Lagos.
(AFP, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 25, In northeastern Nigeria at least 69 people died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno state.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria three young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated prematurely in Bama.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 28, In northeastern Nigeria two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 km (56 miles) east of Maiduguri, killing five people.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Aug 3, Nigeria’s state-run oil firm said it has signed financing deals with oil majors Shell and Chevron to develop projects that would boost reserves and revenue.
(AFP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 6, In southeastern Nigeria gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 18 others in St. Philip Catholic Church in an attack arising from a feud between members of the local community in in Ozubulu, Anambra state.
(AP, 8/6/17)(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Nigerian protesters demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving treatment in London for an undisclosed ailment for more than three months, either return or resign.
(AFP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters stormed a crude oil flow station owned by Shell in the restive Niger Delta demanding jobs and infrastructure development.
(Reuters, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 15, In northeastern Nigeria suicide bombers attacked a camp for internally displaced people and a market killing at least 20 people.
(SFC, 8/1617, p.A2)
2017 Aug 18, Nigeria’s government said more than 100 girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in the town of Chibok in 2014 are ready to return to normal life after being released and receiving psychological and medical treatment.
(Reuters, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters entered villages in the Nganzai area, slitting throats and using guns to kill at least 15 people while injuring two others. Suspected Boko Haram fighters also attacked in the Guzamala local council area, killing 12 people and injuring at least four.
(AP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 28, A Nigerian court seized $21 million from bank accounts linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former oil minister accused of corruption, as investigators continued to claw back her fortune.
(AFP, 8/28/17)
2017 Sep 1, Nigeria's president said more than 100,000 people have been displaced by flooding in the central part of the country. It was not immediately known whether anyone has died in the flooding in Benue state.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 8, In northeastern Nigeria four farmers were shot dead by Boko Haram fighters. Eight more farmers were killed in a series of raids over the next two days.
(AFP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 8, In northeastern Nigeria at least seven people were killed when Boko Haram jihadists attacked a camp in Ngala for people displaced by conflict. The attack came as two people were killed along with two suicide bombers in an explosion outside the Muna Garage camp in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 8, In central Nigeria Fulani herdsmen attacked Ancha village, in the Bassa local government area of Plateau state, early today killing 19 people in Plateau state. The attack was thought to be a reprisal attack after a boy from the community was killed.
(AP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 14, In Nigeria Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), went missing following an alleged military raid that left his house in the city of Umuahia riddled with bullet holes, its windows smashed and doors hanging off hinges. Around 20 IPOB members were reportedly shot dead but most of the bodies were taken by soldiers. The army later denied the raid.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Sep 18, In northeastern Nigeria suspected suicide bombers killed at least 12 people and injured 26 others in Borno state, epicenter of the Islamist militant Boko Haram insurgency.
(Reuters, 9/18/17)
2017 Sep 19, Nigeria intercepted 470 rifles from Turkey, which had been falsely declared as elbow joints for plumbing. That shipment was uncovered barely a week after a 20-foot container-load of 1,100 pump-action rifles was impounded at the same port. According to Nigeria Customs Service a total of 2,671 action pump rifles allegedly imported from Turkey have been seized in Lagos since January.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Children's Fund said Boko Haram's ongoing insurgency in northern Nigeria has forced the closure of more than 57 percent of schools in Borno state, leaving about 3 million children without an education as the school year begins.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 1, President Muhammadu Buhari railed against separatists seeking Nigeria's "dismemberment" as it marked its 1960 independence from Britain and said corruption remained the African oil giant's "number one enemy".
(AP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 4, Nigeria's financial crimes agency brushed off allegations by the wife of the country's former president that it had conducted a "witch-hunt" against her. Last year, the EFCC froze four US dollar bank accounts that the ex-president's wife said she owned. Her spokesman said in September 2016 that the accounts in total contained around $10 million - a third of the sum reported in the Nigerian press.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 12, In southern Nigeria Italian priest Maurizio Pallu (63) was snatched in broad daylight by armed men just outside of Benin City. He was travelling with a group of four other people when they were attacked and robbed by armed men who took Pallu but let the others go.
(AFP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 13, In Nigeria four British missionaries giving free medical services were kidnapped in southern Delta state. After three weeks Ian Squire was reported killed and the other three released.
(Reuters, 10/18/17)(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Nigeria Rev. Maurizio Pallu was released late today, five days after being kidnapped in Benin City.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 19, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting Nigerian Pres. Muhammadu Buhari vowed to ramp up security and economic cooperation between Ankara and Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 21, Pirates In Nigerian waters attacked the Liberia-flagged container ship MV Demeter. Six crew members were kidnapped. Those kidnapped comprise four Filipinos, one Ukrainian and one Hungarian. On Nov. 12 a German shipping company said pirates have released the six crewmembers who were taken hostage from the vessel.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Oct 22, In Nigeria three bombers, all of them women, detonated their explosives near the sprawling Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 30, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the country's most senior civil servant. Babachir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation, was sacked after a report into corruption allegations recommended his dismissal.
(Reuters, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, Court papers said Nigeria has agreed to pay compensation to victims of the country's civil war, 47 years after it ended, and clear former conflict zones of abandoned bombs and landmines.
(AP, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 6, In northeastern Nigeria at least two civilians were killed when dozens of Boko Haram fighters tried to storm Gulak town, Adamawa state, but were repelled by troops.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 15, In Nigeria four suicide bombers killed 14 people and wounded 29 in Maiduguri, home of the Boko Haram insurgency.
(SFC, 11/16/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 16, In Nigeria police broke up a sit-in protest in Lagos, dispersing hundreds of former slum-dwellers demanding compensation after being evicted from their waterfront homes. Earlier this week, Amnesty International published a report calling the evictions "unlawful" and demanded an investigation into the violence.
(AFP, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 21, In northeastern Nigeria a teenage suicide bomber attacked a mosque and killed at least 50 people in Mubi, Adamawa state.
(AP, 11/21/17)(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attempt by suspected Boko Haram militants to seize the northeastern town of Magumeri. At least three soldiers were killed and six others wounded in the fighting.
(Reuters, 11/26/17)
2017 Dec 2, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber pretending to wait in line for food handouts detonated her explosives, killing at least 13 people at a crowded market in the town of Biu, Borno state.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, It was reported that Nigeria's government plans to house displaced people in the northwest in fortified garrison towns, ringed by farms, with the rest of the countryside effectively left to fend for itself.
(Reuters, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 10, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed after their vehicle hit a homemade explosive planted by Boko Haram insurgents along the Maiduguri-Damboa highway.
(SFC, 12/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 12, Nigeria's court of appeal dismissed 15 charges against Senate president Bukola Saraki related to alleged false declarations of assets, but it upheld three other charges against him.
(Reuters, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 12, A Nigerian official said two teenage girl suicide bombers attacked the town of Gwoza, Borno state. One girl was shot dead and the other detonated herself killing four others.
(SFC, 12/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 14, Nigerian state governors approved the release of $1 billion from the country's excess oil account to the government to help fight the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
(Reuters, 12/14/17)
2017 Dec 15, In Nigeria four Chinese expatriates were kidnapped while travelling from Lagos to Ondo state in the south. The military received a distress call, freed the victims and captured one of the kidnappers.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 16, Nigerian authorities said soldiers in a two week operation have arrested 167 Boko Haram fighters as well as 67 women and 173 children associated with the extremist group hiding on the islands of Lake Chad.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 18, A major Nigerian oil union said it would suspend a nationwide strike after securing worker demands through dispute resolution with the government and an oil firm.
(Reuters, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 25, In northeastern Nigeria four civilians were killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 31, In Nigeria a new report said at least 5,247 Muslims have been killed in Adamawa state over the past four years because of Boko Haram.
(SFC, 1/1/18, p.A2)
2017 Nigerian writer Chibundo Onuzo (25) authored her 2nd novel: “Welcome to Lagos".
(https://hkrbooks.com/2017/01/25/welcome-to-lagos/)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.65)
2018 Jan 2, Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video message claiming a series of attacks in the northeast during the festive season.
(AFP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 2, Nigeria's electricity grid was shut down late today by a fire on a gas pipeline, the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada in the southern state of Edo.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber entered a mosque in and detonated his explosives, killing 14 people during early morning prayers in Gamboru Ngala town, Borno state.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 4, The Nigerian military said it had rescued Salomi Pogu, one of more than 270 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok in 2014.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 5, In Nigeria Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Governing Council of Ambazonia, a Cameroon separatist movement, was taken into custody in Abuja along with six aides.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, Nigerian government and police officials said at least 83 people have been killed in communal violence since Dec. 31, much of it involving clashes between Muslim cattle herders and Christian farmers. Terve Akase, chief press secretary to the governor of Benue, attributed 71 of the deaths from Dec. 31 to Jan. 6 in the state to killings by the Fulani. In neighboring Taraba state at least 12 people were killed in similar, ethnically-charged attacks in the Lau region on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 9, Nigeria’s military said troops from Nigeria and neighboring countries have launched major offensives against the two Boko Haram factions and their leaders. Soldiers from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria were targeting Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad, both in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/9/18)
2018 Jan 11, The United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said more than 15,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria amid a crackdown on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 12, Nigeria’s army said that militant leader Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo was killed in a gun battle after his gang members ambushed a military unit that was transporting him following his arrest a day earlier in Delta state.
(SFC, 1/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 15, In Nigeria a video released by Boko Haram Islamic extremists purportedly showed some of the young women kidnapped from a school nearly four years ago who vow never to return home.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 15, Nigeria's army released 244 Boko Haram suspects who have denounced their membership in the deadly extremist group. The public release at the Maiduguri military barracks was done to mark Nigeria's Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
(AP, 1/16/18)
2018 Jan 16, In Nigeria kidnappers abducted one American and one Canadian in the northern state of Kaduna, killing two police officers.
(Reuters, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 17, In northern Nigeria a double suicide bombing at a market in Maiduguri killed at least 12 people and wounded 45 others.
(SFC, 1/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 17, In Nigeria two Americans and two Canadians were ambushed by unknown gunmen while traveling from the town of Kafanchan in Kaduna state to the capital, Abuja. The four were freed on January 19.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 18, In Nigeria five oil workers from local firm Sahara Energy were kidnapped in the southern Niger Delta region.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 25, Nigeria said it will protest to the United States over conditions imposed on its planned $494 million purchase of 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter planes. The sale of the aircraft, with weapons and service, includes thousands of bombs and rockets.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 25, Local aid officials said more than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape a crackdown by the government on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 30, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists killed at least five loggers, in the latest attacks against civilians in the violence-hit region.
(AFP, 2/1/18)
2018 Jan 30, Amnesty Int’l. said Nigeria’s military has killed at least 35 people in air raids during attempts to combat growing violence between farmers and herdsmen over land in five states.
(SFC, 1/31/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 30, Cameroonian troops crossed into neighboring Nigeria in pursuit of separatist rebels. More than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape the government crackdown on the separatists.
(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN refugee agency appealed for $157 million (126 million euros) to help over a quarter of a million people affected by the insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Since 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced another 2.4 million people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 3, Nigerian court papers showed that Danladi Umar, a top judge handling corruption cases against public officials, has himself been charged with bribery.
(AFP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 4, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram fighters stormed a village and murdered two civilians, while six people were killed in an attack in northern Cameroon.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, It was reported that India is seeking the help of the navies of Benin and Nigeria to find the Marine Express oil tanker that has gone missing in the Gulf of Guinea with 22 Indian crew members.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 14, The Court of Appeal in London ruled that two Nigerian communities cannot pursue Royal Dutch Shell in English courts over oil spills in Nigeria's Delta region.
(Reuters, 2/14/18)
2018 Feb 16, In northern Nigeria a trio of suicide bombers detonated at a crowded fish market late today in Konduga, Borno state, killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 16, Nigeria’s justice ministry ordered 475 Boko Haram suspects to be freed following a series of mass trials in which most cases were dropped for lack of evidence. The court imposed a second 15-year sentence on Haruna Yahaya (35), who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok.
(AFP, 2/18/18)
2018 Feb 19, A Vatican statement said the pope had accepted the resignation of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as bishop of Nigeria’s diocese of Ahiara. It said the position had been declared vacant and that a papal administrator would run it for the time being. Rebel priests and faithful had rejected him as an ethnic outsider.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 20, In northeastern Nigeria more than 90 schoolgirls went missing after Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram attacked Dapchi village in Yobe state.
(Reuters, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 27, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers killed at least 10 people after attackers struck a village in the Gwamba region of Adamawa state. The region been a flashpoint for communal clashes between farmers and herders.
(Reuters, 2/28/18)
2018 Feb 28, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari's office said security forces have been ordered to defend all schools in "liberated areas" of the country's northeast to avoid further mass abductions from schools by Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria three workers for UN agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by armed Boko Haram militants on a military base near the border with Cameroon. Aid agencies soon pulled out of Rann, leaving tens of thousands uprooted by the fighting living again in parlous conditions with little or no international humanitarian support.
(AP, 3/2/18)(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 2, The UN suspended aid work helping tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria after an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants a day earlier in the town of Rann, Borno state. The suspected militants killed at least 11 people, including the three aid workers. Three other aid workers were missing.
(Reuters, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, Nigerian police said least 10 people were killed in several days of violence between herdsmen and farmers in a number of remote herding villages in the Mambilla district of Taraba state. Cattle drivers said 19 people have been killed and 23 injured.
(AFP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 7, It was reported that between 10,000 and 30,000 Nigerian prostitutes are estimated to be walking Italian streets, often to pay off the debts they incurred to get there.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, In eastern Nigeria rural communities in Taraba state were put on indefinite lockdown as the authorities tried to contain mounting violence between cattle herders and farmers.
(AFP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, In central Nigeria gunmen suspected to be herdsmen killed at least five people in Plateau state. The attack happened just as President Muhammadu Buhari was rounding up a tour of Plateau and four other flashpoint states.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 16, Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani's revelation that lawmakers in the upper house of parliament receive about $37,500 each month for personal expenses prompted anger in the country, where most people live on less than $2 a day.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 21, Nigeria's government said 101 of the 110 schoolgirls abducted a month ago by Boko Haram are confirmed freed, and it indicates that the release is not over.
(AP, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, said police have smashed a Nigerian organized crime ring in one of the largest European operations against human trafficking. It says 89 people have been arrested in Britain and Spain and 39 victims rescued. The gang had trafficked victims to Europe through Libya and Italy, forcing women into prostitution to pay for their journey.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria four teenage girl suicide bombers killed two people in multiple attacks in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 1, In Nigeria Boko Haram tried to enter Maiduguri but were repelled by army soldiers. Six insurgents and seven suicide bombers were killed.
(SFC, 4/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 2, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists attacked two villages on the outskirts of Maiduguri, killing at least 15 people and wounded 83, in the biggest strike since the government said it was in talks with the Islamist militant group.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)(SFC, 4/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 5, The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of the year, reporting a rise of 32 fatalities in a month.
(AFP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 9, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari departed for Britain for talks with PM Theresa May after announcing that he would seek re-election in 2019.
(Reuters, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 12, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed 26 people in Zamfara state, in the latest in a series of attacks blamed on cattle thieves. The victims were miners from Kuru-Kuru that were attacked and residents of Jarkuka village who had come to help their neighbors.
(AP, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 17, Nigeria's upper chamber of parliament said it would invite the central bank governor and the ministers of finance and defence to explain the release of $462 million to buy helicopters.
(Reuters, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 17, Nigerian police fired teargas for a second day at protesters in Abuja demanding the release of Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been in jail without charge since December 2015.
(AFP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, In Nigeria three men burst into the Senate and snatched the legislature's ceremonial mace. The body's spokesman blamed lawmaker Ovie Omo-Agege, who had been suspended.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 26, In Nigeria at least four people were killed when Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked Maiduguri. Five suicide bombers also died trying to detonate their explosives while trying to reach the city's Giwa Barracks, where suspected militants are held. At least one member of the security forces was killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a military vehicle. Air strikes killed an unspecified number of jihadists as they fled. It was also announced that 22 soldiers from a regional force have been killed in fighting this month.
(AFP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 30, President Donald Trump met with Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari, president of Africa's most populous and wealthiest country. Buhari sought support in his battle against Boko Haram, as well as investment in Nigeria's rickety infrastructure.
(AFP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr, In central Nigeria 33 people, including a number of policemen, were killed during a brutal bank robbery in Offa, Kwara state.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 May 1, In northeastern Nigeria explosions in and around a mosque in Mubi, Adamawa state, killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 2, In northern Nigeria 13 people were killed over the last two days in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 5, In northwestern Nigeria as many as 40 people were killed by armed bandits in Gwaska, Kaduna state.
(SFC, 5/7/18, p.A2)
2018 May 8, Lawyers said Nigerian migrants, who survived a deadly sea crossing last year, filed a lawsuit last week against Italy for violating their rights by supporting Libya's efforts to return them to North Africa.
(Reuters, 5/8/18)
2018 May 18, In Nigeria anti-corruption representatives from around Africa vowed to "strengthen cooperation and partnership in the tracing, recovery and return of (stolen) assets".
(AFP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 31, Nigerian soldiers on patrol in the southwest intercepted three trucks carrying boxes of ammunition from Benin. The UN Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament (UNREC) has said more than 350 million small arms and light weapons are circulating in Nigeria -- nearly two for every member of its population.
(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 6, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari faced a threat of impeachment after lawmakers issued a raft of demands over security and corruption in a deepening rift with the executive.
(AFP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria six suicide bombers killed at least 20 people in Borno state, in the Shuwari and Abachari districts of the local government area. Residents said at least 31 people were killed.
(AP, 6/17/18)(Reuters, 6/17/18)
2018 Jun 20, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (75) signed the 2018 budget into law, more than six months after the 9.1-trillion-naira ($25 billion, 22-billion-euro) spending plan was first presented to parliament.
(AFP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, In northeastern Nigeria at least five people were killed late today and six others injured in a night-time Boko Haram raid and suicide attack on Tungushe village, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/23/18)
2018 Jun 23, In central Nigeria scores were dead after vicious clashes between mostly Muslim herders and Christian farmers. One report citing police saying 86 people were killed in Plateau State. Multiple local sources said that more than 100 people died in the violence, an apparent reprisal after ethnic Berom farmers allegedly killed five Fulani herders on June 21.
(AP, 6/25/18) (AFP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 28, Nigeria's army said they have arrested 17 people in connection with the killing of more than 200 people in the central state of Plateau.
(AFP, 6/28/18)
2018 Jul 1, Nigerian police found the bodies of 41 men with their throats cut in Zamfara state, a northern area that is notorious as a hideout for criminal gangs. Police soon arrested four suspects after searching the bush area and also found machetes and guns.
(AFP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, In Nigeria French President Emmanuel Macron called for Africa and Europe to reach a "win-win" solution to migration during an address to 300 young entrepreneurs on the second day of his visit to Lagos.
(AP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 6, Nigeria's Supreme Court dismissed all outstanding charges against Senate president Bukola Saraki related to alleged false declarations of assets.
(Reuters, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 11, In northern Nigeria 26 people were killed over the last two days in violence blamed on cattle thieves.
(AFP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 14, Nigeria's ruling party won a governorship election in southwestern Ekiti state, unseating the opposition and giving President Muhammadu Buhari a boost ahead of national polls next year.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 18, The Nigeria Police Force said eight suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram have confessed to involvement in the 2014 abduction of some 270 girls from the town of Chibok.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 21, In northeastern Nigeria military troops killed "scores" of Boko Haram fighters in Yobe state. Jihadists had been intending to attack and loot the market in the town of Babangida when they ambushed troops.
(AFP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 23, In northern Nigeria seven people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in Konduga town.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 24, Fifteen Nigerian senators quit the ruling All Progressives Congress party, making it a minority in parliament's upper house and indicating worsening rifts in President Muhammadu Buhari's political camp months ahead of an election.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Aug 1, In northern Nigeria Sokoto governor Aminu Tambuwal dumped President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress for the opposition, in the latest defection to hit the ruling party.
(AFP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 9, In southern Nigeria armed robbers killed at least 10 people, including a policeman, when they raided a police station and two banks in Igarra, Edo state.
(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 9, In Nigeria 13 people burnt to death when a bus burst into flames after a head-on collision with a digger near the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 12, In Nigeria hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, shooting into the air and disrupting flights. They were furious about a planned redeployment to a battlefront in the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.
(AFP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 14, Nigerian reporter Samuel Ogundipe was arrested for refusing to reveal the source of a letter, which identified who was blamed for a blockade on parliament last week by members of the Department of State Security. His article cited a confidential letter from the chief of police. On August 17 he was released on bail.
(Reuters, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 28, In Nigeria eight people were killed in the Barakin Ladi district of Plateau state in a long-running resource conflict between farmers and herders.
(AFP, 9/4/18)
2018 Aug 29, Nigeria's central bank ordered South African telecoms giant MTN to refund $8.13 billion (6.96 billion euros) that it allegedly illegally repatriated and fined four banks involved in the transfer.
(AFP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 29, Britain's Theresa May landed in Nigeria's capital on the second leg of her maiden Africa tour aimed at drumming up post-Brexit trade deals outside the EU. Britain said it would open new embassies in Chad and Niger to boost its diplomatic presence in Africa's troubled Sahel region.
(AFP, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nigeria an attack by suspected members of Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), on a base in Zari village in the north of Borno State, killed up to 30 soldiers. The known death toll of Nigerian troops soon rose to 48, but state media quoted an official army spokesman as saying such reports were wrong.
(AFP, 9/1/18)(Reuters, 9/3/18)
2018 Aug 31, In Nigeria German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari wrapping up a three-day Africa visit with a meeting that focused on migration.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 2, In central Nigeria gunmen shot dead 11 people in an attack suspected to be part of ongoing communal violence in Lopandet Dwei Du village, Plateau state.
(AP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 3, In Nigeria eleven people were shot dead in the Lopandet Dwei Du area of Plateau state in a long-running resource conflict between farmers and herders.
(AFP, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 5, It was reported that Nigeria's two main political parties have asked election hopefuls to pay huge fees for the chance to stand at next year's general election, in a move criticized as favoring the rich and well-connected. According to newspaper adverts the All Progressives Congress (APC) wants 45 million naira ($125,500, 108,000 euros) per presidential primary candidate.
(AFP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 7, In northern Nigeria Boko Haram extremists overran Gudumbali, a key crossroads and military outpost. In June the government encouraged displaced people to return to the town in Borno state.
(AP, 9/8/18)(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Nigeria at least 18 people were killed and more than 40 others were burned in a gas explosion at a gas station in Lafia.
(SFC, 9/11/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 14, Nigerian finance minister Kemi Adeosun (51), accused of forging a document to avoid compulsory national service, said she was quitting to protect government integrity.
(AFP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 17, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that one of its employees, midwife Saifura Khorsa, had been killed in Nigeria after more than six months in captivity by Boko Haram.
(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, The UN said more than 500 people have died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, representing the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years. The Lake Chad region straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which are also grappling with a jihadist insurgency.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 22, In southwestern Nigeria voters in the state of Osun went to the polls to elect a new governor amid growing concerns about free and fair voting, six months ahead of a presidential election.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 22, The United Nations said a cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed nearly 100 lives over the past two weeks.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 22, Pirates off Nigeria's coast attacked the MV Glarus early today as it sailed from Lagos to Port Harcourt with a load of wheat. The next day Geneva-based Massoel Shipping said 12 of the ships 19 crew members had been kidnapped.
(AP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 23, In Nigeria the governorship election in southwest Osun state ended in a stalemate when the nation's electoral body failed to declare a clear winner. A run off between Gboyega Oyetola from President Muhammadu Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ademola Adeleke of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is expected to be held on October 27.
(AFP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 27, Nigerian authorities said the death toll from large-scale flooding in recent weeks has jumped to nearly 200 people.
(SFC, 9/28/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 29, Nigeria's women's affairs minister submitted her resignation in a letter to the president, becoming the second cabinet member to step down this month and adding that she would leave the ruling party. The minister said she was resigning and leaving the leader's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party because she had been barred from running for governor of eastern Taraba state.
(Reuters, 9/29/18)
2018 Oct 4, Vietnam seized eight tons of pangolin scales and elephant ivory shipped from Nigeria, the second such haul in a week.
(AFP, 10/5/18)
2018 Oct 7, In Nigeria Atiku Abubakar (71) won almost half the votes cast in a primary race to become the main opposition challenger to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in next year's elections.
(AP, 10/7/18)
2018 Oct 12, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by Boko Haram fighters to overrun a military base in the restive northeast leaving six soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In southeastern Nigeria at least 19 people were killed when a leaking oil pipeline exploded in Abia state. Oil thieves were suspected of hacking into the pipe
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 15, The Nigerian government said a medical aid worker held hostage by Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) militants was killed after a deadline they set expired. The next day the Red Cross named the health worker as Hauwa Mohammed Liman, a 24-year-old midwife. She and two other Nigerian aid workers, Alice Loksha and Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, were working in the northeastern town of Rann when they were kidnapped by ISWA in March. Khorsa, also a midwife, was killed in September.
(Reuters, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 21, Nigerian police said communal violence in the northern state of Kaduna over the last few days has killed 55 people.
(Reuters, 10/21/18)
2018 Oct 23, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari flew in by helicopter to cut the ribbon at the new Seme-Krake Joint Border Post with his Beninese counterpart Patrice Talon.
(AFP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 27, In Nigeria three members of the IMN (IMN) were killed during protests in Abuja. The IMN has staged a series of demonstrations demanding the release of leader Zakzaky, who has been detained since bloody clashes broke out in the northern city of Zaria in 2015.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 27, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria struck the MV Pomerania Sky, a container ship bound for the Nigerian port of Onne and abducted 11 of the crew, including 8 from Poland.
(Reuters, 10/29/18)
2018 Oct 29, In Nigeria three more IMN supporters were killed during a protest on the outskirts of Abuja.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 30, Nigerian police fired shots and tear gas at thousands of supporters of an imprisoned Shiite cleric in Abuja.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 31, In northeast Nigeria suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency killed at least 15 people late today in an attack on a group of villages.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 3, Nigeria's main Shiite Muslim movement said the army killed at least 50 of its members who were protesting this week. Nigeria's military said it killed six people and claims the protesters had fired first.
(AP, 11/3/18)
2018 Nov 18, In Nigeria 44 soldiers were killed in an attack in Metele in the northeastern state of Borno. Nigerian troops later released a video claiming dozens had died in the attack and deploring the poor state of their equipment.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 22, Nigerian security sources said attacks blamed on Islamic State West Africa have killed around 100 soldiers in northeast Nigeria since Nov. 18.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 28, Nigeria's military revealed a death toll of 39 from five attacks by extremists on soldiers between Nov. 2 and Nov. 18.
(SFC, 11/29/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 28, At least 15 Nigerian news organizations joined forces on the CrossCheck Nigeria project to fight misinformation ahead of February's elections in a collaborative first as the country's main political parties trade accusations of fabrication and exaggeration.
(AFP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 29, Nigeria's Pres. Buhari said Islamic extremists in Nigeria have begun using drones.
(SFC, 11/30/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 29, Top leaders from Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon held talks in N'Djamena (Chad) to discuss the recent escalation of attacks by Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad area.
(AFP, 11/29/18)
2018 Dec 12, Nigerian opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar signed an election peace accord, a day after his absence from the official signing ceremony raised concerns about the conduct of the February 2019 vote.
(Reuters, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Nigerian military accused United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) staff of spying for Islamist militants in northeast Nigeria, and suspended the agency's activities there. A new military statement hours later lifted a suspension of UNICEF's work in the extremist-threatened northeast. The reversal came after an emergency meeting with UNICEF representatives.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 15, In Nigeria leaders of countries in the Lake Chad region met to give fresh impetus to their fight against Boko Haram. Benin, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria will hold a follow-up to a November gathering in Chad to tackle a surge in Boko Haram attacks in the restive region.
(AFP, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 24, Nigeria said it has resolved a dispute with Africa's largest mobile operator over $8.13 billion (6.96 billion euros) which it accused MTN of illegally repatriating to South Africa.
(AFP, 12/24/18)
2018 Dec 24, In Nigeria 14 military and police personnel were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram exstremists outside Damaturu town in Yobe state.
(SFC, 12/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 26, In Nigeria militants attacked a military base late today in Baga, in eastern Borno state. 10 people were killed and clashes were continued as the militants tried to capture the town. The attacks in the Baga-Kawa area caused more than 6,357 people to flee east into Chad and some 20,000 others to flee to safety within Nigeria.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2018 Dec 28, Shehu Shagari (93), Nigeria's second president (1978-1983), died. His civilian tenure was sandwiched between two military rulers in an era rocked by coups.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 30, Five Nigerien and five Nigerian" troops and 11 enemy fighters were killed over the last 24 hours in an operation launched against gangs in the Maradi region.
(AFP, 12/31/18)
2018 Dec, Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) began collaborating with French data firm Kpler to help it ferret out the smugglers from the thousands of ships plying Nigerian waters.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 Jan 2, A Nigerian Air Force helicopter crashed in combat at Damasak in northern Borno state, killing five crew members.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his niece, Amina Zakari, to the election commission ahead of presidential elections in February, when he will seek a second term. The opposition quickly objected to the appointment.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Nigeria the Koluama Seven Brothers militant group carried out an unconfirmed warning strike on an oil facility owned by local energy firm Conoil in the southern state of Bayelsa. The group soon threatened a production shut-down and demanded action from Conoil and a traditional ruler called King Solomon Eddy on issues such as job creation.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 6, In Nigeria two journalists of the Daily Trust were arrested in Maiduguri. They had written a critical report of the army's performance fighting against Boko Haram extremists.
(SFC, 1/8/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 11, In Nigeria an overturned oil tanker exploded while dozens of people were scooping up the leaking fuel and many were killed. About 60 people were inside a pit scooping fuel when the explosion occurred.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 14, In northeastern Nigeria 7 people were killed when Boko Haram fighters attacked a military base in Rann, setting fire to shelters for those displaced by the conflict.
(AFP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 18, The United Nations said it was "extremely alarmed" by the forced return by Cameroon of thousands of refugees to northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamists pose a continuing threat to civilians. The UN refugee agency said Cameroon forced "several thousand" refugees back to Nigeria this week. According to the UNHCR Cameroon is currently hosting 370,000 refugees, 100,000 of whom are Nigerians.
(AFP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 24, A Nigerian appeals court issued an interim order stopping a tribunal from charging Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen with breaching asset-declaration rules, a month before a presidential election.
(Reuters, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari set off an uproar by announcing the suspension of the chief justice, citing corruption allegations.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 28, In Nigeria the militant group Boko Haram killed at least 60 people when it renewed its attack on the northeastern town of Rann.
(AP, 2/1/19)
2019 Jan 29, The United Nations refugee agency says more than 30,000 Nigerians fled the border town of Rann over the weekend to seek safety in Cameroon as attacks by Boko Haram extremists continue. Spokesman Babar Baloch said thousands more have fled to neighboring Chad because of the violence in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Feb 9, Nigeria's main political opposition said it had been forced to cancel a key presidential campaign rally in the capital Abuja, and blamed President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party.
(AFP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 12, In southern Nigeria fifteen people were killed in a stampede at an election campaign rally by President Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 12, In Nigeria three people were reported killed when insurgents attacked a motorcade on route to an election rally in Borno state. Survivors of the assault later put the toll much higher. One survivor said he saw about 40 bodies; another estimated that as many as 100 died. The militants also took between 100 and 200 people captive.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar joined other candidates to sign a "peace accord", in front of foreign observers.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Nigeria Boko Haram insurgents killed eight people during an attack late today on the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Nigeria authorities in Kaduna state reported at least 66 deaths in fighting said to be between Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herdsmen. The death toll from the attack soon doubled to more than 130 people.
(SFC, 2/15/19, p.A2)(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 16, Nigeria's president and the leading opposition candidate urged people to remain calm after a national election scheduled for today was postponed by a week just five hours before polls were due to open.
(Reuters, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 21, In northwestern Nigeria two people were killed in clashes between rival party supporters in the village of Kofa, 2-days ahead of rescheduled general elections.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 23, Nigeria held presidential elections. In the northeast one soldier was killed and 20 others were injured in a Boko Haram rocket attack in Maiduguri, just hours before elections began.
(AP, 2/23/19)(AFP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 24, In Nigeria some polling stations remained open in several states while votes were counted in the previous day's presidential election, widely seen as a tight race between the president and a former vice president. The death toll in election-related violence continued to climbed to 39 after one election worker was hit by a bullet after completing work in Rivers state.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 26, Nigeria's incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari extended his early election lead based on official results from a third of the country's districts as the death toll from sporadic poll-related violence rose to 47.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 26, In Nigeria gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders stormed into villages of ethnic Adara farmers, killing 29 people and burning some 40 homes. The bloodshed was believed to be in retaliation for gunmen attacking eight Fulani settlements in Kaduna state on February 11, which state governor Nasir El-Rufai said killed more than 130 people.
(AFP, 2/28/19)
2019 Feb 27, Nigerian election authorities said President Muhammadu Buhari (76) has comfortably won a second term at the helm of Africa's largest economy, but his main rival planned a fraud challenge after a vote marred by delays and violence. Some 327 people died in election-related violence since the campaign began in October, 67 of them during or after the Feb. 23 vote.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 27, Aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Cameroonian and Nigerian authorities have ordered 40,000 refugees in Cameroon to return to northeast Nigeria.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Mar 1, In southern Nigeria more than 50 people were left missing after a leaking oil pipeline exploded and caused a stampede in Bayelsa state. The Nembe Creek Trunk pipeline exploded, but no fatalities were reported. It runs from an oil terminal in Bonny to the state of Bayelsa with capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.
(AP, 3/2/19)(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 3, It was reported that a Nigerian court last week condemned as "illegal and unconstitutional" the arrest and deportation of Cameroonian separatists who had applied for asylum in Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 8, In northeastern Nigeria at least five farmers were killed and dozens wounded after their vehicle struck a land mine buried by Boko Haram extremists. Three people were reportedly killed in Rivers state, following clashes between APC and PDP supporters, one day ahead of regional elections.
(SFC, 3/9/19, p.A2)(AFP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 9, Nigerians voted for a second time in a fortnight in governorship and state assembly elections.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 10, In Nigeria dozens of soldiers in armored vehicles encircled a vote counting center in the opposition-held oil-rich southern city of Port Harcourt, in the latest flashpoint as violence overshadowed the previous day's closely-watched regional elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission halted the vote count in Rivers state, citing violence at polling stations, kidnapping of staff, confiscation and destruction of results.
(AFP, 3/10/19)(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, In Nigeria gunmen abducted a Lebanese construction worker and killed another man in the northern city of Kano.
(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 13, In Nigeria a three-story building that housed a school collapsed in Lagos. 20 people were soon confirmed dead in the school building, and most of them are children. The school had been operating illegally on the top two floors.
(Reuters, 3/13/19)(AP, 3/14/19)(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 16, In northeastern Nigeria a fire killed at least eight people and left 15,000 others without shelter after raging through a camp for people displaced by a war against Islamist insurgents in the town of Gajiram, Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 23, Nigerians returned to vote in governorship and state elections after polling a fortnight ago was declared invalid in some areas because of violence.
(AFP, 3/23/19)
2019 Apr 1, In Nigeria an Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) video, dated April 1 and said to have been filmed in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, was published online by the IS propaganda arm Amaq. It claimed to have executed five Nigerian soldiers but security sources the next day said three of those killed were civilian militia members.
(AFP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 7, A presidential aide and the police chief said Nigeria has suspended mining in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara, amid concerns that illegal miners were connected to a surge in banditry.
(Reuters, 4/7/19)
2019 Apr 7, In northern Nigeria 14 people were killed in Katsina state in clashes between cattle thieves and a civilian militia armed by the government to support the security forces.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 8, In Nigeria eight people were killed early today in the southeastern state of Rivers when armed men attacked the village of Emohua in the Ogoni region.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 9, Nigerian media reported that 20 people had been massacred in the region of Kajuru, in Kaduna state, in fighting between crop farmers and nomadic herders.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 13, In Nigeria twelve people were killed and 16 others badly injured when a fuel tanker exploded in the northern city of Gombe.
(AFP, 4/14/19)
2019 Apr 25, In Nigeria two Royal Dutch Shell oil workers were kidnapped, and their police escorts killed, in the restive Delta region.
(Reuters, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 29, In Nigeria jihadists, packed into four trucks and flanked by gunmen on motorbikes, swept into Kuda in Adamawa state late today, shooting down villagers as they ran away killing at least 21 people. Nine more bodies were soon found, taking the total massacred to 30.
(AFP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters marched through Abuja demanding an end to police impunity, after police officers were accused of carrying out a string of sexual assaults.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria a regional militia allied with government forces freed almost 900 children it had used in the war against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria the Islamic State (IS) killed 11 government soldiers in an attack on the northeastern town of Gajiganna.
(Reuters, 5/11/19)
2019 May 13, The Nigerian army said it rescued 54 women and children over the weekend held captive in Borno State by the extremist group Boko Haram.
(AP, 5/13/19)
2019 May 18, It was reported that Nigeria has experienced 685 kidnappings countrywide in the first quarter of the year -- an average of seven per day. Half of the kidnappings took place in the northwestern state of Zamfara.
(AFP, 5/18/19)
2019 May 28, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced around 20,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Niger since April.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (76) was sworn in for a second term in office, vowing once more to tackle crippling security threats and root out corruption in Africa's key economy.
(AFP, 5/29/19)
2019 Jun 7, In Nigeria's Federal High Court in Abuja said African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower FM radio should be allowed to operate until a ruling on their legal challenge to the ban. Broadcasting resumed the next day.
(AFP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 7, In Nigeria gunmen in oil-rich Rivers state kidnapped two Lebanese workers helping to build a road.
(AP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 12, In Nigeria there was an attack on an army base in northeastern Borno state in the town of Kareto. The Islamic State later said its fighters had killed 20 soldiers.
(Reuters, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists launched a pre-dawn attack a military base near in Kareto village, killing several troops and stealing weapons.
(AFP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 14, In northwest Nigeria an armed gang killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages late today in Zamfara state.
(Reuters, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria 30 people were killed late today in a triple suicide bombing outside a hall in Konduga in an attack bearing the hallmarks of the Boko Haram jihadist group.
(AFP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 17, In Nigeria assailants late today arrived on nine armored trucks and stormed into the military base outside the town of Gajiram, 80 km (50 miles), north of Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 21, The Islamic State fighters reportedly killed 15 Nigerian soldiers in fighting at Garno, a town in northeastern Borno state near Lake Chad. West African (MNJTF) troops reportedly killed 42 suspected Islamic State fighters in the battle, the heaviest death toll suffered by the insurgents in the last six months.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Nigeria Islamist insurgents struck the village of Ngamngam in Borno state late today. By the next morning at least 20 civilians were killed.
(Reuters, 6/26/19)
2019 Jul 1, In central Nigeria at least 45 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a petrol tanker crashed off the road and exploded as people gathered fuel in Benue state.
(AFP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 11, Two members of Nigeria's pro-Iran Shia Muslim sect, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, were killed and several injured in the northern city of Kaduna when police fired on an anti-government demonstration. The killings happened at a protest against the detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 13, Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked the Paksoy-1, a Turkish-flagged cargo ship, off the coast of Nigeria. Another eight sailors were left safely aboard.
(Reuters, 7/16/19)
2019 Jul 18, In northeastern Nigeria one Action Against Hunger staff member, two drivers and three other health workers went missing after an attack on a convoy in which one driver was killed.
(Reuters, 7/19/19)
2019 Jul 20, In western Nigeria four Turkish nationals were kidnapped late today in Gbale village, Kwara state. Police soon began conducting a rescue operation.
(Reuters, 7/21/19)
2019 Jul 22, Nigerian police and a group of Shi'ite Muslim protesters clashed in the capital Abuja, with at least one marcher appearing to be dead.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 23, Nigerian troops and police clashed with Shi'ite Muslim marchers in the capital Abuja and gunfire could be heard.
(Reuters, 7/23/19)
2019 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists killed more than 60 people during an attack on villagers leaving a funeral in the Nganzai local government area.
(SFC, 7/29/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 13, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the central bank to stop dollar supply for food imports, saying food security has been achieved and agricultural production has increased.
(Bloomberg, 8/30/19)
2019 Aug 27, Nigeria said it will not relinquish assets to a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands following a court ruling related to a $9 billion gas project dispute. Earlier this month a judge in London granted Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to attempt to seize some $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.
(Reuters, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 29, Nigeria's biggest telecoms firm MTN said it launched a mobile money transfer service, targeting those without bank accounts, and that it plans to become a payment services bank once it obtains approval from the central bank.
(Reuters, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 3, Nigerian youths took to the streets this evening in some Nigerian cities to attack South African owned businesses, amid a growing outcry about the attacks on many Nigerians living in South Africa.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 10, A Nigerian Shi'ite group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), banned by the government said police killed 12 of its members and injured more on during marches in the north of country to mark the Ashura Muslim holiday.
(Reuters, 9/10/19)
2019 Sep 12, OPEC agreed to trim oil output by asking over-producing members Iraq and Nigeria to bring production in line with their targets as the group strives to prevent a glut amid soaring US production and a slowing global economy. Oil prices have dropped below $60 per barrel in recent weeks from their 2019 peaks of $75.
(Reuters, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 20, In Nigeria residents of Africa's most populous city, Lagos, joined a global day of demonstrations over climate change. The low-lying city of more than 20 million people is among the many African coastal cities at risk from flooding due to global warming.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 22, Nigeria's army said it will require anyone moving through three northeastern states to carry identification cards in an effort to root out members of Boko Haram and Islamic State.
(Reuters, 9/22/19)
2019 Sep 24, A court in Nigeria's capital Abuja ordered the State Security Service to release activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore while charges of treason against him are pending.
(Reuters, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 26, Nigerian police rescued hundreds of boys and men from a building in Kaduna state where they had been beaten, starved, sexually assaulted and chained.
(AP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN said worsening violence has doubled the number of people displaced from northwest Nigeria to some 40,000 over the past four months.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 29, In northeastern Nigeria militants killed at least nine people in an attack. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 9/30/19)
2019 Oct 3, In northern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped six schoolgirls and two staff members from a boarding school near the village of Kakau Daji in Kaduna state.
(Reuters, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 8, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record 10.33 trillion-naira ($33.8 billion) budget for 2020 to lawmakers as he aims to spur growth in Africa's largest economy at the start of his second term in office.
(Reuters, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 9, A new study by the World Health Organization said more than one-third of women in Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Nigeria had been abused during child birth in health centers.
(SFC, 10/10/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 11, In Nigeria global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc launched a pilot test of a boat service in Lagos to attract commuters seeking to avoid the megacity's notoriously congested roads.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, It was reported that thousands of Nigerian hunters on the northest are preparing an offensive against Boko Haram extremists. They were backed by Borno state Gov. BabaganaZulum and were armed with charmed amulets and knowledge of the harsh terrain.
(SFC, 10/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 16, Nigerian police freed about 500 men and boys from a northern Islamic school in Katsina where some had been chained to walls, molested and beaten.
(Reuters, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 30, The UN humanitarian office said that humanitarian groups are "relieved" that Nigeria's has suspended the ban on Mercy Corps and Action Against Hunger.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 5, Nigerian police said they have freed 259 people from an Islamic rehabilitation center in the southwestern city of Ibadan, taking the number rescued from abusive institutions since September to nearly 1,500.
(Reuters, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 11, Human Rights Watch published a report saying thousands of people with mental health conditions are held in chains in institutions across Nigeria and urged the government to ban the practice.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Dec 3, Pirates kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise. The Nave Constellation was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 6, Lawyers for the Nigerian government filed "new and substantive" allegations of fraud with a British court in an ongoing fight against an arbitration award now worth some $10 billion. The government has been fighting efforts by British Virgin Islands-based Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) to enforce the award for a failed gas project and is also seeking to overturn the underlying award.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 23, Armed groups in northern Nigeria reportedly executed many civilians and abducted many others in Borno state where Boko Haram is active.
(AP, 12/25/19)
2019 Dec 27, Nigeria's government condemned extremists linked to the Islamic State group after a video circulated of 11 hostages, most of them Christians, being executed. They were thought to be killed on Christmas Day.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2020 Jan 18, In northeast Nigeria heavily armed jihadists have carried out an "extremely violent" attack on a vital aid facility housing UN workers. One soldier and four assailants died in the ensuing gunfight.
(AFP, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 20, In Nigeria Islamic militants killed a Christian pastor who had appealed for help life in a video just days earlier. Rev. Lawan Andimi was abducted earlier this month when Boko Haram militants attacked the Michika local government area, where he was the chairman of a local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Jan 31, In Nigeria More than 1,000 motorcycle taxi drivers marched to the gates of the Lagos state legislature to protest against a measure that will bar them from much of the traffic-choked commercial capital.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, The Trump administration announced that it was restricting immigrants from six additional countries that officials said failed to meet minimum security standards, as part of an election-year push to further clamp down immigration. Immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new restrictions in obtaining certain visas to come to the United States.
(AP, 1/3120)
2020 Feb 1, Nigeria's government said it has created a committee to address the issues that led to a suspension of US immigrant visas to its citizens.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Nigerian authorities bannd two-and three-wheeled motor bike taxis. Drivers asked "How do we feed our families?"
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.36)
2020 Feb 4, Nigeria said it has eased its visa rules in an effort to boost trade and tourism as an African trade agreement promoting freer movement of goods and services comes into effect.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, The United States and the British dependency of Jersey said they have agreed with Nigeria to repatriate more than $300 million in funds stolen by former military ruler General Sani Abacha. Corruption watchdog Transparency International estimates he stole as much as $5 billion of public money from 1993-1998.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Mar 2, Nigerian stocks fell as authorities contacted around 100 people who may have been exposed to an Italian man who is the country's first coronavirus patient.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Nigeria the emir of Kano, a former central bank governor and critic of Pres. Buhari's economic policies, was ousted for showing "insubordination" to local authorities.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 15, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 21, Nigeria announced it is closing airports as of March 23 to all incoming international flights for one month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists killed at least 50 government soldiers in an ambush hear Goneri village, Yobe state.
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 23, In northeastern Nigeria around government 70 soldiers were killed in an Islamist militant ambush in the village of Gorgi, Borno state. 47 soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram ambush on a convoy that had left the north-eastern city of Maiduguri carrying ammunition.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(BBC, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the cessation of movement in Lagos and the capital Abuja for 14 days in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Nigeria had 97 confirmed cases. The country has shut international airports, closed all land borders and imposed curbs on cargo vessels allowed to dock at its ports in an effort to contain the outbreak. Nigeria's petroleum regulator ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 31, Africa's confirmed cases of coronavirus climbed to at least 5,300, with more than 170 recorded deaths. The Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja entered a two-week lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari announced a two-week extension of a lockdown in three states, including the capital Abuja, to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Nigerian doctor Emeka Chugbo (60) died following exposure to a coronavirus patient at his private clinic.
(BBC, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nigeria's the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the country's security forces have killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the coronavirus in Germany.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 21, Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper reported the recent deaths of around 150 people in the northern commercial city of Kano, prompting investigations to determine if they were related to the coronavirus pandemic. The state government acknowledged the deaths but said they were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria has 1,182 coronavirus cases and a national death toll of 35.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 23, It was reported that the governors of Nigeria's 36 states have agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 27, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the coronavirus lockdowns, which had been due to end today, needed to continue until 4 May. He also ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks. Nigeria has reported 1,273 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and that he was sending a government team to investigate a high number of unexplained deaths.
(BBC, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr, In Nigeria residents of Lagos and neighboring Ogun state resorted to forming vigilante groups as reports spread that hundreds of gangsters belonging to One Million Boys and Awawa Boys were attacking some neighborhoods.
(BBC, 6/2/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 6, Nigeria said it will extend a ban on all flights by four weeks as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 7, Nigeria has recorded 3,145 cases of coronavirus and 103 deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.34)
2020 May 10, Authorities in Nigeria's oil-rich southern Rivers state demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus. The state currently has 15 active cases of the virus and has recorded two deaths. One owner said authorities were asking for a bribe and denied that the hotel was operating.
(BBC, 5/11/20)
2020 May 12, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that in northern Nigeria tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across 19 states in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories. Hundreds of the children already had coronavirus, so officials inadvertently contributed to spreading the virus rather than containing it.
(BBC, 5/15/20)
2020 May 18, Nigeria said it would impose precisely targeted lockdown measures in areas that report rapid increases in coronavirus cases, while the phased reopening of the economy as a whole would go ahead more slowly than planned.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 25, Fifty trafficked Nigerian women, rescued from Lebanon, returned home. A further 19 Nigerians, stranded in Lebanon because of Covid-19 lockdowns, were also repatriated.
(BBC, 5/26/20)
2020 May 29, In Nigeria nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as worries grew about undetected spread in the north.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 2, The board of governors of the 55-year-old US and the African Development Bank met to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the conduct of Akinwumi Adesina, the head of the Nigerian branch of the AfDB, just days after the US rejected an initial inquiry that cleared him. Besides the core 54 African countries, the US is one of the 27 non-regional members of the AfDB and its second largest shareholder.
(BBC, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 9, Nigerian police arrested a man after 40 people were raped in one town over the period of a year. A mother in the northern town Dangora caught the man in her children's bedroom. The man ran away but neighbors gave chase and caught him.
(BBC, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 9, In north-eastern Nigeria at least 69 people were killed in a suspected jihadist attack on a remote village in the Gubio district of Borno state. It was unclear who carried out the attack.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, It was reported that an outbreak of African swine fever in Nigeria's largest pig farm co-operative in the south-west of the country has been confirmed and that some 300,000 pigs have been killed.
(BBC, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, The Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs called on law enforcement to speed up prosecution of rape cases which had reached an "alarming rate" three times the typical level as women and children are locked down with their abusers.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Nigeria three attacks by Islamic extremists, including an assault on Monguno, a military garrison town, have killed more than 40 people in northeastern Borno state. At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the attacks.
(AP, 6/14/20)(BBC, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 19, In Ghana a building inside the Nigerian High Commission compound in Accra was demolished. Armed men reportedly stormed the compound and destroyed buildings under construction. Days later Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo apologized to Nigeria.
(BBC, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, It was reported that police in Nigeria have rescued more than 100 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.
(BBC, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun, Nigeria's government announced that it would phase out petrol subsidies. When ten days of protests followed along with 12 deaths, the government backed down and reduced subsidies instead of eliminating them.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 3, US prosecutors said Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a Nigerian man charged with conspiring to launder a fortune from email scams, has arrived in Chicago to face charges. UAE authorities arrested Abbas last month. Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, had showed off his wealth to 2.4 million Instagram followers. Hushpuppi, and another cyber-heist suspect Olalekan Jacob Ponle (aka Mr Woodberry) appeared in a Chicago court. They had been arrested in Dubai, where they lived, in June. Dubai police said they had been extradited to the US.
(NBC News, 7/4/20)(BBC, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 4, It was reported that motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves in Katsina state are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The recent attacks in the president's home state killed more than 100 people between April and June.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 14, In New York City the body of Fahim Saleh (33), a technology entrepreneur who founded Nigeria's Gokada ride-hailing app, was found decapitated and dismembered in a luxury apartment with a power saw plugged in nearby. Nigerian state officials in February banned all motorcycle taxis, known locally as 'okada'.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that five aid workers abducted last month in north-east Nigeria's Borno State have been killed. Pres. Muhammadu Buhari blamed Boko Haram and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Aug 1, According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the Nigerian city of Onitsha is the most polluted in the world.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 10, In Nigeria musician Sharif-Aminu (22) was sentenced in northern state of Kano to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad. Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad. An appeal was allowed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 12, It was reported that a court in Nigeria has fined three men $52,000 (£40,000) each for hijacking a ship in March and securing a ransom of $200,000 for the release of its crew.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 7, It was reported that two Nigerian men have been arrested for allegedly scamming a German state that tried to buy 2.3m euros (£2m) of personal protective equipment (PPE).
(BBC, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 11, It was reported that lawmakers in Nigeria's Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14. State governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the state.
(BBC, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 14, Nigerian health workers demanding the payment of a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients went on strike only a week after doctors in Africa's most populous country staged a walk out.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Nigeria Gracious David-West (40), a member of the Greenlanders - also known as Dey Gbam, a mafia-styled street gang that sprung out of the armed militant groups, was arrested. In October he sentenced to death in Port Harcourt for killing nine women. Authorities said he had sex with his victims before binding their arms and feet with strips of white sheets and then strangling them.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Sep 21, Nigerian health workers who went on strike in mid-September for a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients returned to work, without their demands being met.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 23, In central Nigeria at least 25 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded following a collision with other vehicles on a major highway in Lokoja.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 25, In northeastern Nigeria 18 people were left dead after an ambush on a government convoy in Borno state. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack, claiming 30 people had been killed.
(BBC, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Nigeria militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) used a donkey strapped with explosives to ambush the convoy of the governor of north-eastern Borno state. A number of insurgents were killed in the ensuing shoot-out.
(BBC, 9/28/20)
2020 Oct 4, Nigeria's inspector general of police banned a notorious unit from carrying out stop and search duties and setting up roadblocks amid growing anger at routine harassment and atrocities allegedly committed by its officers. The ban was triggered by the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the unit in the city of Lagos a day earlier.
(BBC, 10/4/20)
2020 Oct 9, In Nigeria police fired tear gas at a protest against police brutality in Abuja. This followed the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the Sars unit on Oct. 9.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, It was reported that Nigeria has dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), the police force at the center of protests against police brutality. The officers from the controversial unit will be redeployed. It was unclear where to.
(BBC, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Nigeria two people were killed in Lagos as protests continued against police brutality for a sixth day.
(BBC, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Nigeria's police chief ordered the unconditional release of all demonstrators arrested during protests against police brutality.
(BBC, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 14, Nigeria announced that the new Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team will fill the gaps left from the dissolution of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (Sars).
(BBC, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 15, Nigeria's government announced a ban on all protest in Abuja, saying the demonstrators were violating public safety measures introduced to tackle Covid-19. The military has issued a warning to "subversive elements and trouble makers" to desist after a week of protests about police brutality. Amnesty International said at least 10 people have been killed and hundreds injured.
(BBC, 10/15/20)(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Nigerian protests against police brutality continued for the ninth day, with demonstrators fending off attacks from gangs suspected to be backed by the police, warnings from the Nigerian military, and a government order to stop because of COVID-19.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 20, Nigeria's police chief ordered the nationwide deployment of anti-riot officers to quell violence following protests against police brutality. The announcement came as an indefinite 24-hour curfew was imposed in the commercial hub of Lagos. Some 1,000 protesters gathered at the Lekki toll gate to prevent cars using a major motorway. Soldiers were reportedly seen barricading the protest site moments before shooting started. Amnesty International later said 12 people were killed. The Nigerian army rejected the claim.
(BBC, 10/20/20)(NY Times, 10/21/20)(BBC, 10/22/20)(BBC, 11/15/20)
2020 Oct 21, In Nigeria unrest saw buildings torched and looted, and police shooting into the air to enforce a curfew in Lagos.
(BBC, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, In Nigeria plumes of smoke rose from a prison in Lagos and gunfire could be heard as people ran through streets in the area, signs of continued unrest in the West African nation that has been gripped by protests against police brutality.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 23, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said 69 people have been killed in protests against police brutality that have rocked the country. A group that has been key in organizing the demonstrations has now urged people to stay at home.
(BBC, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, Nigeria's chief of police ordered the immediate mobilization of all police resources to put an end to days of street violence and looting.
(BBC, 10/25/20)
2020 Oct 25, In Nigeria there were reports of government warehouses being ransacked in the central city of Jos, as well as in Adamawa and Taraba states, with people taking away food and agricultural supplies.
(BBC, 10/25/20)
2020 Nov 3, In Nigeria Ipob activists were accused of burning down three police stations in southern Rivers state. and killing three policemen, after one of them was killed during a protest at a police station in Oyigbo.
(BBC, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 18, The United Nations humanitarian office said it is releasing $100 million in emergency funding to seven countries at risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East amid conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement overnight said $80 million of the money will go to Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Another $20 million has been set aside for "anticipatory action to fight hunger in Ethiopia.
(AP, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Nigeria attackers tied up agricultural laborers working in rice fields and slit their throats near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. More than 43 people were killed. About 15 women were kidnapped.
(AP, 11/29/20)
2020 Dec 8, Amnesty International charged that at least 10,000 civilians have died in Nigerian military custody since 2011 after being detained in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 11, In north-western Nigeria hundreds of students were feared missing after gunmen raided a secondary school in Katsina state. On Dec. 15 the Islamist militant group Boko Haram said it was behind the kidnapping.
(BBC, 12/12/20)(AP, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 17, In Nigeria the governor of Katsina state announced that all of the boys, abducted on Dec. 11, had been released, and would be reunited with their parents the next day. The governor of Katsina has insisted bandits were responsible for the recent attack.
(NY Times, 12/17/20)(BBC, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, In Nigeria 84 schoolchildren were seized by gunmen late today as they returned home to Mahuta village after taking part in a religious ceremony. The children were soon released following a gun battle between the abductors, security forces and local vigilantes.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 24, The head of Africa's disease control body said that another new variant of the novel coronavirus seems to have emerged in Nigeria. In the past week, Nigeria reported a 52% increase in cases.
(AP, 12/24/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb./com
Subject = Nigeria
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Nigeria Business: http://www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm
TravelDocs: http://www.traveldocs.com/ng/index.htm
USLC: http://www.loc.gov/collections/country-studies/?q=nigeria
World History KLMA: http://www.stabi.hs-bremerhaven.de/gbs2/whkmla/
Nigeria is home to some 250 ethnic groups. The Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani and Ibo are the main ethnic groups. The capital is Abuja. Daily crude oil production was 2.2 million barrels per day in 4/03. The total reserve base was about 21 bil barrels. That’s about 30 years worth. In 2001 Nigeria was the world’s 12th largest oil producer.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A11)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
Nigeria is 369,507 square miles, twice the size of California, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. As of 2000 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states practiced Sharia law.
(AP, 4/19/03)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.44)
The core of the Sokoto Caliphate lies within the boundaries of present day Nigeria. It once covered an area of 250,000 square miles (650,000 square kilometers) and stretched as far as Nikki in Benin, Ngaundere and Tibati in Cameroon and much of the southern part of the Niger Republic.
(AP, 6/18/04)
Yoruba masters created decorative masks, headdresses, figures and other objects of art from this area and Benin.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
The Wodaabe nomads, numbering about 40-50,000, moved constantly across the Sahel between Niger, Mali and Northern Nigeria. They are of Fulani origin, a race scattered all over West Africa.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.40)
2000BC The Ikom monoliths in Nigeria, phallic-shaped pieces of volcanic rock largely ignored for centuries, were said to date back to about this time. In 2007 they were added to the World Monuments Fund's (WMF) list of sites in danger and are on the "tentative" list for possible inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage Site list.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
500 In Nigeria evidence of urbanization at the Yoruba city of Ife dated back to about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
700 The empire of Kanem began forming about this time under the nomadic Tebu-speaking Kanembu and spanned bits of Chad, Cameroon, southern Libya, Niger and Nigeria. By the 15th century the intermarriage of the Kanembu and Bornu peoples created a new people and language, the Kanuri.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanem-Bornu_Empire)
700-900 In Nigeria the Yoruba-speaking kingdom of Ife began to develop as a center of trade and weaving and bead manufacture.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
1200-1400 In Nigeria the Yoruba-speaking kingdom of Ife reached a peak of artistic expression during this period.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)
1767 English slave traders captured 2 native nobles, Little Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin Robin John on the west coast of Africa and took them in chains to Dominica. They soon escaped but were resold into slavery in Virginia. Some 4 years later they were taken to England and again resold and returned to Virginia. They later made it back to their home on the Calabar River (SE Nigeria) and became slave merchants themselves. In 2004 Randy J. Sparks authored “The Princes of Calabar."
(WSJ, 5/21/04, p.W4)
1771 Sep 10, The Scottish explorer Mungo Park (d.1806) was born. He settled the question as to the direction of flow of the Niger River as he traced the northern reaches of the African river in the 1790s. Park was one of the first explorers sponsored by England's African Association. He died in 1806 on another expedition to determine if the Niger linked with the Congo River. He reportedly drowned while fleeing attackers near Bussa, which is in present-day Nigeria.
(HNQ, 6/6/98)
1823 British Major Dixon Denham and Captain Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) entered Northern Nigeria from the north, crossing the desert from Tripoli.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Clapperton)
1827 Apr 13, Hugh Clapperton, Scottish traveler and explorer of West and Central Africa, died in Sokoto, Nigeria, of dysentery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Clapperton)
1851 German traveler Heinrich Barth discovered the Royal Chronicle or Girgam, which described the history Kanem-Bornu Empire. It existed in Chad and Nigeria from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanem-Bornu_Empire)
1875?-1958 Yoruba sculptor Olowe lived during this period. He carved a lintel in a sacrifice motif of grisly elegance: birds plucking the eyes from human faces.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.4)
1895 Jan 29, A massacre occurred in Nembe over palm oil. Koko Mingi VIII (1853-1898), king of the Nembe people, led a pre-dawn raid on the headquarters of the Royal Niger Company, a British firm that had monopolized the palm-oil trade in the Niger delta. The British sent gunboats in response and kept their monopoly intact.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)(Econ., 10/3/20, p.37)
1885 Feb 26, The General Act of the Conference of Berlin was signed. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.
(http://tinyurl.com/h22gpfq)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference)
1897 Jan, In Nigeria seven British trade delegates were killed as a small party approached Edo. Britain soon retaliated with a over 5,000 men from the British Royal Marines and the Niger Coast Protectorate. They packed up the oba's vast collection of ivory and brass objects and razed his palace. The 16th century brass plaques were looted from the royal palace and sold to the British Museum. In 2014 a fabled ibis bird and the traditional monarch's bell -- were given back to the Oba (King) of Benin City, Uku Akpolokpolo Erediauwa I, at a ceremony attended by royal officials and local dignitaries. As of 2020 most of the Benin Bronzes were in Western museums and private collections.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.D8)(AFP, 6/22/14)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.67)(AP, 9/12/20)
1898 Nigeria, under British control, began to develop a railway system.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.50)
1899 The charter of the Royal Niger Company was revoked, an act seen as partly a consequence of the short war in the Niger delta with Nembe King Koko Mingi VIII.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1900 Jan 1, The Royal Niger Company sold all its possessions and concessions in Africa to the British government for £865,000, considered to be a very low price.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1903 Mar 15, The British conquest of Nigeria was completed, 500,000 square miles were now controlled by the U.K.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1914 Nigeria was cobbled together by British colonialists. Over 200 ethnic groups were brought together into one country.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1923 The Baptist Boys High School at Abeokuta was founded by American missionaries.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1930 Nov 16, Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist and poet, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe)
1934 Jul 13, Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright, was born.
(HN, 7/13/01)
1937 Mar 5, Olusegun Obasanjo was born in Abeokuta.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)
1937 The Royal Dutch Shell Group began working in the Nigerian oil fields.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-11)
1943 Sep 20, Sani Abacha was born in the northern state of Kano.
(WSJ, 6/9/98, p.A15)
1945 There was a general strike in Nigeria.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1949 Nov 18, Colonial police, made up of Nigerians and Europeans, shot striking workers demanding better working conditions at the Iva Valley coal mine in south-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 21 miners and injuring many others. The incident led to further strikes mostly in southern Nigeria and some argue it helped galvanize support for the burgeoning anti-colonial movement that led to independence 11 years later.
(BBC, 1/18/21)
1950s Nigeria passed legislation that became known as the “Four Obnoxious Bills." The laws ensured that revenues from natural resources were collected at the center and doled out to the rest of the 36 states without proportion to their role in generating the wealth.
(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)
1951 The MacPherson Constitution centralized power in Nigeria. That power has been monopolized by the northern Hausa-Fulani, a predominantly Muslim group that also dominates military leadership.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1952 The evangelical Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2005 the organization began building its North American headquarters near Greenville, Texas. The church’s goal was to establish parishes within five minute’s driving distance of every family in every city and town in the US.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A17)
1952 Wole Soyinka (b.1934), later Nobel Prize winner, helped found the Pyrates Confraternity at Nigeria’s elite University of Ibadan. Splinter groups soon emerged in a variety of cults and were later used by military leaders to confront pro-democracy movement. In 2004 Rivers State outlawed cultism, but with little effect.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.50)
1954 Areogun (b.1880), Yoruba sculptor, died. He was a native of the Ekiti region of Nigeria.
(www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/11/sfg/ht11sfg.htm)
1956 In Nigeria Shell became the first company to strike oil at Oloibiri (later Bayelsa state).
(AP, 6/1/06)
1957 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became Nigeria's first and only prime minister. He held the position until January 1966 when he was assassinated in the country's first military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
1958 Chinua Achebe of Nigeria authored the novel "Things Fall Apart." It was about the Igbo tribe's efforts to guard its way of life against English colonialism and was made into a theater production in 1997. It sold millions of copies worldwide and was voted Africa's best book of the century. In 2004 Achebe rejected a Nigerian national honors award, protesting conditions in the West African nation and saying renegades were trying to turn his home state into "a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom."
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.4)(P, 10/18/04)
1960 Oct 1, Nigeria gained independence from Britain (National Day). Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966) became the first prime minister and continued to 1966. At this time Nigeria was composed of just three regions.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abubakar_Tafawa_Balewa)(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-1)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.42)
1960 Nov 16, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the 1st governor-general of Nigeria. He was a member of the southern Ibo people.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1962 Feb, An organization of African states was established by leaders of 20 nations meeting in Lagos, Nigeria.
(PCh, 1992, p.983)
1963 Oct, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the 1st president of Nigeria and proclaimed a republic.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1963 Gulf Oil began oil production in Nigeria.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8)
1964 The documentary film “Give Me a Riddle" was made by David Schickele in Nigeria after his service in the Peace Corps.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C6)
1966 Jan 15, Nigeria’s PM Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (b.1912) was assassinated in the country's 1st military coup.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abubakar_Tafawa_Balewa)
1966 Jan, In Nigeria Emeka Ojukwu (1933-2011) came to power as governor of the predominantly-Ibo Eastern Region.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
1966 Jul 29, In Nigeria northern troops led by Major Theophilus Danjuma and Captain Martin Adamu led a military coup that ended civilian rule.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)(AFP, 8/29/10)(AFP, 11/26/11)
1966 Aug 1, In Nigeria Gen'l. Yakuba Gowon (b.1934) was named head of state and ruled until 1975.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakubu_Gowon)
1966 In northern Nigeria about 10,000 people died in riots following a failed coup led primarily by Igbo army officers. Many fled back to eastern Nigeria ahead of secessionist leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declaring the region and much of Nigeria's oil-producing southern delta its own nation.
(AP, 3/19/12)
1967 May 29, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu declared the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.
(http://flagspot.net/flags/ng-biaf.html)
1967 Jul 6, The Biafran War erupted. The war, which lasted more than two years, claimed some 600,000 lives. The Republic of Biafra was proclaimed when the eastern region of Nigeria, the homeland of the Igbo people, seceded. This was followed by civil war. The federal troops of Nigeria held most of rebellious Biafra by the end of 1968 but the Igbos attempted to hold out in a small and crowded area. The war broke out when the Igbos, led by Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of the Nigerian army, launched a rebellion to form a separate state following allegations of ethnic cleansing, neglect and marginalization against federal forces.
(AP, 7/6/97)(HNQ, 5/27/98)(AFP, 1/10/07)
1967 Sep 19, Nigeria began an offensive against Biafra. [see Jul 6]
(MC, 9/19/01)
1968 Sep 15, The Organization of African Unity condemned the secession of Biafra.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1969 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of Nigeria visited California for 10 months.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1970 Jan 12, In Nigeria the 30-month civil war ended. The Biafran forces surrendered after nearly a million ethnic Igbos died mostly of hunger and disease. Emeka Ojukwu had led some 40 million Igbos in secession. In 2008 Nigeria paid the pension of Ojukwu and 63 other former rebels as part of efforts to heal wounds. In 2007 Pres. Obasanjo declared Jan 15 as “Armed Forces Remembrance Day" in honor of the soldiers that died in the war.
(HNQ, 5/9/00)(AFP, 1/15/07)
1970 The federal government passes a law that gives all mineral rights to the federal government.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1971 Feb 11, Whitney Young Jr. (b.1921), National Urban League director, drowned in Nigeria.
(www.answers.com/topic/whitney-moore-jr-young)
1971 Dec 20, Ten French physicians created a team that later became known as "Doctors Without Borders" (Medecins Sans Frontieres) to help the people in the Nigerian region of Biafra. They formed in frustration with the neutrality of the Int'l. Committee of the Red Cross. Bernard Kouchner (1939), later French foreign minister, was among the co-founders.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A17)(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Kouchner)
1972 AgipPetroli S.p.A., an Italian oil firm, began oil operations at Akaraolu.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
1973 Nigeria created a National Youth Service Corps to promote national unity in a country with more than 150 ethnic groups and to help reconcile the people after a 31-month civil war claimed as many as 1 million lives. It called for a mandatory yearlong assignment for all Nigerians who graduate from university before the age of 30.
(AP, 4/23/11)
1975 May 25, ECOWAS Treaty1 was signed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was formed in Nigeria with 15 members that included: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
(www.sec.ecowas.int/sitecedeao/english/achievements.htm)
1975 Gen'l. Murtala Muhammad staged a coup after Gen'l. Gowon postponed a return to civilian rule.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)
1976 Feb 3, In Nigeria Gen. Murtala Ramat Muhammed (1938-1976) proclaimed Abuja as the new federal capital. It was founded to replace Lagos and became the official capital in 1991.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A28)(www.datelineafrica.org/stories/200802130370.html)
1976 Feb 13, In Nigeria Gen'l. Murtala Ramat Muhammad (b.1938) in the ruling junta was killed in a coup attempt and his deputy, Gen'l. Olusegun Obasanjo, was named president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olusegun_Obasanjo)(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)
1976-1979 In Nigeria Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo ruled as head of state. He relinquished the presidency after an election and was jailed by Abacha in 1995 for treason.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)
1977 Feb 18, Soldiers from the army of Gen'l. Obasanjo raided Kalakuta, the communal home of singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Fela's mother (77) was thrown from a 2nd-story window and later died from her injuries. The compound was burned and a fire brigade was prevented from reaching the site. Fela wrote the song "Coffin for Head of State" to describe how he and his followers carried her coffin to present it to Gen'. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1,10)
1977 The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was established. In 2007 Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua planned to replace it with 5 new companies.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.51)
1978 Nigeria’s military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo opened the Ita Oko Island prison outside Lagos, which he later described as a work farm. Later military ruler Muhammadu Buhari turned the prison into a massive holding cell for political prisoners.
(AP, 5/11/12)
1979 Oct 1, Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo (b.1937), head of Nigeria, relinquished the presidency after civilian elections. He was jailed by Abacha in 1995 for treason. Shehu Shagari became the civilian Second Republic president until 1983.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A14)
1979 Nigeria outlawed gas flaring, to be phased out over 5 years. The law was not enforced and in 2008 some 20 billion cubic meters of year were flared, out of a global total of 150 billion.
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.50)
1980 In Nigeria Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine, an Islamic scholar, was killed in the Kano insurrection. He was originally from Marwa in northern Cameroon. After his education he moved to Kano, Nigeria in about 1945, where he became known for his controversial preachings on the Koran. His dissent was disliked by the government, and he was exiled to Cameroon in the early 1960s. Maitatsine uprisings continued to 1985.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Marwa_Maitatsine)
1982 Gen’l Emeka Ojukwu, secessionist leader of Biafra during Nigeria's civil war, was pardoned and returned home from exile.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
1983 Dec 29, In Nigeria Pres. Shehu Shagari announced austerity measures. The country was already suffering from high unemployment rates and general disillusionment after the oil boom of the '70s.
(AP, 12/29/18)
1983 Dec 31, In Nigeria the military again ousted the civilian government. Gen’l. Muhammadu Buhari (b.1942), a Muslim from the Hausa tribe (Fulani), took power in a coup. He soon launched a “war on indiscipline" and continue to rule for 18 months.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammadu_Buhari)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.58)
1983 Chinua Achebe authored the manifesto “The Trouble With Nigeria." His novels included “Things Fall Apart."
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
1983 A Nigerian court decision showed that politicians and others cannot demand the arrest of individuals who slander, libel or defame them.
(AP, 2/2/11)
1984 Jan, In Nigeria Arthur Judah Angel (21) was beaten and thrown behind bars when he went to visit a friend who had been taken into custody at a neighborhood police station. He failed to pay a bribe and was sentenced to death. During his time in prison he made drawings and witnessed the hangings of over 450 fellow inmates. After a series of appeals he was released in February 2000. Rights groups from around the world have used his surviving 51 death row works to lobby for the abolition of the death sentence.
(AP, 12/30/08)
1984 Nigeria set up its Sars police unit. In 2020 the agency was disbanded after thousands of Nigerians took to the streets to protest against police brutality.
(BBC, 10/16/20)
1984 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of Nigeria was convicted on "spurious" charges of currency violations and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was released after 2 years.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1984 Standard Oil of California (Socal), under George M. Keller (1923-2008), purchased Gulf Oil and its extensive operations in Nigeria and changed its name to Chevron.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8)(SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B1)
1985 Newswatch was founded while the country was under the military regime of Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida. Sani Abacha was the deputy head of state and set new standards in the brutality the state was willing to use to limit criticism.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A13)
1985 Aug 27, In Nigeria Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida began his rule. He gave up power in 1993.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1986 The Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Wole Soyinka of Nigeria.
(WSJ, 10/15/96, p.A16)
1986 In Nigeria a new government came to power and singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was released from prison.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1986 Nigeria’s State Security Service was created by military ruler Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to monitor domestic dissent.
(AP, 8/30/12)
1987 Chinua Achebe authored the novel "Anthills of the Savannah."
(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.4)
1988 In Nigeria a newspaper expose forced officials to close the Ita Oko Island prison. Local authorities later reopened it for what appeared to be a failed $1 million effort to rehabilitate the gang members who dominate Lagos' streets.
(AP, 5/11/12)
1990 Nigeria founded a drug agency and was soon in scandal as the top people were found to be involved in trafficking.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.56)
1990 In Nigeria 109 children died after taking paracetamol laced with a compound similar to diethylene glycol and also used in engine coolants.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
1991 Jul 11, A Nigerian Airlines jet carrying Muslim pilgrims crashed at the Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, int'l airport, killing all 261 people on board. The plane was a Canadian-chartered DC-8.
(AP, 7/11/97)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1991 The city of Abuja, Nigeria, officially replaced Lagos as the new capital.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A28)
1991 Ken Saro-Wiwa organized the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. It demanded $10 billion for environmental damage and royalties from the federal government and Royal Dutch/Shell Corp., and it threatened to secede from Nigeria.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1992 Sep 26, A Nigerian military transport plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 163 people aboard.
(AP internet, 9/26/97)
1992 Kenneth Nnebue, a Nigerian trader based in Onitsha, shot a film called “Living in Bondage" to help sell a large stock of blank videocassettes that he had purchased from Taiwan. The film sold 750,000 copies and prompted imitators and the growth of a Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood. By 2006 Nigeria’s film industry employed about a million people.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.58)
1992 Commercial creditors forgave much of Nigeria’s debt.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.80)
1993 Jun 12, Chief Moshood Abiola, a Yoruba, was elected to the presidency but the election was annulled by the ruling Hausa and the country plunged into turmoil. Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida cancelled the elections. The northern Hausa and Fulani tribes tended to dominate the military governments.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1993 Aug 27, Gen’l. Ibrahim Babangida ended his rule over Nigeria.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1993 Sep 5, Seven Nigerian soldiers were killed in a militia ambush in Somalia as they went to the aid of other UN peacekeepers surrounded by a stone-throwing mob.
(AP, 9/5/98)
1993 Gen. Sani Abacha seized power after nullifying an election that Moshood Abiola, a rich businessman, appeared to have won.
(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A-10)
1993 Shell Oil stopped pumping oil in the Ogoni Province, but continued to use pipelines that pass through it. The Ogonis are a 500,000-strong community in southwestern Nigeria. They maintain that oil production has polluted their land, destroying their livelihoods of fishing and farming. Shell canceled several community development projects. It had earlier agreed to spend $29 million per year on such projects. In 2011 a UN report said it could take 30 years and at least $1 billion to rid the poisoned mangroves of a black carpet of crude.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-11)(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.46)
1994 Feb 5, Ben Enwonwu (b.1917), Nigeria's most celebrated 20th Century visual artist, died in Lagos.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Enwonwu)(AP, 10/9/20)
1994 Feb, Nigerian and Cameroon forces clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1994 May, Four Ogoni political leaders, accused of collaboration by the youth wing of the MOSOP, were murdered.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1994 Jun, A ban began on the Nigerian paper “Punch" and lasted until Oct 1995.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.67)
1994 Dec, In Nigeria Gideon Akaluka, a Christian Igbo trader, was arrested over allegedly defacing the Quran in Kano. Rioters broke into jail, beheaded him and carried his head around the city on a spike.
(http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2010/may/270.html)
1994 Opposition leader Anthony Enahoro was detained for several months after the military crushed a pro-democracy strike.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-10)
1994 Moshood Abiola was imprisoned by Sani Abacha on charges of treason for declaring himself president.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A20)
1994 Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize winning author, fled Nigeria to avoid arrest on treason charges by Gen’l. Abacha. He returned in 1998.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C4)
1995 Mar 20, In Nigeria General Sani Abacha appointed Dan Etete as Minister of Petroleum.
(http://tinyurl.com/mvzrpu7)
1995 Mar, Retired Gen’l. Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of state, was arrested by the military junta on suspicion of complicity in an alleged coup. He was released in 1998.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A10)
1995 Jun 22, Nigeria’s former military ruler Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and his chief deputy were charged with conspiracy to overthrow Gen. Sami Abacha’s military government.
(HN, 6/22/00)
1995 Nov 10, In Nigeria the execution by hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People was supervised by military govt. Col. Dauda Musa Komo. This prompted the threat of economic sanctions by the US and the EU. A government tribunal had sentenced environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and three others to hang for murder. He denied the charges and led protests against oil activities and pollution in the Ogoniland region.
(WSJ, 11/1/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1995 Nigeria’s Pres. Sani Abacha initiated the construction of a natural gas complex.
(WSJ, 6/21/04, p.A3)
1995 Beko Ransome-Kuti, an opposition figure, was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to make public trial transcripts of an accused coup plotter.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
2005 In Nigeria soldiers arrested Moses Akatugba (16) for allegedly stealing three cellphones. He was delivered to police officers who tortured him, including tearing out his finger and toe nails with pliers, until he signed confessions admitting to armed robbery. He was condemned to hang and spent 10 years in prison before being pardoned in 2015.
(AP, 6/1/15)
1995 Nigeria had about 100 million people and $40 billion in external debt. It was the fifth largest oil producer in OPEC, and the US imported about 40% of its oil. Per capita income was $230.
(WSJ, 11/13/95, p.A-10)
1995-2002 In 2003 French prosecutors alleged that some $180 million in illegal payments were made over this time to Nigeria by the TSKG consortium in connection with a $4.9 billion natural gas project at Bonny Bay. The US Halliburton Corp. had a 25% stake.
(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A1)
1996 Jan, The son of Nigeria's military ruler was killed in a plane crash with 13 others. An unknown group claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 16, Voter turnout was heavy in municipal elections, the first step in a return to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 3/18/96, A-1)
1996 Mar 30, The military ruler fired the chiefs of the army and air force amid a high profile visit by a UN delegation evaluating a promised return to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 4, Nigerian and Cameroon forces again clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 13, Bopp van Dessel, Shell’s former head of environmental studies reported in a taped interview that the company broke its own rules and inter-national standards in Nigeria and caused widespread pollution. He resigned from his post in protest in late 1994.
(SFC, 5/13/96, p.C-12)
1996 Jun 4, In Nigeria Kudirat Abiola, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Moshood Abiola, was shot and killed by 6 gunmen near her home in Lagos. In 2011 Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, right-hand man of dictator Sani Abacha, faced trial for ordering a security agent to kill Kudirat. Al-Mustapha denied taking part in her machine-gun killing, saying he was tortured into a false confession.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)(AP, 8/9/11)
1996 Aug 15, In Nigeria 27 of the 30 governors were sacked by Abacha. The other 3 were transferred to other states.
(WSJ, 8/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 19, It was reported that police clashed with demonstrators last week and 10 people were killed in the city of Kaduna. The crowd was protesting the arrest of their spiritual leader on charges of broadcasting material that could incite unrest.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 7, Flight 086, a Boeing 727 belonging to the Aviation Development Corp., crashed near Epe, east of Lagos, and 141 people died.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.A18)
1996 Wole Soyinka published in exile “The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crises."
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)
1996 Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky, a radical Shiite preacher, was detained by the government for inciting the public against the military government.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1996 In Nigeria Pfizer Inc. tested, Trovan, an unapproved drug on children for an often deadly strain of meningitis. In 2006 Nigerian medical experts concluded that Pfizer violated international law and was never authorized by the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug Trovan to nearly 100 children and infants at a field hospital in Kano, where they were being treated.
(Reuters, 5/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trovafloxacin)
1997 Mar 12, Wole Soyinka, exiled Nobel Prize winning author, was charged with treason along with 11 others.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 27, Villagers occupied a 7th oil installation on the Niger Delta in protests over local government elections. Tribesmen last week seized 6 Shell sites. This shut down 10% of Nigeria’s oil production.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 2, Nigerian naval vessels opened fire on Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 8, Amos Tutuola, folk writer, died at age 77. Born in Abeokuta his novels included “The Palmwine Drinkard" and “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1997 Jul 31, Nigeria was named the most corrupt country in the world by business people in a report released by the German-based Transparency Int’l.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.B3)
1997 Aug 2, In Nigeria Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (b.1938), pop superstar, died of AIDS. He was a saxophone player who fused rock with African rhythms into a blend known as "Afrobeat." His albums included: "Zombie," "Army Arrangement," and "Vagabond in Power." He recorded more than 50 albums in the 1970s and 1980s and his 27 wives mourned his death. In 2003 Michael Veal authored "Fela: the Life and Times of an African Lion."
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/04, p.E6)
1997 Nov 20, In Nigeria the government of Gen’l. Sani Abacha gave 5 political parties $637,000 each to campaign in elections to restore civilian rule. Opposition groups called politicians of the 5 parties government stooges. 18 parties had applied for recognition but only 5 were deemed suitable.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1997 Nov, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, a managing editor of Tell news magazine, was abducted from his Lagos home. Tell under Kola Ilori has managed to maintain publication since 1993 on a weekly basis by printing in secret on presses all over the country.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A13)
1997 Dec 20, There was an alleged coup and Gen’l. Donaldson Oladipu Diya and 11 others were arrested.
(SFC, 12/24/97, p.A6)
1997 The military moved the tribal boundary between the Itsekiri and Ijaw granting more land to the Itsekiri in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A14)
1998 Jan 12, An underwater pipeline from a Mobil Oil production platform broke and released 40,000 barrels of oil into the Niger delta.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A26)
1998 Mar 21, Pope John Paul II arrived in Abuja and began urging the military government to respect human rights and release political prisoners.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A2)
1998 Apr 1, A boat enroute to Gabon with 300 passengers sank in the Bight of Bonny off Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom state. 280 were missing and feared dead.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A23)
1998 Apr 19, Police shot dead at least 3 Shiite Muslims, supporters of Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky, and wounded many more in Kaduna in clashes over 2 days.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 20, The last of 5 government-sanctioned parties agreed to back Sani Abacha in the presidential elections. The government gave each party $250,000 for its convention.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 28, A military tribunal sentenced 6 men to death for plotting a 1997 coup against Gen’l. Abacha. Gen’l. Oladipo Diya, former deputy head of state, maintained that he was framed by officers close to Abacha who fabricated the plot.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A10)
1998 May 1, In Nigeria police in Ibadan fired into a crowd of 5,000 people demanding the ouster of Sani Abacha and witnesses said 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A9)
1998 May 8, Olisa Agbakoba, a lawyer and leader of the Unite Action for Democracy, was arrested.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 May 29, Two activists were killed by the Nigerian Mobile Police on Chevron’s Parabe oil production platform. The police were flown in on Chevron helicopters following 4 days of protests. In 2009 a federal judge upheld a San Francisco jury’s verdict that cleared Chevron of wrongdoing in the shootings.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A8,9)(SFC, 3/5/09, p.C1)
1998 Jun 8, Nigeria’s Gen’l. Sani Abacha (54) died of a heart attack in the arms of 2 Indian prostitutes and a local virgin. Gen’l. Abdulsalam Abubakar, the defense chief of staff, was quickly named the new head of state.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A11)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.62)
1998 Jun 12, Security forces broke up a planned mass protest organized to mark the 5-year anniversary of the annulment of the last presidential elections.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 15, Nine prominent political prisoners were released.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 18, Six more political detainees were released.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B7)
1998 Jun 25, Nigeria released 17 more political prisoners.
(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 27, It was reported that a plague of “army" worms was ravaging grain fields in the northern states of the country. The worms could lay 500 eggs in 3 days.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 2, UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan announced that at least 250 political prisoners would soon be released including Moshood Abiola.
(SFC, 7/3/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 7, In Nigeria opposition leader Moshood Abiola (60) died of a heart attack while still in prison and his death sparked rioting in Lagos that left at least 19 people dead. Gen’l. Abubakar dissolved his cabinet, inherited from Abacha, but left intact the Provisional Ruling Council. He called the death a tragedy and appealed for calm.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 9, Nigeria’s junta commuted the death sentence of Gen’l. Oladipyo Diya and five other men convicted of plotting to overthrow Abacha. The rioting continued and the death toll was raised to 60. Northern Hausa Muslims were fighting Yorubas.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 7/10/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 20, Abubakar announced that elections would be held in 1999 and power passed to a civilian president on May 29.
(SFEC, 7/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 1, Elections were planned and Gen’l. Sani Abacha was to have run unopposed.
(WSJ, 4/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 11, Gen’l. Abubakar named a new electoral commission and gave it 2 weeks to plan elections to restore civilian rule by May 29.
(WSJ, 8/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 18, Authorities dropped charges against Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and 14 others. Gen’l. Abubakar had asked that the charges be dropped and said that he was seeking a national reconciliation.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 23, Transparency Int’l, an int’l. good-government advocacy group, said that Cameroon is viewed as the most corrupt of the 85 countries rated. Nigeria, Tanzania, Honduras and Paraguay filled out the bottom five. Denmark, Finland and Sweden were seen as having the cleanest political systems.
(WSJ, 9/23/98, p.B17)
1998 Oct 6, In Nigeria attacks by Niger Delta protesters shut down the Shell and ENI pipelines. Anger over pollution of cropland and fishing grounds was growing.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 17, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion near the town of Jesse killed some 700 people. Authorities believed that scavenger’s tools sparked the explosion.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)(AP, 10/17/08)
1998 Oct 22, In Nigeria 6 people died in clashes between the ethnic Ijaw and Itshekiri youths in the oil town of Warri.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 2, In Nigeria the military government uncovered a $2 billion fraud by members of Abacha’s family involving overpayment to Russia for a steel project.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 6, It was reported that 14 people died in poll-related violence.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Nigeria’s petroleum minister Dan Etete awarded block OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company established just days before with no employees or assets. There was a signature bonus of $20 million for which Malabu only paid $2 million. In 2011 Shell and Eni paid $1.3 billion for the block. The government helped direct most of the money back to Malabu.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.63)
1998 In Nigeria a dip in the price of oil forced 28 banks to close. Another dip in 2009 caused ten more banks to close.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.58)
1999 Jan 4, Chevron received word of an attack on its Searrex oil rig in Nigeria. Soldiers dispatched to the rig allegedly fired on Opia village from a helicopter and 2 villagers were killed. 2 more villagers were killed a short time later at Ikenyan. A day later Chevron was invoiced $109.25 for the services of the soldiers.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A4)
1999 Jan 9, Gubernatorial elections were scheduled.
(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 14, In Sierra Leone the rebel alliance was prepared for a cease-fire after Nigerian led forces took control of Freetown.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A15)
1999 Feb 9, An oil worker was kidnapped.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 14, A British oil worker and his son were kidnapped in the southern delta region.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 15, In Nigeria Gen'l. Olusegun Obasanjo (61) won the nomination for president by the People's Democratic Party.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 20, In Nigeria National Assembly elections were scheduled. 469 seats in a bicameral legislature were vied for by 3 parties. 360 members were for the House of Representatives and 109 were for senators.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A20)
1999 Feb 21, In Nigeria the People's Democratic Party, led by Gen'l. Obasanjo, won 169 of 360 seats in the House. Lola Abiola-Edowar won a seat in the House of Representatives. She was the daughter of Moshood Abiola, the billionaire politician who died in military detention in 1998.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A10)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 27, Presidential elections were held. Also it was reported that some 1,200 soldiers had died in fighting the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, In Nigeria retired Gen'l. Obasanjo led the presidential vote with 62%. Serious concern over vote-rigging was expressed.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 1, A gasoline bombing of 2 police stations left 2 people dead including one policeman and 4 injured. The attack was blamed on a group called Odudua, which wants a separate country for the Yoruba tribe of southwest Nigeria.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C4)
1999 Mar 3, In Nigeria 8-14 people were killed in post-election violence.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C4)
1999 Mar 4, In Nigeria the outgoing military government freed 47 political prisoners including Gen'l. Oladipo Diya.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 30, Olusegun Obasanjo, pres. elect of Nigeria, met with Pres. Clinton and vowed to build democracy.
(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 1, In Nigeria the NV George, a wooden vessel, capsized on the St. Bartholomew River several dozen people were presumed drowned. The death toll was raised past 100 after 50 bodies were found in a sunken hull.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1999 May 5, Gen’l. Abubakar signed a new constitution designed to smooth the transition to civilian rule.
(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, It was reported that the military was plundering the treasury prior to the upcoming transfer of power. The foreign reserves were said to have decreased by $3 billion since Jan.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A12)
1999 May 29, In Nigeria Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo took office. He suspended contracts awarded by his predecessor. In the oil region 56 people were killed in ethnic unrest in the Niger Delta between the Ijaw and Itsekiri. Ijaw tribe fighters beheaded 3 elderly Itsekiri people.
(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A17)(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A14)
1999 May 30, Fighting broke out among members of the Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ijaw tribes in the Niger River delta.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Jun 2, In Nigeria troops were deployed to the Niger Delta where the death toll from tribal clashes had reached 200 after 4 days.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C4)
1999 Jun 10, In Nigeria Pres. Obasanjo forced 122 top officers from the military over the last 2 days and seized hundreds of millions of dollars from associates of the late dictator Gen'l. Sani Abacha.
(SFC, 6/11/99, p.D2)
1999 Jun 25, In Nigeria representatives of the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic groups agreed to end ethnic strife and pursue a lasting peace through dialogue.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A16)
1999 Jun 28, In Nigeria it was reported that armed members of the group Enough is Enough had seized 5 workers of Royal Dutch/Shell in Rivers State.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 8, Activists in southern Nigeria claimed to have captured and shut down 61 oil wells operated by Shell Co. Shell workers were also ejected from wells in the states of Egbema East and Egbema West.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 Jul 10, Clashes began between the Yorubas, mostly Christians, and Hausas, northern Muslims, that left at least 60 people dead in the southwestern city of Sagamu.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 17, In Nigeria fighting erupted when a Hausa woman was caught watching a Yoruba ritual. Over the next days hundreds of Hausa tribe’s people fled Shagamu to escape fighting with their Yoruba neighbors.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C2)
1999 Jul 25, Ethnic fighting killed at least 70 [40] people in Kano over the weekend.
(WSJ, 7/27/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/99, p.)
1999 Jul, Fighting flared between members of the Ijaws and Ilajes over land long disputed in the southwest of Ondo state.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 7, It was reported that floodgates were opened on the Niger River at 2 dams, Jebba and Shiriro, to prevent Shiriro Lake from overflowing its banks. 400 villages were submerged leaving 300,000 people homeless and some 500 people were estimated to have been drowned.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C2)
1999 Oct 19, In Nigeria US Sec. of State Albright recommended that US aid to the country be increase 4 times the current level. The extradition of drug lords as also discussed with Pres. Obasanjo.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct, Swiss authorities first announced that they froze bank accounts belonging to the late dictator Sani Abacha and his family members. The accounts totaled some $550 million. Pres. Olusegun said documents proved that Abacha and associates had diverted some $2.2 billion over a 4-year rule.
(WSJ, 12/15/99, p.A17)
1999 Oct, A joint venture between Shell, Agip of Italy and TotalFinaElf of France opened a $4 billion liquid natural gas plant.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
1999 Oct, In Nigeria hundreds of civilians were killed by soldiers in Benue. In 2002 Pres. Obasanjo acknowledged that he ordered the military operations.
(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A4)
1999 Nov 3, Armed Itsekiri tribal youths raided the Nigerian Gas Co. in Ekpan and left 30 people injured. They protested the firm's decision to pay levies to mainly Urhobo community groups.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 15, In Nigeria fighting began in the city of Warri in a dispute over the distribution of pipes donated by Dutch Oil. At least 40 people were killed.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D2)
1999 Nov 22, In Nigeria officials reported that 43 people had been killed in the Niger Delta including 8 soldiers after some 2,000 soldiers were sent to restore order in Odi village in southern Bayelsa state. In 2002 Pres. Obasanjo acknowledged that he ordered the military operations in Odi that killed an estimated 1000 people.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A4)
1999 Nov 25, At least 27 people were killed at a food market in Kedu when Yoruba traders, backed by members of the militant Odua People's Congress, clashed with Hausa counterparts.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B4)
1999 The Nigerian film “Saworoide" was released. It was seen as a commentary on the regime of Sani Abacha.
(Econ, 5/28/11, p.26)
1999 Nigeria’s Kano state introduced Islamic sharia law.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.50)
2000 Jan 5, In Nigeria rival youths of the Yoruba and Hausa tribes clashed in Lagos and Ibadan and some 35 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.D3)
2000 Feb 9, In Nigeria it was reported that 17 people were killed when a young man, who was not allowed to participate, lit a match at a site where people were siphoning off fuel from a pipeline in Ogwe.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.C4)
2000 Feb 21, In Nigeria Muslim and Christian youths seized parts of Kaduna in clashes over a proposal to bring Islamic law (Shariah) to the state. Over 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 23, In Nigeria residents fled Kaduna after 2 days of religious clashes left at least 200 people dead.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 28, In Nigeria ethnic violence between the Ibos and Hausas was reported from Aba in reaction to the fighting in Kuduna. At least 50 people were reported dead.
(WSJ, 2/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 1, In Nigeria Pres. Obasanjo deplored the recent killings in the southeast as the death toll passed 400.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 22, In Nigeria a pipeline fire killed 50 people siphoning off gas in Abia state.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.D2)
2000 Apr 19, Dozens of boat passengers were missing and feared dead after a boat carrying as many as 500 villagers sank on the Nembe River.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)
2000 May 22, Fresh Christian-Muslim clashes left 3 people dead in Kaduna.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, In Nigeria Christians and Muslims clashed for a 2nd day in Kaduna and the death toll mounted to 100.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C4)
2000 Jun 8, In Nigeria rioting in Lagos and a nationwide strike began after a 50% increase in fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A15)
2000 Jun 13, In Nigeria a national strike ended after the government agreed to a substantial reduction in the 50% increase to fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 19, Representatives of Nigeria said they found bank accounts in Liechtenstein with over $150 million held by family members of former dictator Gen Sani Abacha.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 10, Over 100 people, many of them children, were burned to death after a damaged gasoline pipe exploded near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court in the Niger Delta. The toll was later raised to 200.
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 16, Another pipeline blast killed over 100 people between the villages of Ifie and Ijala. The line was punctured to steal fuel.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 23, In Nigeria another pipeline fire broke out near the port of Warri and left 40 fuel scavengers dead.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A14)(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 6, In Nigeria an overcrowded boat capsized on the Atlantic coast near the Cameroon border and at least 40 people drowned. 42 survived.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 26, Pres. Clinton visited Nigeria. Pres. Obasanjo, head of 110 million people, pressed Clinton to help reduce the country’s $32 billion debt.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 27, Pres. Clinton visited the village of Ushafa in Nigeria and urged Nigerians to confront the “tyranny" of AIDS.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 5, Nigerians from Libya arrived home on repatriation flights and bore tales of a pogrom by youths resentful of economic immigrants.
(WSJ, 10/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 16, In Lagos, Nigeria, over 100 people died in clashes between Hausas and Yorubas. Most of the dead were believed to be Hausas.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/18/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Oct 17, Lagos state Gov. Bola Tinubu summoned Hausa and Yoruba leaders to peace talks.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Oct 18, The Odudua Peoples Congress, a Yoruba nationalist group, was banned and some officials of the movement were arrested.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov 5, At least 96 people were killed when an oil tanker truck slammed into a line of parked vehicles at a police check point between Ife and Ibadan.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.B2)
2000 Nov 30, Dozens were incinerated while scooping gasoline from a pipeline.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 9, 62 people were killed when a bus collided with a truck a 3rd vehicle hit the 1st two and burst into flames.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B4)
2000 In Nigeria Anambra Gov. Chinwoke Mbadinuju invited a fanatical Christian group, the Bakassi Boys, to enforce law and order after some 35 merchants were killed near Onitsha.
(SFC, 3/26/01, p.A8)
2000 In Nigeria 12 northern states declared sharia law.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.54)
2000 Nigeria was rated the most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency Int’l. By 2007 it improved to become the 32nd most corrupt.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.66)
2001 Jan 19, In Nigeria Bariya Magazu (19) was flogged 100 times for having premarital sex under Islamic law (sharia).
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 6, In Jos 30 girls died from a fire at the Gindiri Girls School. They were reportedly locked in for the night so as not to mix with boys.
(WSJ, 3/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 18, A mosque collapsed amid a downpour in a Lagos shantytown and at least 12 children were killed.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 26, Kofi Annan addressed an AIDS summit in Nigeria and called for an increase of funding against AIDS to at least $7 billion.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.D2)
2001 Apr 26, Nigeria announced an agreement with Cipla, an Indian drug maker, for drugs to treat 10,000 people with AIDS at $350 per patient per year.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A13)
2001 Apr 27, 53 African states signed a joint declaration to boost health spending to 15% to fight AIDS.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr, Dorothy Akunyili took over as head of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (Nafdac). Her main mission was to shut down drug counterfeiters.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2001 Jun 12, Clashes erupted between the Azare and Tiv communities in central Nigeria.
(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Jun 30, It was reported that some 50,000 people had been driven from their homes in central Nigeria during 2 weeks of ethnic violence in which as many as 200 people died in Nassarawa state.
(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 18, A 30-member robbery gang killed up to 22 people in the town of Awkuzu in Anambra state. They began with the house of Francis Okafor, a vigilante member.
(SFC, 7/21/01, p.E2)
2001 Jul, Over 100 people were killed in Nassarawa state in clashes between Tivs and other tribes.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 7, In Nigeria violence between Christians and Muslims erupted in Jos. Pres. Obasanjo called out the military the next day with dozens dead. Thousands fled the area and at least 70 people were killed.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 12, Fighting resumed in Jos and the death toll estimate was raised to 165. Police moved to quell the violence.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 14, Weekend anti-American protests left at least 200 people dead in Kano.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 12, The mutilated bodies of 19 abducted soldiers were found in Benue state.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)
2001 Oct 22-24, In eastern Nigeria soldiers killed up to 200 civilians and caused thousands of villagers to flee into the bush. The killings were apparently in revenge for 19 soldiers killed in Benue state. Pres. Obasanjo later acknowledged ordering the attacks and made a formal apology Jan 1, 2003.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D3)(AP, 1/3/03)
2001 Oct 23, African leaders gathered in Nigeria for the formal launch of the New Africa Initiative, aimed at reviving ailing their economies.
(WSJ, 10/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct, Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu (35) was convicted of adultery and sentenced in an Islamic court to be stoned while buried up to waist in sand. Her appeal began in Jan 2002. Hussaini was acquitted Mar 25 based on insufficient evidence.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A9)(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A6)
2001 Nov 4, In northern Nigeria Christian-Muslim fighting over the weekend left about 10 dead. It was sparked by the imposition of Muslim religious law, Shariah.
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 23, Bola Ige (71), justice minister and attorney general, was shot and killed at his home in Ibadan, Osun state. Pres. Obasanjo sent troops to Ibadan.
(SFC, 12/25/01, p.A4)
2001 In Nigeria over 100 flare stacks burned some 2 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas per day. It was estimated that 35 million tons of carbon dioxide was released annually along with 12 million tons of methane.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2001 In Nigeria Muslim-Christian fighting in Jos over the year left some 915 dead.
(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.A1)
2001 In South Africa MTN, a fledgling telecoms company, paid $285m for one of four mobile licenses sold at auction by the government of Nigeria.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.59)
2002 Jan 6, It was reported that Nigeria had a National Youth Service Corps that required participation by all university graduates under age 30.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighting broke out in Owo when members of the Odua People’s Congress approached the palace of a Yoruba tribal leader. Dozens were feared dead.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 17, In Nigeria labor leaders ended a 2-day general strike after Adams Oshiomole and other activists of the Labor Congress were arrested.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 27, In Nigeria explosions at the Ikeja military base rocked Lagos. Hundreds of people died when they fled the area and drowned in Oke Afa drainage canal. Deaths from panic later rose to 600 and then 1,000-2,000.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A5)(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A9)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 2, In Lagos fighting broke out between militants of the Yoruba and Hausa tribes. At least 55 people were killed over the next 2 days as fighting spread.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A3)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A5)
2002 Feb 5, Troops cracked down on ethnic fighting in Lagos following 3 days of clashes that left over 100 dead.
(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 14, Parliament voted to condemn Pres. Obasanjo for “ineptitude, insensitivity" and other offenses.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 23, Switzerland largest bank said it was freezing accounts containing money of the family of Sani Abacha of Nigeria, dictator from 1993-1998. The total blocked now reached $720 million.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)
2002 Apr 4, Young Ijaw men from Amatu kidnapped 10 oil workers off the southern coast. They demanded employment, oil contracts and other help.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A12)
2002 Apr 17, The Swiss government announced that the family of Sani Abacha will return $1 billion to Nigeria in an out-of-court settlement that allowed them keep $100 million.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A11)
2002 May 4, A Nigerian jet crashed in Kano. 4 of 76 onboard survived. Nigeria's EAS Airlines owned the British Aerospace twin-engine jet. The Red Cross reported 145 dead. A total of 154 people on the plane and the ground were killed.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/4/03)
2002 Jul 8, In Nigeria unarmed women, from the Arutan and Igborodo communities occupied a Chevron-Texaco oil terminal, preventing 700 workers, including Americans, Britons, and Canadians, from leaving. Their number soon reached as many as 2,000.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 15, In Nigeria women occupying a ChevronTexaco oil terminal agreed to end their eight-day siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to build schools, electrical and water systems.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 17, In Nigeria hundreds of unarmed women of the Ijaw tribe seized control of at least 4 more ChevronTexaco facilities in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 19, In Abiteye, Nigeria, unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities took two hostages in a bid to meet with oil executives.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20, In southeastern Nigeria unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities said they had freed their two hostages in return for a promise from oil executives to meet with them.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20, In Nigeria a huge fire broke out Saturday at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal, days after unarmed village women ended a 10-day siege that crippled the oil giant's local operations.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20-22, In Nigeria dozens of villagers have been killed, many hacked to death, in three days of clashes between rival political factions battling for influence in an oil-rich area of the Niger Delta.
(AP, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 25, Hundreds of Nigerian women left ChevronTexaco pumping stations in canoes and on foot following an agreement with company executives.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 29, In Nigeria presidential bodyguards opened fire on young men who were throwing stones near the rear of Obasanjo's mile-long motorcade. Some people were seen falling with multiple gunshot wounds, and at least six limp bodies were seen being hauled away.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Aug 3, In Nigeria amid political wrangling and fears of violence, President Olusegun Obasanjo said nationwide municipal elections would be postponed for the second time in six months.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 8, In Nigeria police freed 46 captives many of them chained and badly beaten in raids on five "torture centers" run by a feared vigilante group.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 13, In Nigeria the lower house called for the resignation of Pres. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 8/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 16, In central Nigeria gunmen killed Ahmad Ahman Pategi, Kwara state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and a senior official of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party, along with his police bodyguard.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 19, An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal by Amina Lawal, a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
(AP, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 26, In Nigeria an Islamic court has sentenced a couple to death by stoning for having an affair, marking the first time in Nigeria that a man has been sentenced to death for adultery.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 28, Nigeria renewed warnings that it cannot pay its debt service payments for the year because of falling oil revenue.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Lagos, Nigeria, an accidental factory fire complex fire left at least 15 dead. Thousands of rioters soon burned and looted the factory. 45 bodies were later recovered.
(AP, 9/17/02)(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 19, In Nigeria Ijaw tribe militants captured seven foreign-owned oil facilities and threatened to invade dozens more in a bid to force the government to change election boundaries they say favor a rival tribe.
(AP, 9/20/02)(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A6)
2002 Sep 30, The National Intelligence Council said China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia will have 50-75 million HIV-infected people by 2010, more than any other 5 countries.
(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 10, The United Nations' highest judicial body ruled in favor of Cameroon in a border dispute with Nigeria, giving it possession of an oil-rich peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 23, The Nigerian government said it rejects a World Court ruling that granted possession of a disputed oil-rich peninsula to neighboring Cameroon.
(AP, 10/23/02)
2002 Oct 24, Nigeria's parliament approved changes to an oil revenue-sharing law that gives state governments a share of revenues from offshore oil and gas production.
(AP, 10/25/02)
2002 Nov 8, Nigeria's Supreme Court scrapped limits on the number of political parties, opening the way for dozens of groups hoping to battle President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party in 2003 elections.
(AP, 11/9/02)
2002 Nov 12, The Nigerian navy raided a village in the swamps of the Niger Delta killing five people after attackers from the village robbed a ChevronTexaco oil boat.
(AP, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 21, In Kaduna, Nigeria, protesters set fire to cars and churches in the during demonstrations over a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet might have chosen a wife from among contestants in the Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeria. Witnesses said at least four people were stabbed and burned to death. Some 200 people died in ensuing riots and the writer of the article was forced to flee to Norway.
(AP, 11/21/02)(Econ, 4/30/11, p.72)
2002 Nov 22, In Kaduna, Nigeria, Christian youths retaliated against Muslims in the 3rd day of riots triggered by a newspaper article about the Miss World pageant. Red Cross officials said about 100 had died and 500 were injured.
(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 23, Miss World organizers moved the beauty pageant from Nigeria to London after three days of Muslim-Christian bloodletting killed 215 people. The violence was triggered by a newspaper's suggestion that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would have liked the event.
(AP, 11/23/02)(AP, 11/24/02)
2002 In Nigeria the governor of Borno state set out to destroy a conservative Muslim sect, later identified as Boko Haram, led by Mohammed Yusuf. Hundreds of members were killed.
(Economist, 9/29/12, p.51)
2002-2004 The Nigerian and Cameroon nations spent two years exchanging small areas of territory along their land border north of Bakassi until September 2004 when the peninsula itself was first due to change hands. Nigeria cited "technical difficulties" for missing that deadline, and after two years of stalemate agreed at a meeting in the United Nations on June 12, 2006, to pull out within 60 days.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2003 Feb 2, In Nigeria a powerful explosion destroyed a bank and dozens of apartments above it on Lagos Island, and relief workers reported at least 46 killed and many more trapped.
(AP, 2/2/03)(AP, 2/3/04)
2003 Feb 15, Nigerian oil workers launched an indefinite strike that could shut down crude exports in the world’s 6th largest oil exporter.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Nigeria cars and buses ground to a halt in Africa’s leading oil-producing nation, gripped by its worst fuel shortage since military rule ended four years ago. Nigeria, with a population of 120 million people, consumes 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Panic buying followed a recent strike.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 27, Semi-nomadic fighters attacked a village near Nigeria’s remote eastern border with Cameroon, reportedly leaving dozens of people, including seven policemen and a soldier, dead. Separately a large dugout canoe capsized on the Niger River, drowning at least 30 passengers.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2003 Feb 28, The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has sent an emergency mission to Nigeria to help find an undisclosed amount of missing or stolen radioactive material.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Mar 5, In Nigeria Marshall Harry, a senior member of the main opposition party, was shot and killed by gunmen who broke into his home in the capital.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Mar 7, In Nigeria the “Oba," or king, of Lagos Island, Adeyinka Oyekan II (92), died. Ritual human sacrifice was feared and a week of mourning left streets deserted.
(AP, 3/14/03)
2003 Mar 12, In Nigeria tribal fighting began between the Ijaw and Itsekiri.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 17, In Nigeria ethnic clashes left 8 people dead, including an employee of ChevronTexaco.
(AP, 3/18/03)
2003 Mar 19, Boatloads of Nigerian troops headed into the oil-rich Niger Delta on to put down days of ethnic violence that has left dozens dead and disrupted multinational oil operations.
(AP, 3/20/03)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 22, In Nigeria ethnic militants threatened to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they claimed to have captured in retaliation for military raids.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 26, In Nigeria Ijaw militants battling soldiers and tribal enemies in the oil-rich delta region called for a cease-fire after state officials agreed to support their political demands.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 29, Nigeria police shot and killed seven members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and arrested more than 20 to forestall a rally where they planned to make a symbolic declaration of independence. The leader of the failed Biafra state, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a leading opposition politician, lost in the April, 2003, presidential elections that were widely alleged to have been rigged.
(AP, 3/30/03)(AP, 3/23/05)
2003 Apr 1, In Nigeria the 12-day rampage by Ijaw extremists has cut the normal oil output of 2 million barrels a day by 40 percent. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of US oil imports.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 6, Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, died at the Esalen Inst. in Big Sur, Ca. He pioneered African music in the US with his 1959 album “Drums of Passion."
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A31)
2003 Apr 12, In Nigeria parliamentary elections took place for 469 seats in the House and Senate. 61 million voters were registered. The ruling party led legislative elections, but violence accompanying voting in the oil-rich south left at least two dozen people dead.
(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.A8)(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Nigeria elections Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler turned civilian statesman, sought a second term against some 20 other candidates. Obasanjo won 62% of 42 million votes. Opponents denounced the elections as fraudulent and claimed serious rigging in 16 of 36 states.
(AP, 4/21/03)(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.45)
2003 Apr 19, Striking Nigerian oil workers took about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil installations.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 May 2, Striking Nigerian oil workers released the first of hundreds of people they have held for days on oil rigs as part of an agreement to free all the captives.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 Jun 19, In northeastern Nigeria 30 miles north of the city of Umuahia, fuel gushing from a vandalized pipeline exploded, killed at least 105 villagers as they scavenged gasoline.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 30, In Nigeria a general strike called to protest massive fuel-price increases paralyzed the major cities. Police fired tear gas to break up mobs of banner-waving workers and roving armed gangs.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jul 8, Nigeria's main trade unions accepted a government compromise on fuel prices and ended a crippling eight-day strike.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 12, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria. They discussed the circumstances under which Liberian President Charles Taylor will live in exile in Nigeria, Wrapping up a five-day tour of Africa, President Bush said he would not allow terrorists to use the continent as a base "to threaten the world."
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/12/04)
2003 Aug 16, In Nigeria's southern oil port city of Warri, authorities imposed a nighttime curfew following gunbattles between rival tribal militias that have killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 22, In Nigeria 5 days of street battles in Warri left as many as 100 dead.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A16)
2003 Aug 29, In Nigeria crude oil spilling from a ruptured Shell Oil pipeline burst into flames near a southeastern village, scorching yam fields and spreading thick, black smoke for miles. More than one-tenth of Nigeria's exports are stolen daily by criminal rings who siphon the fuel from pipelines using everything from buckets to sophisticated pumps.
(AP, 9/2/03)
2003 Sep 8, In central Nigeria 3 buses and a truck collided, killing more than 100 people in the impact and the fiery explosion that followed.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Sep 25, In Nigeria an Islamic appeals court overturned the conviction of Amina Lawal. She had been sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.
(AP, 9/25/03)
2003 Sep 27, A Russian rocket brought two Russian and four foreign satellites, including Nigeria's first, into orbit. Nigeria's $13 million craft, to be used for taking photos, was built by a British firm.
(AP, 9/27/03)(Econ, 9/13/03, p.42)
2003 Sep 30, Nigeria lifted its fuel price cap on petrol, diesel and kerosene throwing the market open to competition and chaos ensued.
(Econ, 10/18/03, p.46)
2003 Oct 7, A ferry hit a bridge in eastern Nigeria and capsized. Dozens were believed dead.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 15, Nigerian police returned 74 child workers to Benin. As young as 4 years old, their skin broken and palms callused from months of hauling granite, they received food, clothes and medical care in the West African state of Benin after being rescued from the traffickers who sold them into heavy labor. On Sept. 27 authorities brought back 116 children who had been put to work in the granite quarries of southwest Nigeria.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 24, Nigerian health workers began an emergency drive to immunize some 15 million children against polio. Some 192 cases were currently active.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct, The Panama-registered tanker African Pride, carrying 11,300 tons of crude oil, was boarded by the Nigerian navy. The oil had allegedly been stolen by pirates in the Niger Delta. 12 Russian sailors, two Romanians and a Georgian were imprisoned in Nigeria. 2 naval admirals were prosecuted and dismissed after the Greek-owned ship disappeared following its seizure. In 2005 a Nigerian court agreed to free the sailors on bail.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2003 Nov 4, In Nigeria pirates armed with automatic rifles and dressed in camouflage fatigues ambushed a police boat in the troubled oil delta. 5 officers were missing and presumed killed.
(AP, 11/6/03)
2003 Nov 10, The US State Dept. distanced itself from a congressional push to capture toppled Liberian leader Charles Taylor in Nigeria via a $2 million reward.
(SFC, 11/15/03, p.A9)
2003 Nov 25, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo said he will surrender ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor to face a war crimes trial if Liberia asks.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Dec 2, Nigeria dismissed a human rights report that accused the government of killing opposition activists and stifling free speech, calling the charges "jaundiced and misconceived."
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 5, In Nigeria in the opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 8, In Nigeria the Commonwealth summit of 54-nations, representing nearly one-third of the world's 6 billion people, ended with Western nations blaming Zimbabwe for its own growing international isolation.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Nigeria banned trafficking in humans and set up an agency to curb it.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.45)
2003 Nigeria’s Pres. Obasanjo created a financial-crimes investigation unit. Nuhu Ribadu was appointed as the antifraud czar.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 3, Nigeria said it had routed a newly emerged Muslim militant movement fighting to create an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation. 2 weeks of running gunbattles had killed at least eight people.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 28, Nigeria said North Korea had agreed to share its missile technology. Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar reached the accord with Yang Hyong Sop, the visiting VP of North Korea's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Nigeria rejected the offer under US pressure.
(AP, 1/28/04)(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 30, A 25-30 seat passenger plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Lagos, Nigeria.
(AP, 1/30/04)
2004 Jan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank director and Nigeria’s new finance minister, promised that the civil service would be cut by 40%, and that top bureaucrats would have to pass exams.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.46)
2004 Feb 6, Nigeria ordered an investigation into allegations that a Halliburton Co. subsidiary paid $180 million in bribes to land a natural gas project (1995-2002), while US Vice President Dick Cheney was head of Halliburton.
(AP, 2/6/04)(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A6)
2004 Feb 22, An Islamic state in Nigeria that is at the heart of a spreading Africa polio outbreak declared it would not relent on its boycott of a mass vaccination program which it called a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility among Muslims.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 23, The World Health Organization launched a massive immunization campaign targeting 63 million children in 10 African countries as a polio outbreak spread from heavily Muslim northern Nigeria.
(AP, 2/21/04)
2004 Feb 24, In central Nigeria suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and bows and arrows killed at least 48 people in an attack on a farming village. Most of the victims died as they sought refuge in a church.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Mar 9, A shootout between unidentified gunmen and government troops in Nigeria's oil city of Warri killed five people, including one soldier. Separately an overturned candle ignited a fire that raged through a shantytown in Lagos.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 22, Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell said it plans to streamline its operations in Nigeria. An estimated 1,500 people, or about 30 percent of its work force of about 5,000, will be laid off.
(AP, 3/22/04)
2004 Mar 27, Tens of thousands of security forces guarded voting stations as Nigerians cast ballots in tense municipal elections.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar, In Lagos, Nigeria, a fire destroyed the 11-story food and drug administration building (Nafdac). 2 days later a Nafdaq lab in Abuja was burned. Criminal gangs linked to drug counterfeiters were suspected.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A5)
2004 Apr 22, In Nigeria rival militias threatened to escalate an ethnic conflict in Nigeria's oil delta, where 10 people were killed this week in an attack on a boat full of market vendors.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 Apr 23, In Nigeria a speedboat full of gunmen attacked a boat carrying oil workers in the delta region. 2 Americans and 4 others were killed.
(AP, 4/24/04)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.A3)
2004 May 2-2004 May 4, In Nigeria Tarok fighters, a predominantly Christian tribe, attacked Yelwa, a town dominated by Hausa, a rival Muslim ethnic group, razing homes and mosques and killing 500-600 people in 2 attacks over the last 3 days.
(AP, 5/6/04)(SFC, 5/7/04, p.A9)
2004 May 6, In Nigeria lawmakers in the mostly Islamic Kano state approved a law calling for Muslims to be whipped and Christians to be jailed if they are caught drinking alcohol.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2004 May 11, In Nigeria angry young Muslim men attacked "nonbelievers" with machetes in Kano, while others burned cars, stores and apartments in apparent revenge for last week's killings of hundreds of Muslims by a Christian group.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 May 12, In Nigeria Muslim mobs in Kano attacked Christians and as many as 30 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/13/04, p.A10)
2004 May 18, Nigeria's Pres. Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in a troubled central state on, invoking sweeping powers in a bid to halt religious and ethnic bloodletting. Obasanjo sacked Gov. Joshua Dariye and dissolved the legislature in the central state of Plateau.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 May 27, The Nigerian state of Kano abandoned its moratorium on polio vaccinations.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.A3)
2004 May 31, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said that his country's 30-billion-dollar external debt was "burdensome, unsustainable and unpayable" and appealed for leniency from its creditors.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 Jun 4, Nigerian troops killed 17 armed bandits in oil-rich Delta state, as military operations intensified to disarm criminals engaged in oil theft and piracy in the Niger delta.
(Reuters, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 9, In Nigeria unions representing millions of workers launched a general strike over fuel price hikes.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, In Nigeria Christians battled Muslims in Abuja, burning homes and places of worship in a dispute over construction of a mosque near a Christian tribal leader's palace. Police confirmed nine deaths and witnesses put the toll at more than 50.
(AP, 6/10/04)
2004 Jun 11, In Nigeria labor groups representing millions of workers abandoned a crippling three-day general strike.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun 12, At least 14 people were killed in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state as vigilante mobs hunted down suspected armed robbers, soaked them in petrol and then set them alight.
(Reuters, 6/15/04)
2004 Jun 18, West African defense chiefs agreed to create a 6,500-strong multinational force to respond to "crisis and threats to peace" in the war-ravaged region. The announcement followed a 2-day meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, involving defense chiefs of staff from the 15 member nations of ECOWAS.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jun 30, From Nigeria it was reported that Alhaji Dokubo-Asari head of an ethnically diverse mix of fighters who chiefly worship Egbesu, the traditional god of war for ethnic Ijaw, was trying to wrest the oil-rich Niger Delta away from multinational oil giants and the government, and put it into the hands of "the people."
(AP, 7/1/04)
2004 Jul 11-14, Security forces raided five villages in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, leaving 15 people dead and homes ransacked and burned.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Aug 4, Police in eastern Nigeria discovered skulls and corpses of at least 83 people in shrines where a secretive cult was believed to have carried out traditional ritual killings. 30 shamans were arrested in a part of Anambra state called “the evil forest."
(AP, 8/5/04)(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.A1)(CP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 12, In northeastern Nigeria flash floods have submerged houses and farms, drowning at least 23 people as they slept and forcing more than 1,000 to flee their villages.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Nigeria an oil tanker truck went out of control and plowed into a bustling Nigerian market in Kano, killing 17.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 24, The Nigerian Senate ordered Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to pay 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) compensation for damages caused by nearly 60 years of exploration in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 8/25/04)
2004 Sep 9, Nigerian troops battled militia forces in the mangrove swamps of Africa's leading oil region, the Niger Delta. The offensive has forced refugees to stream into the Port Harcourt.
(AP, 9/9/04)
2004 Sep 16, In Nigeria an oil pipeline exploded near Lagos as thieves tried to siphon oil from it, sparking a fire that killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 21, In northern Nigeria Islamic militants fighting to create a Taliban-style state launched their first attacks since January, assaulting two police stations in the northeast and killing six people.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, In northern Nigeria a gunbattle between security forces and Islamic militants fighting to create a Taliban-style state left 29 people dead, most of them militants.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 27, In Nigeria militiamen trying to wrest control of the oil-rich Niger Delta threatened to launch a "full-scale armed struggle" on petroleum-pumping operations in Africa's largest crude oil producing nation.
(AP, 9/28/04)(WSJ, 9/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 28, Virgin Group boss Richard Branson has signed an agreement with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to launch a new airline out of the west African nation that will be majority owned by Nigerian investors.
(AP, 9/28/04)
2004 Sep 29, Nigeria reached a truce with Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, head of an ethnically diverse mix of fighters, that threatened a war in the Niger Delta.
(WSJ, 9/30/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/2/04, p.45)
2004 Oct 8, In northeast Nigeria Islamist rebels attacked a major police patrol taking a number of hostages in a remote area near the Cameroonian border.
(AFP, 10/9/04)
2004 Oct 11, In Nigeria a nationwide strike to protest fuel price hikes shut down Lagos.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 14, Nigerian unions called off a general strike which had jeopardized oil supplies from the world's seventh largest exporter for four days.
(Reuters, 10/14/04)
2004 Oct 26, In Nigeria a 2nd day of peace talks on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region broke off after rebels called for more time to prepare proposals for a long-term political resolution to the conflict.
(AP, 10/26/04)
2004 Oct 27, Nigeria's state-owned news agency reported that an outbreak of measles in a remote Nigerian village had killed a dozen people. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 500,000 deaths from measles every year.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 28, Five policemen working for Nigeria's anti-drug enforcement agency were among 7 people killed by a mob that mistook them for armed robbers in a remote northern village.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Nigeria unions declared the top oil multinational here, Royal Dutch/Shell, "an enemy of the Nigerian people" and called a Nov. 16 nationwide strike.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Nov 10, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria threw out a death by stoning sentence against a pregnant 18-year-old girl who had been condemned for adultery.
(AP, 11/10/04)
2004 Nov 12, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to calm labor discontent ahead of a planned general strike, saying he would order the reduction of kerosene prices.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 15, Nigeria ordered immediate cuts in domestic fuel prices, trying to avert a looming general strike.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 15, Nigeria's main labor union indefinitely suspended a looming countrywide strike that had threatened to shut down the oil industry.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria, a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004 Nov, In Nigeria thugs burned down the main government building in the state capital of Anambra and shot at the governor.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.45)
2004 Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region, shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 7, Nigerian villagers lifted their blockade of three oil pumping stations in the volatile Niger Delta after energy giants Shell and ChevronTexaco agreed to discuss funding local development projects.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 13, In Nigeria the first face-to-face working meeting between Sudan government and Darfur rebel negotiators began. Cease-fire violations were on the rise in Sudan's bloodied Darfur region and the fighting was "poisoning" peace talks.
(AP, 12/13/04)
2004 Dec 22, Thieves stealing fuel from a pipeline in Nigeria set it ablaze as they fled from police, and at least 20 people died in the fire.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Charles Soludo, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, ordered banks to raise their minimum capital base 12-fold.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.71)
2005 Jan 1, Nigeria was forecast for 2.6% annual GDP growth with a population at 139.8 million and GDP per head at $380.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.94)
2005 Jan 8, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo flew to Sudan's troubled Darfur region to assess the crisis there following talks with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2005 Jan 10, Canada and Nigeria agreed to terms under which the Canadian International Development Agency is to provide 24.9 million Canadian dollars (20.4 million US) for health projects in the west African country.
(AP, 1/11/05)
2005 Jan 12, Nigeria made public plans to build a second $6-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the southwestern state of Ondo.
(AFP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 19, In Nigeria a fuel tanker crashed into two buses and burst into flames on a road in Lagos, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 30, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at a summit of the 53-member African Union in Abuja, Nigeria, urged pan-African cooperation to resolve conflicts.
(AFP, 1/30/05)
2005 Jan 31, In Nigeria African leaders pledged to send more peacekeeping troops to conflict zones, especially the western Sudan region of Darfur, and to boost their role in world affairs.
(AP, 2/1/05)
2005 Feb 4, The Nigerian army quelled a demonstration at one of Nigeria's main oil export terminals, while activists accused the soldiers of killing four protesters.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 10, Togo turned away a plane carrying Nigerian peacemakers, drawing threats of sanctions and accusations from Nigeria that it was blocking efforts to resolve a crisis widely condemned as a military coup.
(Reuters, 2/11/05)
2005 Feb 19, Nigerian soldiers, sailors and police descended on Odioma to hunt down a local militia leader and black magic guru who was accused of murdering 12 people from Obiaku. 28 people killed and Odioma was burned down by government troops.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Feb 23, In northern Nigeria hunters burning land to flush out game set fire to a munitions dump, triggering a string of explosions which damaged military buildings and spread panic in the city of Kaduna.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, African Union (AU) chairman, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, met Sudan's first vice president Ali Taha over the bloody crisis in Darfur region.
(AFP, 2/28/05)
2005 Mar 3, In Nigeria thousands of rioters wielding sticks and broken bottles burned down a police station in Makurdi, protesting the police killing of a bus driver who apparently refused to pay a bribe equivalent to 14 cents.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 7, Authorities said Nigerian police have rescued more than 100 children from child traffickers over the last 3 days, including 56 discovered at a checkpoint in a frozen food truck.
(Reuters, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 8, The parliament of Nigeria, Africa's most-indebted nation, passed a nonbinding resolution demanding Nigeria stop repaying its $35 billion foreign debt.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 21, It was reported that measles in Nigeria had killed 529 people this year.
(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 22, Nigeria’s Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo fired his education minister, Fabian Osuji, accusing him of bribing lawmakers including the Senate leader Adolphus Wabara and a string of other named senators of taking bribes totaling $398,550.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 Mar 28, Tafa Balogun, Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, was arrested. He was later charged with numerous counts including embezzling $93 million from police funds.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.37)(www.efccnigeria.org/)
2005 Mar 29, It was reported that China’s influence in Africa was expanding rapidly. Chinese projects included the rebuilding of Nigeria’s railroad network; the paving of roads in Rwanda; ownership of copper mines in Zambia; timber operations in Equatorial Guinea; and supermarket operations in Lesotho.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 8, ChevronTexaco Corp. said it has awarded a $1.7 billion contract to build Nigeria's third natural gas-to-liquids plant to a consortium including Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 11, Britain imposed a year-long ban on delivering first-time visas to Nigerians aged 18 to 30, citing a backlog of applications, most of which are rejected.
(AP, 4/11/05)
2005 May 3, ChevronTexaco's Nigerian subsidiary said it would overhaul its aid projects in the country's oil-rich south after finding much of the tens of millions of dollars spent yearly was fueling violence and wasted by corruption.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 5, President Bush met with Nigerian Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo. They discussed oil and Obasanjo said he would explore how to address US concerns that former Liberian President Charles Taylor be brought to justice.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 10, A UN resolution backed by the US urged Nigeria to hand Charles Taylor to a court in Sierra Leone on the grounds that Taylor had violated his terms of asylum.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.52)
2005 May 17, In southeastern Nigeria hundreds of youths stormed a police station and set fire to cars after a protester was fatally shot by a police rifle.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May, In Nigeria Mike Amadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting up a Web site that offered juicy but phony procurement contracts. Amadi was caught by an undercover agent posing as an Italian businessman.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Jun 4, Hundreds of activists gathered in southern Nigeria to rally support for an opposition conference, backed by the Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka, to end ethnic and political violence in Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Nigeria 5 men and one woman were shot dead in the poor Apo neighborhood Abuja. Police initially said they were armed robbers caught in the act, but an inquiry established that they were unarmed. In Dec Nigeria apologized to the families of the people who were shot dead and offered them 3 million naira ($22,600) each, setting a precedent in a country where police brutality is a fact of daily life.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Jun 15, A militant group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region kidnapped 2 German and 4 Nigerian workers of a contractor firm providing service for Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 18, Militants in southern Nigeria released six oil workers taken hostage by a group demanding $20 million from Shell for local communities.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9 north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 12, French company Technip SA said it has been awarded an $800 million contract by Chevron Corp. to develop its largest Nigerian oil project.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 16, In Lagos a court convicted Amaka Anajemba, a Nigerian woman, of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the country's biggest international fraud case. She was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to give up $25.5 million in cash and assets. Banco Noroeste of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was reportedly fleeced of some $242 million over seven years until 2001.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 24, In northern Nigeria a long-haul passenger bus skidded off a bridge and tumbled into a river after the driver fell asleep, and 56 people were killed.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 26, A boat ferrying passengers between remote villages sank in a southwestern Nigerian river, killing at least 18 people.
(AP, 7/28/05)
2005 Jul 30, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., received $100,000 at the Ritz-Carlton in Arlington, Virginia, to use for bribing Abubakar Atiku, vice-president of Nigeria. Vernon Jackson, a Kentucky businessman, later admitted to paying over $400,000 in bribes to secure deals for his telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries. Documents released in 2005 said an FBI informant recorded a video of the transaction.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A3)
2005 Aug 1, In Nigeria protesting Akabuka villagers demanding more jobs for their community forced the Nigerian branch of Total SA to shut down the Obagi onshore oil field.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 3, The FBI raided the Maryland residence of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar as part of a probe into whether a US congressman made or approved payments to officials in West Africa.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 18, Nigerian media quoted Pres. Obasanjo as saying police violations "ranged from extra-judicial killings to torture and unlawful detention." He singled out an incident in June in which policemen in the capital, Abuja, allegedly killed six people returning from a night outing after branding them armed robbers. Six policemen were charged in the killings. Among those accused is Danjuma Ibrahim, the second-ranking policeman in the city.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 25, African ministers and international donors unveiled a 1.1-billion-dollar (894 million euro) strategy to boost catches, build fish farms and develop the seafood sector after a high-level meeting of the New Partnership for Africa’s Redevelopment (NEPAD) Fish for All Summit, in Abuja, Nigeria.
(AP, 8/25/05)(www.nepad.org/)
2005 Aug, In Nigeria Amaka Anajemba was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to return $25.5 million of the $242 million she helped to steal from a Brazilian bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Sep 5, Nigerian unions dropped a threat to hold a nationwide general strike but instead vowed to launch a series of mass street rallies to protest against rising petrol prices.
(AFP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 15, British police arrested Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, leader of the oil-rich southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa, as part of a money laundering investigation.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 20, In Nigeria dozens of soldiers and police arrested Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, the main militia leader in Nigeria's south, at his office in the oil city of Port Harcourt. A militia with a history of violence in Nigeria's oil-rich south threatened to blow up oil installations if the government did not release its arrested leader.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Sep 22, In Nigeria police said Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, a separatist militia leader, will be charged with treason, a capital offense. His arrest set off tense protests in the oil heartland. Dokubo-Asari said his Ijaw ethnic group and the other people of the Niger delta should break away from Nigeria and take control of the billions of dollars of oil flowing from their land.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 22, Boatloads of Nigerian guerrilla fighters armed with rifles, machetes and dynamite launched a drive to hijack oil installations in the waterways of the Niger Delta, after a judge jailed their leader.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 28, In Nigeria 2 oil workers, one Briton and the other from Ireland, were kidnapped in the southern delta.
(Reuters, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 4, In Nigeria at least 3 civilians were killed in crossfire and a Lagos police headquarters was burned down after a dispute between armed police and soldiers erupted in street fighting. Witnesses said that brawling broke out after an army officer tried to prevent a police patrol extorting an illegal 20 naira (seven cent) toll from a motorcycle taxi driver.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 8, Nigeria's financial crimes agency said it had returned $4.5 million last month seized from scammers to an 86-year-old Chinese woman.
(AP, 10/8/05)
2005 Oct 12, A build up of pollution from factories and old cars caused a wave of smog that enveloped much of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 15, Nigeria and Cameroon discussed a new program for Nigeria to withdraw from the disputed Bakassi peninsula, but failed to set a new deadline after two days of talks in Abuja.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 20, The Paris Club announced and agreement to cancel 60% (about $18 billion) of Nigeria's foreign debt. This fueled optimism among anti-poverty campaigners, but corruption and requirements imposed by the West overshadowed the future. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, was rated the sixth most corrupt nation in the world in a survey released earlier this week by Berlin-based Transparency International.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 22, In Nigeria a passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos, killing all 117 on board.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 23, Stella Obasanjo (59), the wife of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, died after undergoing liposuction surgery in Spain. In 2009 A court in Malaga convicted plastic surgeon Antonio Mena Molina of negligent homicide. He was given a suspended sentence of a year in jail, barred from practicing medicine for three years, and ordered to pay euro120,000 ($175,000) in damages to the woman's son.
(AP, 10/23/05)(AP, 9/22/09)
2005 Oct 27, Nigerian security forces said they have detained three of the country's most powerful militant leaders, as part of an apparent crackdown on the separatist forces threatening to tear the country apart.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 30, Nigeria reported that its inflation rate rose to 15.5% in the 12 months ending in August, up 14.2% from the month before according to the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS).
(AP, 10/30/05)
2005 Oct, Oando, a Nigerian energy group, became the first company from another African country to be listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE).
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.72)
2005 Nov 12, Africa Union leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal met in Abuja for a 2-day summit titled: "Africa and the challenges of the global order: Desirability of union government," with the leaders discussing the broad principles of integration.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 14, It was reported that India's top oil exploration firm, Oil & Natural Gas Corp., and the world's largest steel maker, the Netherlands-based Mittal Group, planned to build an oil refinery in Nigeria. They offered to invest another $6 billion in building a power plant and railroads there.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 14, In northern Nigeria 12 children were trampled to death as panicked pupils fled what they thought was a fire in their school at Kaduna.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 21, British authorities said Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (1953), the governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich state Bayelsa, has skipped bail and returned home. He had been arrested and charged in Britain for laundering millions.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 23, In Nigeria a Bayelsa state government spokesman said an impeachment notice has been filed against Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who skipped bail in London, accusing him of money laundering, holding illegal foreign bank accounts, corruptly enriching his family and misappropriating public funds among other offenses.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 28, In Nigeria hundreds of troops armed with rocket launchers and machine guns manned check points in the oil-producing Bayelsa state as protesters staged rival rallies over the impeachment of the state governor.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Nov 29, A Sudanese Darfur rebel faction said it attacked a town in West Darfur state, killing 37 soldiers and police, to push for its inclusion in peace talks due to open in the Nigerian capital Abuja later in the day.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Dec 2, In Nigeria rebel leaders from the western Sudanese region of Darfur rejected an African Union draft agreement on power-sharing between their forces and the government in Khartoum, pushing the sides' seventh session of peace talks close to stalemate.
(AFP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 5, In southeastern Nigeria Separatist protesters demanding authorities release their leader shut down businesses and banks, and an activist said security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing three people.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 6, Separatist radicals faced off against heavily-armed Nigerian police in eastern cities as a protest to demand an independent homeland for the 40-million-strong Igbo people entered its second day.
(AFP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 9, In Nigeria Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the governor of the oil-rich state of Bayelsa who skipped bail in Britain to escape trial there for money-laundering, was arrested by 200 armed policemen, after lawmakers removed his immunity from prosecution.
(AFP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 9, In Nigeria police broke down the gate of a huge housing complex to oust thousands of civil servants and their families in the third mass eviction by the government this week in the commercial capital of Lagos. The move followed a decision by the government to sell off several publicly owned housing blocks for civil servants in a privatization scheme. Authorities have not provided the estimated 8,000 residents with other accommodation.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 10, Nigeria’s Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 carrying 110 passengers crashed while landing during a storm in the southern city of Port Harcourt. Some 107 people were killed including 71 children. The runway lights were off because the airport had not bought a generator.
(AP, 12/10/05)(AFP, 12/12/05)(WSJ, 10/1/07, p.A1)
2005 Dec 18, Nigeria grounded Boeing 737 planes across the country for safety checks, stranding thousands of travelers after two deadly accidents in two months.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 20, The impeached governor of a Nigerian oil-exporting state faces charges of stealing $55 million in public funds, according to a charge sheet produced in court by Nigeria's anti-corruption agency.
(Reuters, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 20, In southern Nigeria attackers blew up a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline carrying crude oil across, killing at least eight people and cutting crude production in Africa's oil giant.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 21, In Nigeria Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell announced the closure of a third flowstation, following the alleged sabotage of a pipeline, bringing a loss in crude oil production to 180,000 barrels per day (bpd).
(AFP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 29, Authorities said Mohammed Marwa, a former official in Nigeria's junta, has been detained as part of a corruption probe in what was the first arrest and questioning of a top official in the former ruling military regime.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 The CD "I Go Chop Your Dollars," penned by Nigerian artist Osofia, became a hugely popular hit in Lagos. It also became the anthem of Nigeria’s 419 internet scam artists.
(LAT, 10/20/05)
2005 In Nigeria an Air France flight ploughed into a herd of cows on the runway way at Port Harcourt.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.42)
2005 Nigeria’s 1st world-class shopping mall, the Palms, opened in Lagos.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.60)
2006 Jan 6, Nigeria’s government anti-AIDS agency said it will double the number of centers where AIDS patients can get free drugs in the next three months as part of a major drive to widen access to treatment.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 8, Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas company Nigeria NLNG said it had shipped the first cargo of gas from its fourth production plant to the US.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 11, In Nigeria gunmen stormed an offshore oil platform run Royal Dutch Shell and kidnapped four foreign oil workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. The four were freed nearly three weeks later.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)(AP, 1/11/07)
2006 Jan 14, Sadatu Abubakar Rimi, the wife of a senior Nigerian opposition figure, was hacked to death in the early hours by suspected hired assassins.
(Reuters, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 15, Separatist gunmen shot dead several Nigerian troops and overran an oil plant run by the Anglo-Dutch Shell, amid fears for the safety of four kidnapped foreign workers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. MEND told Shell to pay $1.5 billion to the state of Bayelsa for pollution it said Shell has caused.
(AFP, 1/15/06)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.47)
2006 Jan 19, Nigerian kidnappers said their US hostage was gravely ill and threatened to kill three other foreign oil workers held captive if he died.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nigeria, a police spokesman said 14 suspects have been arrested following clashes in Lagos earlier this week in which three people were killed.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Port Harcourt, Nigeria, an armed gang dressed in police uniform attacked the offices of Agip oil company, a unit of Italy's ENI, and at least 9 people were killed.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 30, In Nigeria 4 foreign oil workers were released after being held hostage for more than two weeks by a militia demanding that residents in southern Nigeria benefit more from its energy wealth.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 8, The World Organization for Animal Health said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria, the first reported outbreak in Africa. Researchers later reported that 3 different strains of bird flu had entered Nigeria and most closely resembled those identified in Egypt, Mongolia and Russia.
(AP, 2/8/06)(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 9, Health authorities imposed a quarantine on poultry farms across northern Nigeria. 2 more states reported cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
(AP, 2/9/06)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 18, In Nigeria armed militants carried out a wave of attacks across the troubled Niger delta, blowing up oil and gas pipelines and seizing nine foreign oil workers: 3 Americans, a Briton, 2 Egyptians, 2 Thais and one Filipino. Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados terminal after militants bombed the tanker loading platform.
(Reuters, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Nigeria militants in southern Nigeria destroyed an oil pipeline and blew up a boat in violence that has cut about 20 percent of crude production in Africa's oil giant.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Christian mobs rampaged through the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha, burning mosques and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Nigeria at least 20 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the eastern Nigerian city of Onitsha. Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city as the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at least 93.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Reuters, 2/22/06)(SFC, 2/23/06, p.A13)
2006 Feb 23, Christians in the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha burned Muslim corpses and defaced wrecked mosques, showing little repentance after days of sectarian violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 24, Christian youths armed with machetes, stones and clubs attacked Muslims in the southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu. A Reuters witness saw a mob beat one man to death. Sectarian violence spread to three more Nigerian cities, claiming at least seven lives and pushing up the death toll in days of killings to at least 127.
(Reuters, 2/24/06)(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 24, A Nigerian court ordered Royal Dutch Shell PLC to pay southern communities $1.5 billion (1.2 billion euros) in compensation for environmental pollution and degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell appealed against the court's decision.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In northern Nigeria 35 were killed and five were injured when two buses collided head-on and caught fire at Kwarna-Jagga in Jigawa state.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 28, Nigerian separatist militants stormed a tanker ship working in the Niger Delta and took a large sum of cash, 12 days after they kidnapped nine foreign oil workers from another vessel. The insurgent spokesman said the tanker captain had parted with 500,000 naira as a "goodwill token" during the encounter, although a shipping industry source put the sum at two million naira (15,500 dollars / 13,000 euros).
(AFP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, In Nigeria militants released six foreign oil workers, including a diabetic Texan celebrating his 69th birthday, taken captive last month to press fighters' demands for a greater share of oil revenues generated in this restive southern state.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 5, Nigerian militants threatened to halve the country's oil output by cutting another one million barrels a day this month in their campaign to gain more autonomy for the southern delta region.
(Reuters, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 6, Nigeria unveiled details of spending plans in its record 14.8-billion-dollar (12.3-billion-euro) federal budget and made ambitious predictions for strong economic growth.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, A four-year-old Indonesian boy became the latest suspected human casualty of bird flu as the virus spread in Nigeria and Poland. A Russian virus expert warned that a human pandemic was highly likely and told the government to get ready.
(AFP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 8, In Nigeria government sources said the head of the Nigerian military in the oil-producing Niger Delta has been removed from his post on suspicion of involvement in the theft of crude oil. Militants killed at least 5 soldiers in a firefight during an attack by the army in the southern Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 3/9/06)(AFP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 13, In Nigeria and official report said ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and communal conflicts have driven more than three million Nigerians from their homes since the return to democracy in 1999.
(Reuters, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 17, Liberia said it has asked Nigeria to hand over former Pres. Charles Taylor, who is living there in exile and wanted on war crimes charges for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 21, Nigeria launched its first census for 15 years. Residents remained indoors on government orders on the first day of the controversial census.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Nigeria heavy winds ripped away much of the top nine floors of a fire-weakened building in Lagos, raining debris on mostly empty streets and leaving people on lower floors waving frantically for help.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 22, A ferry carrying 150 passengers sank off the coast of Cameroon, and 23 people were rescued. The rest were feared dead. The ferry was bound for Gabon from Nigeria with passengers from Burkina Faso, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
(AP, 3/23/06)(SFC, 3/24/06, p.A12)
2006 Mar 23, Human rights campaigners said Nigerian separatists have attacked census officials with acid and machetes in a violent campaign for the southeastern region to boycott the headcount. A violent start to Nigeria’s first census in 15 years left at least 10 dead and scores of others injured.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 25, Nigeria said it will send back to Liberia exiled ex-president and one-time warlord Charles Taylor, wanted for trial on war crimes by a UN-backed court.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 25, Nigeria announced a two-day extension of a controversial census to allow for everyone in Africa's most populous nation to be counted despite delays caused by poor organization and violence.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 27, In Nigeria a weeklong census ended as workers scrambled to tally everyone across Africa's most-populous nation, but many remained uncounted in the exercise, marred by violence and the lack of forms, census takers and money.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Militants demanding control of revenues from Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta released their last remaining foreign hostages, two Americans and a Briton, but the group threatened to continue attacks on oil installations.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 28, Officials said former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans. Taylor was arrested trying to cross the border into Cameroon. He then was flown back to Liberia.
(AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 8, In Nigeria at least a dozen people drowned when an overcrowded dugout canoe capsized in a remote creek in the delta region. 5 employees of a contractor to US oil company Chevron were among the dead. Nigerian newspapers said at least 20 people died, adding 12 bodies had been recovered.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10-2006 Apr 12, About 25 people were killed in three days of skirmishes between two Nigerian tribes over ownership of land in the central state of Plateau.
(Reuters, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 18, Nigeria said it plans to build a $1.8 billion highway and create jobs to address the crises in the Niger Delta. Militants dismissed the efforts as insufficient.
(WSJ, 4/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 19, Nigerian militants killed two people in a car bomb attack on an army barracks in the southern city of Port Harcourt, extending a four-month onslaught against the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 27, In Nigeria President Hu Jintao said China wants a "strategic partnership" with Africa, seeking to add a new political dimension to a blossoming economic romance. China agreed to commit $4 billion for infrastructure in exchange for 4 oil drilling licenses.
(Reuters, 4/27/06)(WSJ, 4/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 29, A car bombing in the Nigerian oil city of Warri destroyed at least five tanker trucks. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the southern delta's oil wealth, said it had used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of dynamite in the bombing.
(Reuters, 4/30/06)
2006 May 10, In southern Nigeria a gunman riding a motorcycle shot to death an American oil worker on his way to the office.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 11, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in the southern city of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 12, In southwestern Nigeria a ruptured pipeline exploded as villagers rushed to collect oil gushing from it and a local TV station said up to 200 people were feared dead. Militants threatened to destroy NLNG, a $13 billion natural gas export plant.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 16, The Nigerian Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for a third term in office in 2007.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 19, Nigeria sold to a state-owned Chinese group licenses to explore four oil blocks, underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources. In exchange for the drilling rights, China agreed to invest two billion dollars in northern Nigeria's Kaduna refinery. The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), rejected the claim and described the allocation as a "bribe".
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 21, In Nigeria rock star and activist Bono told African finance ministers that the recent goodwill of wealthy industrialized countries toward Africa could dissipate unless the continent tackles corruption.
(Reuters, 5/21/06)
2006 May 29, In southwestern Nigeria a truck hauling iron rods lost control and crashed into several roadside buses as passengers were boarding, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May, In Nigeria 30 men stormed the headquarters of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons in Abuja, destroying filing cabinets and boxes of documents. The same month, an investigator was murdered.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Jun 1, In southern Nigeria a major oil spill forced Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to cut production by 50,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig operating off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six British, one American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked during the night.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 4, In Nigeria 8 foreign oil workers, kidnapped on June 2, were released. Police declined to say whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was responsible for the hostage-taking.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 7, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped five South Koreans in an overnight raid on a gas plant owned by Shell. 10 soldiers were killed in the raid.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, In Nigeria militants released one Nigerian and five South Korean gas workers after a plea from the jailed militant leader in whose name they were abducted.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 16, In southeast Nigeria at least six people were killed in the city of Onitsha when a feud between a separatist group and a transport union degenerated into street battles.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2006 Jun 19, In Onitsha, Nigeria, 204 prison inmates were set free by the "hoodlums" who invaded the building at around 2:00 am. The attack on Onitsha prison came less than 24 hours after troops were deployed and a curfew imposed on the troubled city. Clashes between the banned Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), a separatist group, and police were reported to have left several people dead at the weekend.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 20, Two Filipino oil workers were kidnapped near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt in the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 21, Nigeria’s Pres. Olusegun removed Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the finance ministry and installed her as the foreign minister.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.46)(http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/16262.html)
2006 Jun 25, Two Filipino oil workers, kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil delta, were released after five days in captivity.
(AP, 6/25/06)
2006 Jun 26, Nigerian authorities re-arrested Gbenga Arulegba, the presenter of a political TV program, and charged him with sedition over a show critical of the president.
(Reuters, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 6, In Nigeria a Dutch oil worker was kidnapped by armed men from a Royal Dutch Shell gas plant. He was released July 10.
(AP, 7/6/06)(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 12, In Nigeria 2 explosions hit oil installations belonging to an Italian oil company along two Agip pipelines in Baleysa state.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a deal with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available to fight the disease.
(AFP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 19, In Nigeria a 4-story apartment building collapsed overnight in Lagos. Red Cross officials confirmed that at least 24 people were killed.
(AFP, 7/20/06)
2006 Aug 4, In southern Nigeria 3 Filipinos working for a US construction firm were kidnapped, a day after a German was abducted in the same region.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 10, In southern Nigeria gunmen in military fatigues seized two foreign oil workers. A Belgian and a Moroccan were abducted as they traveled through the city of Port Harcourt taking to at least 10 the number kidnapped in the past week.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August 12 UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said they would resist a handover to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a state of flux for another five years before it will be finally handed over to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Nigeria Ayo Daramola, a member of the country's ruling party and a potential candidate in Ekiti state, was found stabbed to death in his home, the third killing of a potential gubernatorial candidate in recent weeks. Armed men kidnapped four more foreign oil workers in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, but released 3 Filipinos abducted more than 10 days ago.
(AFP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers being held hostage in Nigeria were freed as the government promised to crack down on a surge in unrest in Africa's largest oil producer.
(Reuters, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 18, Nigeria’s military launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of kidnappings.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Nigeria government troops arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected of taking oil industry workers hostage in the petroleum-rich south.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, At least 11 people were killed when militants engaged Nigerian troops in a fierce gun battle in the restive Niger Delta. Local press reports said 12 people, 10 militants, a Shell worker and a soldier, were killed during the shootout.
(AFP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Nigeria soldiers stopped cars at checkpoints and arrested 60 people in the third day of a crackdown on militants in the volatile oil region.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 25, Nigerian soldiers in Port Harcourt burned hundreds of slum houses located close to the compound of an Italian oil company where at least one Italian worker was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed overnight.
(Reuters, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 30, Nigerian officials and the UN refugee agency appealed to some 6,000 recalcitrant Liberian refugees to go back home, warning that time and hospitality were fast running out for them.
(AFP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug, In Nigeria Transcorp acquired NITEL, the state-run telecommunication company. Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo was widely believed to have a large stake in Transcorp. In 2009 the government voided the sale.
(AFP, 6/2/09)
2006 Sep 14, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks in Tokyo on the start of a trans-Pacific trip.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 17, A Nigerian military transport aircraft, traveling from Abuja to the southern town of Obudu, went down in the southeast with a group of military officers on board. 12 of 17 people were killed and most were senior military personnel.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 20, The town of Dutse, capital of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state, was recovering after 1,000 people fled their homes in the latest in a series of inter-communal flare-ups that analysts warn could escalate in the coming months. This fall 16 churches were burned in Dutse and thousands made homeless in rioting.
(http://badgals-radio.com/?p=745)(Econ, 2/3/07, p.50)(http://tinyurl.com/22xej3)
2006 Sep 25, In Nigeria an inauguration ceremony in Lagos featured new bailiffs, a corps of 30 men and women, all graduates, in uniforms of black trousers, ash-colored shirts, yellow badges and cowboy hats and handcuffs on their belts. Former Lagos bailiffs had converted their role as enforcer of court judgments on property into an extortion racket.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 28, Nigeria's vice president Atiku Abubakar was suspended by his party for three months because of corruption allegations, preventing him from running for president on the party's ticket.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 30, In northwest Nigeria families were swept away in a torrent of water and scores were feared dead in flooding from a dam collapse outside Zamfara state's capital city of Gusau. About 40 people were feared dead and 500 houses were washed away.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, Dozens of militants abducted 25 Nigerian oil workers in an attack on their convoy in the southern delta region. 5 soldiers were killed and 9 left missing when militants sank two boats used to guard a Shell convoy.
(AP, 10/3/06)(WSJ, 10/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 3, OPEC President Nigeria called on its fellow OPEC countries to make deeper output cuts as prices tumbled to an 8-month low below $59 a barrel and the tide showed no sign of turning.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 4, In Nigeria militants freed around 25 kidnapped oil workers but five abducted expatriates were still missing in another part of the Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 6, ECOWAS leaders met for summit talks in Nigeria.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 7, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda met President Olusegun Obasanjo for talks on plans to manufacture cheap software in Nigeria, fight HIV/AIDS and alleviate poverty.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 8, Liberia’s presidency said ECOWAS leaders, who met in Nigeria on Oct 6, had agreed for an extension of the term of office of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo by 12 months, paving the way for presidential and general elections there.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 10, Nigeria charged six people, including men from Ireland, Israel and Romania, with illegally obtaining classified defense documents. Nigerians with assault rifles overran a navy base, taking several troops hostage, and occupied a nearby oil facility belonging to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
(AP, 10/10/06)(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, Edmund Daukoru, Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president, said OPEC has agreed to trim global oil production by 1 million barrels a day to boost prices, and its members were discussing how to share the cut. Nigerian security sources said armed youths have released dozens of Nigerian employees of the oil company Shell and its subcontractors, but around 15 workers were still being held at a flow station in the restive Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/11/06)(AFP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Nigeria legislators in southwest Ekiti state voted to remove Gov. Ayo Fayose on after finding him guilty of siphoning state funds into personal bank accounts and receiving kickbacks.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency in a troubled southwest state where he said the impeachment of the governor by the local legislature violated the constitution. Thirty-one of Nigeria's 36 state governors are being investigated for corruption, according to the country's financial crimes agency.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Nigeria police said all seven foreign oil workers who were being held hostage in the southern Niger Delta have been released and are in good health.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 25, In Nigeria angry villagers seized three Shell oil platforms in the volatile Niger Delta, forcing production to be shut down at each.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Oct 29, In Nigeria protesters demanding jobs and aid took over an oil pumping station run by an Italian oil firm in the southern delta region, forcing the company to shut the flow of oil. Output of 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was cut when armed protesters forced the closure of a flowstation belonging to Italy's Agip company in the Niger Delta.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Oct 29, A Nigerian airliner carrying 104 people, including the man regarded as a spiritual leader of Nigeria's Sunni Muslims, crashed in a storm after taking off from the airport in Abuja. Most of those on board were feared dead. 9 people survived. The Nigerian pilot of the plane did not heed air traffic controllers' advice to not depart in stormy weather.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 30, Nigeria and China signed an 8.3 billion dollar contract for the construction of a railway line from the economic capital Lagos to Kano, the largest commercial city in the north.
(AFP, 10/30/06)
2006 Nov 1, In Nigeria a court of appeal in Ibadan, capital of the southwestern Oyo state, declared unconstitutional the removal earlier this year of governor Rasheed Ladoja by local lawmakers. Ladoja was impeached by a faction of the state parliament on January 12 for alleged corruption and abuse of office and was replaced by his deputy, Adebayo Alao-Akala.
(AFP, 11/4/06)
2006 Nov 2, Authorities in Nigeria named Muhammadu Sada Abubakar III (50), an army colonel, as the country's top Muslim leader, replacing his brother Muhammadu Maccido, the Sultan of Sokoto, who died in a plane crash last weekend. Armed gunmen seized two expatriate oil workers, an American and a Briton, during a raid on a Norwegian oil services ship off Nigeria's southern coast.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Nov 6, Nigeria signed a deal with British firm Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) to build an earth observation satellite.
(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, In Nigeria an American and a Briton kidnapped from a ship mapping petroleum deposits off the oil-rich southern coast were released.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 9, In Nigeria at least 6 hostages escaped from an oil facility where they had been held along with dozens of other people since armed men raided the Italian-run pumping station earlier this week.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 13, In Nigeria Joshua Dariye (49), the beleaguered governor of troubled Plateau State, was impeached by state legislators after being accused of corruption. Nigeria's anti-graft commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), issued a statement saying it was seeking both Dariye and Ayodele Fayose (46), the impeached former governor of southwest Ekiti State. The EFCC said recently that it was investigating 31 state governors out of a total of 36 for corruption.
(AFP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 15, In Nigeria 11 armed men attacked a southern oil facility owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC Wednesday, leaving two attackers dead.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, Nigeria's opposition called for an investigation into a 12-billion naira (93-million dollar) scandal that hit the front pages with allegations of government involvement. Several Lagos newspapers reported that Starcrest was only a firm "on paper" and that it had been founded in May by several figures in government including President Olusegun Obasanjo's electoral campaign fundraiser Emeka Ofor.
(AFP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 20, Armed men attacked the offices of a Nigerian aid group in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, killing one person and wounding another. The dead man had offered to help find Ateke Tom, a militant wanted by the Nigerian government in connection with a string of kidnappings and bank robberies.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 22, In Nigeria a Briton was killed and one Italian injured when a group of armed men fleeing in a boat with their seven foreign oil worker hostages exchanged fire offshore with a navy patrol in the southern Rivers State. A rescue attempt freed the 6 remaining hostages and left 2 kidnappers and a soldier dead.
(AFP, 11/23/06)(SFC, 11/23/06, p.A40)
2006 Nov 27, A three-story bank under construction collapsed in the main Nigerian city of Lagos, and two people were unaccounted for and believed trapped inside the rubble.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Nov 28, A Nigerian court voided a report of the country's anti-graft agency which indicted Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a business associate of corruption. Amnesty International said Nigerian police and soldiers are using rape to intimidate restive communities and "as means of torture to extract confessions from suspects in custody."
(AP, 11/28/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 30, Nigeria opened the first ever summit of African and South American leaders. Participants called for greater control by the two continents over their vast reserves of raw materials. The inaugural gathering also set to tackle issues ranging from the conflict ravaging the Darfur region of Sudan to the boosting of inter-continental trade.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Nigeria OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said that he expects the OPEC oil export group to cut its output quota by at least half a million barrels per day when it meets on December 14.
(AFP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, In Nigeria press reports said Abubakar Audu, a former governor of Nigeria's central state of Kogi (1999-2003), has been charged in a high court with corruption and money laundering. Audu was slammed with 80 counts of corruption and money laundering during his tenure.
(AFP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 7, Gunmen attacked a southern Nigerian oil installation belonging to a subsidiary of Italy's Eni SpA, taking three Italians hostage and killing another person.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, A Nigerian court ruled that Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s suspension from the dominant political party was unconstitutional, potentially clearing the way for him to run for president on the party's ticket in the upcoming election.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 9, Nigeria’s governing party suspended gubernatorial primaries in at least two of 36 states following candidate protests and violent clashes.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Nigeria armed men who seized control of a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil complex overnight fled, taking three Nigerian hostages, shooting a man and forcing the oil giant to halt production at the site.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 17, Nigeria's ruling party chose a reclusive Muslim state governor, Umaru Yar'Adua, to be its candidate to succeed Olusegun Obasanjo as president of Africa's most populous nation in elections next year.
(Reuters, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 18, In southern Nigeria near-simultaneous blasts tore through two oil company facilities. The region's main militant group claimed responsibility, saying it had planted car bombs.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 19, Nigeria's former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate of one of the country's main opposition parties, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
(AFP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 21, In southern Nigeria armed militants in speedboats have killed three policemen in an overnight attack on a residential facility belonging to French oil company Total. Shell, began relocating staff dependants after a bomb blast.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 23, A spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said long queues for gasoline were “just in the spirit of the season." An explosion occurred near the headquarters of Rivers State government in the oil capital of Port Harcourt, moments after militants said they were about to detonate two car bombs in the region.
(Reuters, 12/23/06)(AFP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 24, Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar's new party, the Action Congress (AC), slammed President Olusegun Obasanjo's declaration that his former deputy's office was now vacant as unconstitutional.
(AFP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 26, In Nigeria a ruptured gasoline pipeline burst into flames as scavengers collected the fuel in Lagos, killing 269 people. Witnesses said thieves had broken into the pipeline after midnight and hundreds of men, women and children had been collecting leaking fuel in plastic buckets, cans and bags for hours before the explosion. 2 different armed groups lifted sieges of two oilfield stations, releasing more than 20 local workers. Shell resumed production at its Nun River facility. 4 oil workers were still being held hostage by a different armed group after an attack on Agip's Brass River export terminal on Dec 7.
(AP, 12/26/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 29, New census figures said Nigeria's population had nearly doubled to an estimated 140 million people since the last count in 1991. Nigerian medical authorities announced that the death toll in the oil pipeline fire in Lagos had risen to 284 after 15 more people succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel Prize winning writer (1986), authored “You Must Set Forth at Dawn," a memoir that followed up on his childhood memoir “Ake."
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.M3)
2007 Jan 3, A Nigerian militant group said it had seized $545,000 sent by Italian oil firm Agip to obtain the release of 4 foreign workers kidnapped on Dec 7 but had kept the men hostage.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has repaid 1.4 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros) to the so-called London Club of private creditors and that the rest of the debt will be cleared by March. At least 3 people were killed in violent clashes between farmers and nomads in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A 4th died in hospital the next day.
(AFP, 1/4/07)(AFP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 5, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped five Chinese workers fixing overhead telephone lines.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 8, The Nigerian government withdrew a suit seeking to sack Vice President Atiku Abubakar for defecting to a party other than the one in which he was elected.
(AFP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, Nigeria started paying more than 1,000 Biafran police pensioners, 37 years after the west African country ended a bloody civil war.
(AFP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 10, Militants kidnapped nine South Korean oil workers and one local worker in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria, bringing the total number of foreigners currently held hostage there to 18.
(AFP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, The Nigerian military said it has recovered the body of an officer who was abducted last week in the country's southern oil producing region.
(AFP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 12, In Nigeria 9 South Korean pipeline workers and a Nigerian kidnapped in southern Nigeria were released with the help of a youth group.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 13, Suspected avian influenza was recorded in northern Nigeria's Sokoto State, a day after the disease reportedly infected 5,000 birds in nearby Kastina state.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 14, In Nigeria 12 chiefs from various delta communities were killed overnight when assailants attacked their boat.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 16, Royal Dutch Shell evacuated staff from two oil installations in southern Nigeria and the military boosted troop levels in the volatile area after a dozen village elders were killed in a riverboat attack.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 17, In Nigeria rebels released 5 Chinese telecommunications workers and an Italian oil worker abducted in the southern delta region. A female (22) in Lagos died from bird flu. This was Nigeria’s first confirmed fatality from Avian Influenza. Tests on 3 other deaths were inconclusive.
(AP, 1/18/07)(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 19, The EU said it has donated an additional 3.95 million euros ($5 million) to support the implementation of the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary demarcation project.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 23, In southern Nigeria unidentified assailants seized oil engineers, an American and a Briton, in the latest kidnapping.
(Reuters, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 25, In southern Nigeria gunmen stormed the local offices of a major Chinese oil company, abducting seven Chinese employees and stealing a large amount of cash.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 25, Nigeria divested 24.87% of its equity in the ailing Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN), while the French government also conceded to shed 30% interest in the company, which was turned over to ASD Motors Nigeria.
(AFP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 26, Officials at Davos, Switz., said Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, now depends 100 percent on imports of petroleum products due to the closure of its three refineries and canalization of pipelines.
(AFP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, A Belgian man working for a building materials company was murdered in the oil city of Warri, in Nigeria's Niger Delta. 2 suspects were arrested. Carjackers with AK-47s shot dead two women in a US embassy vehicle in Nairobi's western outskirts. Police killed two of the fleeing gunmen during a shootout in the nearby bush.
(Reuters, 1/27/07)(Reuters, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 28, Some 50 Nigerian rebels attacked a city centre police station in the Niger Delta and freed George Sobomabo, a top commander, arrested earlier that day. Militants released 125 inmates when they stormed the police station in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 29, A truck crashed in northern Nigeria's Yobe state killing at least 35 people and seriously injuring another 37. A burst tire caused the truck loaded with cement as well as 72 people to veer off the road.
(AFP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 30, Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of buying arms to suppress unrest in the oil-rich Niger delta rather than pacifying the region with development.
(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, A human rights group said its study of one of Nigeria's oil-producing states found that officials squandered or stole public money, some hospitals required patients to bring their own beds, and schools were running out of chalk.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, A Nigerian oil worker abducted 2 days earlier from a facility operated by Addax Petroleum in southern Nigeria was found dead.
(AFP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Nigeria officials said 9 Chinese oil workers, abducted last month by militants in an armed attack in the southern delta, were released.
(Reuters, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 7, Gunmen seized a French oil worker in Nigeria's restive southern petroleum-producing region. Kidnappers there also seized a woman from the Philippines. Kidnappers released a British oil-worker after the man taken in a raid last month fell ill. President Olusegun Obasanjo called for a high-level meeting to address the violence.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Benin, Nigeria, and Togo formed a new regional body aimed at fast-tracking the integration of their economies. The body, known as the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone (COPAZ), was formally inaugurated following a mini-summit of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, Benin’s President Boni Yayi and Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Nigeria gunmen released 24 Filipino sailors taken hostage in the lawless southern oil-producing region.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 17, Nigerian hostage takers released an American oil worker in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen seized three Croatian workers. The men were abducted in the region's main city of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 20, Nigeria's court of appeal ruled that President Olusegun Obasanjo had no legal power to sack of his deputy president for having joined an opposition party.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, In Nigeria a Lebanese hostage abducted along with three Italians in southern Nigeria was freed after being held for more than 10 weeks. MEND said the men guarding Saliba had been bribed to allow his escape. Two of the Italians abducted with Saliba were still being held by MEND. The third was freed on January 18 because of health problems. Gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded a third in the southern Niger delta.
(AFP, 2/21/07)(AP, 2/22/07)(AFP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a Lebanese engineer and kidnapped two Italians in two separate incidents in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
(Reuters, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Nigeria riot police were deployed to quell communal clashes that have claimed several lives in the southern oil-rich Ogoniland.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Nigeria at least 50 people were feared dead when a ferry sank on the Nun River in the southern state of Bayelsa.
(AFP, 3/2/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Michigan Thomas Katona, a former county treasurer of a Lake Huron vacation community, was ordered to stand trial on charges that he looted $186,500 in public funds for a Nigerian investment scam. Katona was treasurer of Alcona County from 1993 until his dismissal late in 2006.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Nigeria 7 people were shot dead and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 7, A Nigerian court cleared Vice President Atiku Abubakar to take part in next month's presidential poll, overturning a decision by the electoral commission to disqualify him.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 9, The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said Nigerian police routinely torture suspects, shooting them in the legs, beating them and hanging them from the ceiling for long periods. Royal Dutch Shell said that it has successfully contained a major oil spill in a production facility in southern Nigeria but yet to regain output loss of 187,000 barrels per day.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AFP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Nigeria’s oil region hostage takers released 3 European captives. 2 Croatians and one Montenegrin seized Feb. 18 in Port Harcourt were in good health after their release to state officials.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 15, Nigeria’s electoral commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from crucial elections, omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates. In southern Nigeria militants released two Italian oil workers who were kidnapped more than three months ago.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 16, Frenchman Gerard Laporal, kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil capital Port Harcourt more than a month ago, was released.
(AFP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Nigeria retired general Adetunji Olurin, who runs Ekiti State, warned he could invoke State of Emergency Laws against politicians bent on causing violence as April general elections draw near. Newspapers next day reported that he threatened to have troublemakers shot on sight to curb political violence. In central Nigeria 2 Asians and one Nigerian were kidnapped.
(AFP, 3/18/07)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Nigeria a senior veterinary official said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus is spreading among poultry farms around Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 21, A Nigerian Senate committee ruled that President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, acted "illegally" in the management of a petroleum fund and recommended them for prosecution. 5 people were killed in clashes over land in Ikare-Akoka in the southwestern state of Ondo.
(AFP, 3/21/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped three foreign construction workers, including a Dutch national, in two separate incidents.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 25, In Nigeria a diplomatic source said an Indian and a Lebanese man kidnapped in volatile southern Nigeria last week amid disputes over oil revenues have been released.
(AFP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, In northern Nigeria at least 89 people burned to death in Kaduna when a tanker lorry caught fire as they were stealing fuel from it.
(AFP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Nigeria Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell confirmed that the federal government had charged it with the alleged loss of some "radioactive tools" belonging to one of its contractors. Shell denied reports that it had been involved in any dumping of toxic waste in Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 31, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a British oil worker from an offshore oil rig.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Apr 2, Gunmen in Nigeria's southern Bayelsa State kidnapped two Lebanese nationals.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar lost an appeal against a decision by the electoral commission to bar him from this month's presidential election. Two courts issued competing rulings on the disqualification, setting up a legal showdown just weeks before an election meant to solidify civilian rule in the country.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 4, Hostage takers in southern Nigeria released four foreign workers held captive in the oil-rich region. The British High Commission and an industry source said a Briton and a Dutch national held hostage in volatile oil-rich southern Nigeria have been released. Gordon Gray was kidnapped March 31 from an offshore rig in the Niger delta. The Dutch man was kidnapped March 23 from Port Harcourt. 2 Lebanese nationals working for a construction firm, Setraco, were also released.
(AFP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 6, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped two Turkish engineers from their car in Port Harcourt.
(Reuters, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, In Nigeria 5 people, including a senior police officer, were killed in clashes between rival cult gangs in the southern oil-rich state of Rivers.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 13, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a radical Muslim cleric in his mosque and fired on the congregation, killing two more people, in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 14, Voters went to the polls in Nigeria to choose their state officers in the first of a pair of elections meant to solidify civilian rule. PDP gunmen beat up opponents, snatched ballot boxes and stuffed them with pre-marked ballots. Gunmen killed seven policemen in raids on two police stations in Port Harcourt. Some later judged the polls to be the most rigged in the country’s history.
(AP, 4/14/07)(AFP, 4/14/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.56)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.12)
2007 Apr 15, Nigeria's mass daily newspapers reported that dozens of people died during state elections, as results began to emerge from state elections that were marred by rigging and violence.
(AP, 4/15/07)(Reuters, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nigeria's Supreme Court ruled that the country's electoral commission unlawfully disqualified a top opposition politician once allied with the president from running to replace his former mentor.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, Nigeria's electoral commission said it would comply with a Supreme Court ruling that the vice president be placed on the ballot for this weekend's presidential elections, as sporadic violence was reported around the country. 18 Nigerian opposition parties threatened to boycott the presidential and legislative elections if the April 14 regional polls were not cancelled. 12 Nigerian police were killed when an unknown armed group stormed their station in the northern city of Kano.
(AP, 4/17/07)(AFP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 18, Nigeria's government rejected an opposition call to postpone the presidential election following widespread abuses in state polls last weekend. Nigerian soldiers killed at least 25 Islamic militants, in the second day of violent clashes in Kano.
(AFP, 4/18/07)(Reuters, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 20, In Nigeria the opposition said that troops have intercepted a truck-load of already completed ballots a day before the presidential election, heightening fears the vote will be rigged. A Nigerian navy helicopter crashed in the country's south, killing its three crew members. 7 policemen on election duty were ambushed and shot dead near Karu town in central Nassarawa State.
(Reuters, 4/20/07)(AFP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 21, A truck bomb aimed at Nigeria's electoral commission headquarters ran into barriers and failed to explode. Polls opened despite the attack for a presidential vote already shadowed by charges of fraud and a last-minute ballot hitch. Voting in Nigeria's parliamentary elections was suspended in most of central Lagos, the economic capital, because of errors on the ballot papers.
(AP, 4/21/07)(AFP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, The two main opposition parties denounced the conduct of Nigeria's presidential elections. An influential, homegrown observer group called for a cancellation of the vote meant to cement civilian rule in Africa's top oil producer.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 23, Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria's ruling party was declared winner of a presidential poll rejected by the opposition and condemned by observers as a "charade."
(Reuters, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, The Nigerian government accused Bola Tinubu, the governor of Lagos, of operating foreign accounts contrary to his oath of office.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, Nigeria's main opposition party said it will not recognize or cooperate with any government formed as a result of last weekend's presidential election, which was won by the party of outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 27, Nigeria's Supreme Court voided the removal of Joshua Dariye, a Plateau state governor, who fled London on money laundering charges in November 2004. In Nigeria police said 5 gunmen and two police officers were killed during an attempt to kidnap two foreign oil workers in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 28, In Nigeria ballot papers were stolen and voters intimidated as polls were re-staged for hundreds of state and federal legislators' seats after elections widely condemned as fraudulent. Oil officials said Nigeria is currently losing 600,000 barrels of oil per day in the oil rich Niger Delta as a result of the activities of militants in the region.
(AP, 4/28/07)(AFP, 4/28/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of people gathered in heavily guarded squares and stadiums in Nigeria's main cities to protest last month's flawed presidential election. Dare Folorunso, a Nigerian journalist of the state-owned radio-television station, was beaten unconscious by policemen at workers rally in Akure in southern Ondo state. MEND militants kidnapped six foreign oil workers, including four Italians, in an attack on a floating storage vessel off the coast of southern Bayelsa State. A Nigerian sailor was killed.
(Reuters, 5/1/07)(SFC, 5/2/07, p.C2)(AFP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 2, A company spokesman said US oil giant Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its Funiwa facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 3, In Nigeria at least 21 workers, most of them foreigners, were kidnapped in separate attacks in the oil-rice delta region. 8 foreigners and a Nigerian were later freed.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 5, In southern Nigeria armed men kidnapped a Briton overnight from the Trident 8 oil rig. Unknown gunmen in Port Harcourt kidnapped a Russian woman who worked for a catering company.
(AFP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 7, Nigeria's next president Umaru Yar'Adua departed on a tour of seven African countries, his first foreign trip since being elected in April. Oil major Chevron said it had temporarily shut down its Ebite flow station in southern Nigeria because of a community protest.
(AFP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 8, In southern Nigeria militants staged coordinated attacks on 3 pipelines in the wetlands region, the most damaging assault on the country's vital oil infrastructure in over a year. MEND claimed responsibility for the bombings, which forced Italian oil giant Eni to halt production of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) feeding its Brass export terminal. Militants released 3 South Koreans and 8 Filipinos kidnapped last week at a Daewoo construction site in the oil-rich south.
(Reuters, 5/8/07)(AFP, 5/8/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated in the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its lucrative business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 10, Nigeria's Senate cleared outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption in the management of a multi-billion-dollar oil fund but indicted his deputy. In Port Harcourt gunmen wearing military fatigues jumped from their vehicles and killed two police officers.
(AFP, 5/11/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 11, Only around half of 45 oil exploration blocks Nigeria put up for auction attracted bids, with foreigners wary of political uncertainty ahead of a government change.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 12, In Nigeria Lora Kabir, a Russian woman, set off with 50 volunteers on a 225-kilometer (140-mile) walk from polio-endemic Nigeria's most populous city Kano to raise public awareness among parents of the dangers of polio.
(AFP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 13, Nigeria's central labor union called for a two-day mass protest against last month's elections, which have been roundly criticized by both local and foreign observers for fraud. In southern Nigeria at least 30 people were killed when three vehicles burst into flames after colliding on a road.
(AFP, 5/13/07)(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, A Chinese rocket blasted a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an expansion of China's commercial launching services for foreign space hardware. The NIGCOMSAT-1 ceased functioning on November 11, 2008, due to a power failure.
(AP, 5/14/07)(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 May 14, In southern Nigeria's Rivers State unidentified gunmen snatched a Nigerian working for Italian oil giant Agip.
(AFP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, Royal Dutch Shell Plc. said protestors have occupied an oil facility in southern Nigeria forcing daily production cuts of 170,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, Nigerian militants used dynamite to blow up a home of vice president-elect Goodluck Jonathan, killing two police officers.
(AFP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, In Nigeria labor leaders called a two-day nationwide strike coinciding with the May 29 inauguration of the new government to protest what they said was a fraudulent election.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 19, In southern Nigeria gunmen dynamited the front gate of a residential compound and kidnapped three Indians in an attack that left one Nigerian dead.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, Officials said Nigeria's largest state has sued US drug firm Pfizer for allegedly using 200 children as "guinea pigs" for a drug test in 1996 that led to multiple deaths and deformities. In 2010 a leaked WikiLeaks cable said Pfizer hired investigators to unearth evidence of corruption against Nigeria’s former attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to persuade him to drop legal action over the company’s experimental antibiotic, Trovan.
(AFP, 5/20/07)(SSFC, 12/12/10, p.A4)
2007 May 24, Nigeria's powerful oil unions began a strike at its state-owned oil company and threatened to target exports in hopes of reversing the sale of government refineries.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 25, In southern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a group of foreign oil workers, including three Americans and four Britons.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 26, Nigeria's oil unions said they have suspended a two-day-old strike after the government met their demands over the proposed sale of two state-owned oil refineries.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 29, Umaru Yar'Adua (56), a former governor hand-picked by departing President Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in as president in Nigeria’s first transfer of power from one elected government to another. Gun battles between rival gangs in Nigeria's southern oil-producing state of Rivers erupted in violence linked to a change of governor, killing 15 people.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, In southern Nigeria 4 American oil workers abducted three weeks ago were released.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 1, Nigeria’s national dailies reported that nearly 2,000 students sitting university entrance exams in have been caught using mobile phones to cheat. Gunmen disguised as riot police abducted four foreign workers from the residential compound of oil services giant Schlumberger in Nigeria's oil city Port Harcourt. The four hostages were citizens of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Pakistan. Gunmen kidnapped three senior expatriate management staff and four family members from the residential compound of chemical company Indorama.
(AFP, 6/1/07)(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 2, Southern Nigeria's most prominent armed group released six foreign oil workers held captive for four weeks and announced a month-long moratorium in attacks on petroleum facilities.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped six foreign staff of United Company RUSAL after blowing up their apartment with explosives in the southeastern town of Ikot Abasi.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Nigerian police said military troops stormed a hideout in Ebonyi state and freed one of two Chinese workers abducted by unknown gunmen on Mar 17.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A senior official said Nigeria's anti-graft agency has summoned 15 former governors over corruption charges involving millions of dollars and they are due to appear before investigators.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 6, Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won Britain's Orange Prize for fiction by women for her book “Half of a Yellow Sun," becoming the first African to take the award in its 12-year history.
(AP, 6/6/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.54)
2007 Jun 11, Hostage takers in Nigeria's restive oil heartland released 13 captives, including three Americans.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, In London Chinua Achebe (76), a Nigerian novelist, won the Booker Int’l. Prize for fiction, awarded every 2 years for a body of fiction. He is best known for his 1st book “Things Fall Apart" (1958).
(SFC, 6/13/07, p.E5)
2007 Jun 14, Nigerian separatist leader Mujahid Asari Dokubo, whose detention on treason charges since 2005 has sparked kidnappings in the oil-rich Niger Delta, was provisionally freed on health grounds. Militants freed 10 Indian hostages, including 2 women and 2 children.
(AFP, 6/14/07)(AFP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Nigeria military and industry sources said gunmen have kidnapped several foreigners in the main oil-producing region of southern Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 18, Nigeria's main labor organizations said they had called a general strike for June 20, two days later than originally planned, threatening key oil exports.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 19, In Nigeria a top militant leader freed on bail said that armed groups in the restive south will halt attacks on oil installations to give the new government a chance to deal with the region's problems.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 20, Nigerian stocks dipped 1.74% as a general strike called by the country's two main labor movements over a 15-percent hike in petrol prices took its toll. Nigerian health officials said an outbreak of measles in a village in the northern state of Borno had killed 20 children and caused a further 100 children to be hospitalized.
(AFP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 21, In Nigeria police used tear gas on strikers manning a barricade in Lagos as the second day of a general strike brought parts of Africa's largest oil producer to a standstill. Two Nigerian employees of Italian oil company Agip were killed when troops stormed an oil facility to free hostages in the Niger delta. A total of 20 people were killed in the operation, including 15 militants.
(AFP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun 22, Nigeria's crippling general strike entered a third day with labor leaders and government officials deadlocked after all-night talks ended in failure.
(AP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Nigeria labor unions called off a strike aimed at overturning a government fuel-price hike, ending a four-day work stoppage that shut down most major economic activity in Africa's biggest oil producer. Labor officials said they accepted a government proposal to hold off on raising fuel prices for a year, while accepting an earlier offer to halve the price increase that had sparked the strike. Kidnappers released four foreign oil workers seized weeks ago.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 25, In Nigeria 2 youth activists were killed in a clash between two rival groups in southern Nigerian Rivers State.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jun 26, A seven billion dollar (5.2 billion euro) lawsuit pitting the Nigerian government against the world's biggest pharmaceutical company Pfizer opened with the US giant demanding the court dismiss the charges.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 28, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar'Adua revealed personal wealth of $5 million, saying public financial disclosures should be standard practice amidst official corruption. Torrential rain brought Lagos virtually to a standstill as streets flooded with more than 50 centimeters (20 inches) of water, in places blocking traffic.
(AFP, 6/28/07)(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 2, Nigerian university lecturers called off a more than three-month strike to press for improved working conditions.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern Nigeria armed men kidnapped five foreigners, the same day the country's most prominent militant group announced it would end a truce with the government.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Nigeria kidnappers snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as she was being taken to school.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents, who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Nigeria gunmen attacked two southern oil installations, kidnapping two senior Nigerian employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and two foreigners.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by militants to kidnap workers at a Korean firm in southern Rivers state, killing one insurgent and injuring several others. Police said several people were injured and many houses and vehicles were destroyed in two days of fighting between two rival cult gangs in southern Ogoniland.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 11, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency arrested two former governors who had refused to present themselves for questioning.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Nigeria the 3-year-old son of town chief Eze Francis Amadi was grabbed by gunmen who smashed a window of his father's SUV in the fourth child kidnapping in the oil-rich south in less than two months. The boy was returned the next day.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a key oil supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has affected the company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six villages whose residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 18, A top Nigerian lawyer accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption and asked the anti-graft commission (EFCC) to investigate his financial activities while in office. A Nigerian oil official said the economy has lost more than one billion dollars a month and hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude a day since 2006 due to unrest in the Niger Delta. In northern Nigeria a radical Sunni Islamic preacher was shot dead near a mosque. Sunni Muslims in Sokoto said they suspected members of the rival Shiite community.
(AFP, 7/18/07)(AFP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, Nigeria filed a new lawsuit against US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claiming some 6.5 billion dollars in damages for deaths allegedly stemming from drug trials. In Sokoto, Nigeria's main Islamic city, mobs burned down houses in Shiite neighborhoods in apparent reprisal for the murder this week of a radical Sunni Muslim cleric. In northern Nigeria at least one person died and about 100 were detained in a series of dawn raids following sectarian clashes sparked by the killing of a popular Sunni cleric In southern Nigeria Gunmen killed a Lebanese businessman in his home. Later in the day attackers tried to ambush a truck carrying several foreign workers in what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt.
(AFP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 21, In southern Nigeria armed men seized the son (30) of a local chief near Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 23, Nigerian police said at least 10 people were killed over the weekend and dozens sustained burns in the southern Delta state after adulterated kerosene they were using in their stoves exploded. In southwest Nigeria at least six people were killed and several trapped when a three-storey building under construction collapsed.
(AFP, 7/23/07)(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the government of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by his predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of the speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 25, The Nigerian government filed suit against three leading tobacco companies, seeking more than 40 billion dollars (29 billion euros) in damages for the cost of treating smoking-related diseases.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Jul 26, A court in Nigeria sentenced Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelso state governor, to two years in jail on charges of corruption and money laundering and ordered him to forfeit millions in property and cash. Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, the new head of the navy, told a parliamentary commission about the suspected illegal bunkering on ships under naval guard and how the ex-officers allegedly dipped into the lucrative trade.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was about to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Nigeria 18 men were arrested in remote northern Bauchi state, where they were found with women's apparel as they prepared for a gay wedding. They faced charges of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court. They were accused of lesser crimes in court but angry crowds reacted violently. Three weeks later they were rearrested and charged with more severe crimes including indecent acts and faced 10 years in jail if found guilty.
(AP, 8/10/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.49)
2007 Aug 6, Nigerian police said that they have arrested 17 people over the past two months on suspicion of carrying out kidnappings in the oil-rich south of the country. At least 17 people were killed in flooding in central Nigeria's Plateau state while more than 200 houses were washed away.
(AP, 8/6/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, In Nigeria kidnappers released a British and a Bulgarian hostage in the southern oil region, while the young son of a local legislator was seized in a separate incident and gunbattles raged for a third day.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 10, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped an American manager from oil services firm Hydrodive as he traveled to work in Port Harcourt, where gunfire rang out across the region’s main city for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southern Nigeria a foreigner taken hostage amid increased lawlessness died of an illness while being taken to a hospital.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 14, Gunmen in southern Nigeria abducted the mother of a state lawmaker, the latest in a spate of kidnappings targeting the children and elderly parents of local politicians.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 17, Nigerian authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Port Harcourt after security forces and gang members clashed in battles that left dozens dead.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 27, Gunmen in southern Nigeria set free Peter Agwuna, a Nigerian supervisor for the Elf oil group, who was seized in Port Harcourt about a month ago.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 3, In southwestern Nigeria at least 20 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel tanker.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 4, Nigeria’s national news agency said Nigeria will spend 950 million naira (7.3 million dollars/ 5.3 million euros) to resettle nationals living in the disputed Bakassi Peninsula ceded to Cameroon last year.
(AFP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Nigeria 5 people, including two policemen, were shot dead in a failed attempt to rob a bank in Lagos.
(AFP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 11, In Nigeria journalist Tope Abiola was beaten unconscious by prison guards and police as he photographed the bodies of some of the inmates killed by police who used live bullets to foil a jail break attempt at Agodi prison. At least eight inmates were killed and another 14 seriously injured in the riot.
(AFP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 14, Eight members of Nigeria's ruling party seized by gunmen in the southern oil-producing state of Ondo last weekend were released.
(AFP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 18, The Nigerian navy said that over the past 3 years it had seized 236 ships, tugboats and barges used for smuggling crude oil and petroleum products in the high seas and Niger delta.
(AFP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 20, A Nigerian government spokesman said Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala has sacked the entire 34,000-strong workforce in his Oyo state for refusing to heed a call to suspend their one-month-old strike over pay.
(AFP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 21, Sources said the presumed head of the Nigerian armed group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who goes under the name of Jomo Gbomo, has been arrested in Angola.
(AFP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, Nigeria suspended a deal by a previous government allowing the private sector to run the country's federal government-owned "unity" schools.
(AFP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 26, Dr. Judith Asuni (60), A US aid worker, was arrested in the oil-rich Niger Delta along with German nationals Florian Orpitz (35), and Andy Lehmann (26), and one Nigerian, Danjuma Saidu. Asuni was said to have facilitated the Germans' visit to Nigeria and helped them enter the petroleum installation to film. Asuni was granted bail on Oct 23.
(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Sep 27, In Nigeria gunmen disguised as soldiers killed a Colombian oil worker and abducted two other foreigners in a raid on the construction yard of oil services company Saipem.
(Reuters, 9/27/07)
2007 Oct 3, Local media said police in southwest Nigeria have arrested five politicians for allegedly raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The suspects, all members of the west African giant's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), were arrested for the offence in Ilesha. An opposition Action Congress (AC) spokesman said the rape victim was among eight supporters of the party who were abducted two weeks ago in the town. At least 38 people were killed and 48 reported missing after two ferries collided on a river in northern Nigeria's Kebbi State.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 3, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria banned a play written by a civil rights activist which satirizes the implementation of Sharia law in 12 mainly Muslim states. The upper Sharia court in the Tudun Wada neighborhood of the northern city of Kaduna issued the order restraining Shehu Sani from selling or circulating his play, "Phantom Crescent."
(AFP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 4, Officials said the Nigerian central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate MPR from eight to nine percent because of rising inflation.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Nigerian electoral court annulled the election of Ibrahim Idris, the governor of the central Kogi State, following a complaint by his opponent, Abubakar Audu, that he had been unfairly excluded from the April vote.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, A World Health Organization official said 69 children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following vaccination against the disease. Peter Eriki indicated that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the vaccination campaign. The new outbreak was caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.
(AFP, 10/12/07)(AP, 8/14/09)
2007 Oct 14, Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the first state visit by an Indian premier to the oil-rich west African state in 45 years.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16, India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN Security Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation agreements on day two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 21, Shell officials said gunmen in speedboats attacked an offshore oil field in the volatile Niger Delta, kidnapping three foreign workers and four Nigerians.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 24, Nigeria's top corruption investigator said that up to six former governors will be charged by the end of the year, a sign the country's new leadership is making good on pledges to stamp out graft in one of the world's most corrupt nations.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25, In southwest Nigeria 17 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with an oncoming truck on a road.
(AFP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In south Nigeria armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy's ENI and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian. The 6 foreign workers were released on Oct 30.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, Patricia Etteh, the speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, resigned, just hours after saying she would step aside temporarily to enable lawmakers to debate a report indicting her over a contract scam. A panel's report found Etteh did not follow due process before awarding contracts worth several million dollars to equip and renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, In southern Nigeria one navy officer was killed and four other naval personnel injured in an overnight attack on a vessel protecting a Shell oilfield.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 2, A Nigerian court sentenced Omoniyi Sanlola (25), a university student, to 34 years in jail for forging US Postal Service money orders. The judge handed him one-year terms for each count, to run concurrently.
(AFP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 7, The country's top prosecutor said Nigeria will drop criminal charges against an American peace worker, her Nigerian associate and two German film makers who had been accused of endangering national security.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 12, A Nigerian official said security agents have arrested several men who allegedly had materials for making explosives. Evidence has linked them to the al-Qaida terror network.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 12, An unknown armed group killed 19 Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, a border region handed back to Cameroon by Nigeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, Royal Dutch Shell said a major pipeline feeding one of its two main oil export terminals in southern Nigeria was attacked and ruptured by unknown assailants.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Nigeria’s northern Kano state supporters of rival political parties clashed over the results of local government elections, leaving six people dead and dozens behind bars.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Nigeria pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger Delta, killing a crew member and injuring another.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 11, In southeast Nigeria 20 people were killed and several injured when the driver of a truck lost control and rammed into a crowd by the roadside in Awka, Anambra state.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, The former governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, James Ibori, was arrested on corruption and money-laundering charges. His state salary was less than $25,000 per year. In August a court in London ordered a freeze on $35 million of his worldwide assets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)(AP, 7/2610)
2007 Dec 13, In south-west Nigeria at least 17 people burned to death when four vehicles burst into flames in a crash.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 14, Ayo Fayose of southwestern Ekiti state gave, a Nigerian former state governor, turned himself in to police after more than a year on the run, vowing to defend himself in court against allegations of corruption. High Chief Ekpemupolo, an influential rebel commander in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, ordered the suspension of peace talks with the government because of military incursions and the arrest of another commander.
(Reuters, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 17, Nigeria's main militant group urged all armed factions in the restive southern oil heartland to join together and cripple Africa's biggest petroleum industry.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 24, A Nigerian court ordered the arrests of three of the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Nigeria reported that Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was being forced to resign in order to attend a one year course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies at Jos.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.38)
2007-2009 In Nigeria more than 17,000 people died in about 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria between this period.
(AFP, 2/14/10)
2008 Jan 1, In Nigeria armed men killed 13 people over New Year in Port Harcourt when they attacked two police stations and a hotel. The Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, led by Ateke Tom, claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 1/2/08)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 11, In Nigeria MEND, the prominent militant group in the oil-rich Niger Delta, said it planted an explosive device that set a tanker on fire in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 12, In Nigeria a speeding fuel tanker crashed and spilled its cargo in Port Harcourt, and as many as three dozen people were feared dead in the resulting fire.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Nigeria a civilian was killed and two policemen injured in an overnight attack on the convoy of a port authority official in the oil hub city Port Harcourt. Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell said that local people were hampering efforts to repair the sabotaged pipelines at the Forcados export terminal in southern Nigeria.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 21, In southern Nigeria a major oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip caught fire and a tanker truck exploded in separate incidents.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Nigeria fighters from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked a military houseboat stationed at the Shell Petroleum Tora manifold in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. The attack killed three soldiers.
(AFP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 6, In Nigeria armed men killed a policeman in an overnight attack and kidnapped the wife of a prominent politician in Port Harcourt. She was released 2 days later.
(AFP, 2/6/08)(AFP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, A presidential statement said Nigeria has approved a new policy requiring gas producers to direct a part of their output to the domestic market, rather than exporting it.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 10, In Nigeria 6 people, including three policemen, were killed in a gun battle with robbers in Nigeria's commercial city Lagos.
(AFP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 11, Gunmen killed a Nigerian naval officer and forced several others to dive for their lives into the water in oil-rich southern Rivers State.
(AFP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least seven people were killed and several more were trapped when a four-storey building collapsed in Lagos.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Angola extradited Henry Okah, the alleged leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to Nigeria.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 26, A Nigerian election tribunal upheld the president's declared victory in last year's disputed election.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 28, The presidents of resource-hungry China and oil-rich Nigeria met ahead of the planned signing of energy deals in Beijing's latest overture to an African nation.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 29, In Ghana 9 Nigerians were sentenced to 5 years each for faking e-mails and letters, including one from the Ghanaian president, to dupe a Frenchman out of $185,000.
(AFP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 11, Nigerian soldiers hunting Niger Delta gang leader Ateke Tom said they had found a huge cache of arms and ammunition, along with an illegal pipeline used to tap stolen oil, in a raid on one of his bases.
(AFP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 15, Officials said the main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has launched mobile services in Nigeria, becoming the fifth operator there.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Nigeria a Wings Airline 19-seater aircraft went missing shortly after leaving Lagos for the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state. On Aug 30 hunters found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of its three crew members.
(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 29, In southwestern Nigeria 5 employees of Express Oil were seized by angry youths in Ondo state over the company's failure to pay royalties for its operations in the area.
(AFP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Nigeria unidentified gunmen kidnapped an 11-year-old boy in Port Harcourt, wounding his mother and killing the family's police guard and their driver.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, Nigeria's government filed graft charges against the daughter of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and two ministers sacked last month.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 13, The Saudi Arabia beheaded two Nigerian men convicted of smuggling cocaine into the kingdom. 42 people have been beheaded this year, according to an AP count.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 21, A rebel group from Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta said it attacked two major oil pipelines there in what it called a message to the United States to stop supporting "injustice" in the troubled region.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22, Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell reported output loss of 169,000 barrels per day following the sabotage of its key supply pipelines in southern Nigeria.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Nigeria members of a white-collar union working for Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), an affiliate of US oil group ExxonMobil, began an indefinite strike over pay and working conditions. MEND fighters sabotaged a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in southern Rivers State.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 May 2, Nigeria’s high court ruled that former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, currently in hiding, must face corruption charges.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 3, Rebels in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta blew up three oil wells operated by Royal Dutch Shell, their fifth attack in recent weeks against the petroleum industry.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 6, Niger Delta rebels said that former US President Jimmy Carter had agreed to act as a mediator if invited by Nigeria's government, and the group promised to declare a ceasefire if talks went ahead.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, Nigeria announced it was suspending import duties and other taxes on rice while launching a raft of other measures to head off a food crisis in Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 10, Oil major Royal Dutch Shell said it was losing the equivalent of 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day because of recent attacks against its installations in Nigeria.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, In southern Nigeria unknown gunmen raided a police station in the oil-rich state of Bayelsa killing two police officers. The gunmen also stole arms and ammunition during the attack at Okiki in Ogbia area of the state.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Nigeria unidentified gunmen in the restive south hijacked an oil-services vessel carrying 11 crew members demanding about $250,000 for their release. The crew members were released on June 25.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AFP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 14, US federal prosecutors said Willbros Group Inc., a Houston-based oil services company, agreed to pay $32.3 million in criminal and civil penalties to settle charges that it bribed officials in Nigeria and Ecuador to get contracts between 2003-2005.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.B2)
2008 May 15, In Nigeria a huge explosion was triggered when an excavator accidentally pierced an oil pipeline. The Nigeria Red Cross said some 100 people were killed in a blaze that lasted more than a day. A local government official put the death toll at 15.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 21, In northern Nigeria 46 soldiers, who just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, were killed in a road accident. 10 people drowned and six were rescued when their boat capsized in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Dozens of men on horseback armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed Nigerian peacekeepers serving with the joint UN-African Union force in Darfur. No casualties were reported.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 26, Rebels from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said they had blown up a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and killed 11 soldiers in a firefight, but the army denied losing any men.
(Reuters, 5/26/08)
2008 May 31, In Nigeria a senior health department official for the federal capital said smokers in public places in the capital of Abuja will be arrested and prosecuted from June 1.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May, In southeast Nigeria 20 teenage girls were rescued at the hospital in Enugu in a police swoop on what was believed to be one of the largest infant trafficking rings in the country. Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Jun 2, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar-Adua arrived in South Africa for a four-day state visit to forge closer ties between Africa's most populous country and its biggest economy.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 3, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised its lending rate (MPR) to 10.25 percent from 10 percent to tame high inflation triggered by rising global food prices.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 9, Militants attacked an oil security vessel off the coast of Nigeria and seized eight navy personnel and a local Cameroon official. 3 soldiers escaped. On June 15 Cameroon military headquarters said authorities searching for the six people found five mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies buried in the mangroves.
(Reuters, 6/9/08)(Reuters, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 10, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe said official records show that 23,584 Nigerians are in prisons abroad for immigration offences. 9 Nigerian navy members were killed and four civilians injured in a second attack in as many days on a security vessel in the volatile oil-rich south.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Nigeria a pay strike by teachers brought schools to a standstill after talks with the government ended in deadlock.
(AFP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 14, In Nigeria a union leader said teachers have ended their three-day strike after the government agreed to heed their demand for a pay rise.
(AFP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 17, Nigerian police stormed the hideout of the kidnappers of Eunice Gideon, the wife of a senior Bayelsa state official and freed her. She was abducted two weeks ago and was freed in neighboring Rivers state after a gunbattle with the kidnappers.
(AFP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 19, Nigeria's most prominent militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on Shell's main offshore oilfield and said it had kidnapped a US oil worker. The attack shut down a tenth of the country's oil output in a rare attack on a deepwater facility. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said US captain Jack Stone from oil services company Tidex was freed in the afternoon.
(AFP, 6/19/08)(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, Nigerian militants blew up a key oil supply pipeline operated by Chevron, in the latest attack targeting the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry. The breached pipeline prompted Chevron to shut down its onshore oil production.
(AFP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 22, Militants in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta, whose campaign of sabotage has sharply cut the country's oil output, announced a ceasefire but stopped short of agreeing to participate in peace talks.
(Reuters, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 23, The Nigerian senior oil workers union, PENGASSAN, launched a strike against Chevron. Company officials said the next day that oil production had not been affected.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, Ibrahim Gambari said Nigeria will seek a 90-day truce in the oil rich Niger Delta before holding a summit on peace in that region. Gambari was appointed to chair a summit.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 25, Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics said the inflation rate rose in May to 9.7 percent from 8.2 percent the previous month, driven by increases in the cost of food and household items. Witnesses said at least six people have been killed over four days of fighting between rival militant gangs in southern oil-rich Bayelsa state.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun, Nigeria's anti-drugs agency seized 80 ton of cannabis in its largest ever single haul, in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
(AFP, 11/16/08)
2008 Jun, Nigeria’s 144 prisons, with an official capacity of 25,000, currently held almost twice that number.
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 1, The Nigerian Senate passed a resolution barring the anti-graft agency EFCC and other security agents from arresting witnesses who appear before parliament. The lawmakers passed the resolution following the arrests of an Austrian contractor and two former ministers on the floor of the Senate shortly after testifying before a parliamentary hearing on the aviation sector.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, The Nigerian government charged two former aviation ministers with misusing a $165-million fund set up to improve air safety after three airplane accidents.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Nigeria hundreds of soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers in Liberia, went on the rampage in southwestern Akure in protest against the military authorities' refusal to pay their allowance. On April 27, 2009, a Nigerian court-martial sentenced 27 former UN peacekeepers to life in prison after they were convicted of mutiny following their protests. On Aug 29 the army commuted the life sentences to 7 years.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 4/28/09)(AFP, 8/29/09)
2008 Jul 5, Nigerian officials said radioactive materials in abandoned mining fields in central Nigeria's Plateau state pose a serious health hazard to two million people. Police said Nigeria has deployed troops in the remote southeastern state of Ebonyi after 14 people were killed and scores of buildings destroyed in clashes between rival groups feuding over land.
(AP, 7/5/08)(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 10, Nigeria's main militant group said it would resume attacks in the country's oil-rich river delta region because of Britain's recent pledge to back the government in the conflict there. UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari resigned as chairman of a planned peace summit for the oil-rich Niger Delta following opposition from regional leaders.
(AP, 7/10/08)(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, A senior military official said the Nigerian navy has arrested 15 Filipinos after intercepting a vessel carrying a significant quantity of stolen crude oil off the coast of the Niger Delta. Gunboats intercepted the MV Lina Panama in the waters off Brass, home to a major oil export terminal in the southern state of Bayelsa. One security source said the vessel was thought to be carrying tens of thousands of tons of stolen oil.
(Reuters, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck drivers strike to protest soaring fuel prices entered its 2nd day. At least 17 people died at a prayer meeting in rural Nigeria after apparently breathing noxious fumes from their power generator while asleep. Their bodies were discovered on July 15.
(AFP, 7/12/08)(Reuters, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, In Nigeria about 30 armed men in speedboats attacked a navy vessel that was guarding key oil facilities in southern Rivers state. Three militants, a naval serviceman and a civilian were killed. MEND said it was not involved.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 23, Nigeria's main militant group threatened to destroy the nation's major oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations it had struck a $12 million deal with the government to protect them.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Nigeria a petrol tanker burst into flames main in the main city of Lagos, killing at least 12 people and leaving several others with severe burns. 5 eastern European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish boat in the Niger delta. The 5 Russian oil workers were released on July 26.
(AFP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Nigeria two oil workers, one Nigerian and one Filipino, were kidnapped in the Niger delta.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Nigeria unidentified men in a speed boat seized eight foreign oil workers at gunpoint in the Niger delta. They were released later in the day.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 28, Militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta said they had blown up two major oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, forcing the firm to halt some production and helping push world oil prices higher.
(Reuters, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nigerian security officials said rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least four people.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Nigeria gunmen seized 2 French oil workers from a bar in Onne near the oil hub of Port Harcourt. The 2 were released on Sep 5.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Nigerian presidential panel on oil and gas sector reform recommended that the state oil company be transformed into an "independent limited liability company."
(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Nigeria police arrested the head of a federal agency charged with developing Nigeria's impoverished southern oil region after allegations the man spent millions of dollars on a witch doctor in hopes vanquishing a rival.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 12, Nigerian militants claimed they had destroyed a pipeline supplying gas to a key oil refinery in southern Rivers state.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 13, Nigerian officials said flocks of quelea birds have invaded farmlands in northern Borno state, destroying crops that were due for harvest in two months' time.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, Nigeria relinquished control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon despite fears the handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups who oppose it.
(Reuters, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, Twelve Nigerian militants and a naval officer were killed in a gunbattle near a Royal Dutch Shell natural gas plant in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 20, Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua named new military chiefs dropping nearly all appointees he inherited from his predecessor. MEND, the most prominent armed group in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, accused the military of carrying out extra-judicial executions of 22 captured insurgents in the region. The insurgents had been captured the previous day.
(AFP, 8/21/08)(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental experts said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, The "Benue", a Nigerian ship with eight crew members, was hijacked. It was owned by service and repair firm West African Offshore Ltd (WAO).
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Nigeria Rashid Ladoja, ex-governor of Oyo state (2000-2007), was arrested for embezzling some 16 million dollars (11 million euros).
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 28, Iran’s Junior trade minister Mohammadali Zeyghami said Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west African powerhouse boost electricity generation.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, Nigeria's main militant group claimed that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region. The group reported that six of its own fighters were also killed in the clashes.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Sep 3, Albert J. Stanley (65), former Halliburton executive, pleaded guilty in Houston to orchestrating over $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian government officials from 1995-2004 for the construction of liquefied natural gas facilities. The bribes began when Stanley worked for M.W. Kellogg, a unit of Dresser Industries that was acquired by Halliburton in 1998, when Dick Cheney served as CEO. Stanley also pleaded guilty to taking $10.8 million in kickbacks from a consortium of construction firms involved in the LNG contracts.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 5, Nigeria said it has set up a 40-member technical committee on peace talks to end the crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
(AFP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 9, Militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta hijacked a vessel with five expatriate and eight Nigerian oil workers on board. Robin Hughes from St Margaret's Bay, Kent, was among 27 oil workers kidnapped by militants when their vessel was hijacked. Hughes (59) was freed on April 19, 2009.
(AFP, 9/10/08)(AFP, 4/20/09)
2008 Sep 13, A MEND statement said the armed forces of Nigeria had begun a full scale aerial and marine offensive on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) positions and neighboring Ijaw communities in Rivers state.
(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 14, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in Nigeria's southern oil region, declared a state of war after two days of clashes with government forces, launching reprisal raids and raising the specter of more conflict in Africa's biggest oil producer.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 15, Nigerian militants attacked a Shell-operated oil facility, killing two and forcing the evacuation of nearly 100 staff, in a third day of fighting with security forces in the Niger Delta. Police in northern Nigeria arrested a Muslim preacher who claims 86 wives and 107 children, charging him with breaking Islamic laws governing marriage.
(AP, 9/15/08)(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Nigeria militants destroyed the Orubiri flow station operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Rivers state. The next day MEND said it killed all the soldiers on guard at the facility and took their weapons.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Armed Nigerian militants, who have declared an "oil war" in the restive south of the country, claimed to have blown up a major pipeline in their latest attack on oil installations in the region. A spokesman for Nigeria's state oil company said that militant attacks are now cutting the country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, 40 percent of what the country produced before the militant campaign began three years ago.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 18, MEND militants in southern Nigeria, as part of their "oil war," claimed to have destroyed a major oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the fifth attack on the company in less than a week.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 19, Nigerian militants destroyed another major oil pipeline in the Niger Delta after a week of the most intense attacks against Africa's biggest oil and gas industry for years.
(Reuters, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 21, In southern Nigeria MEND declared a ceasefire following a week of attacks on oil industry targets.
(AFP, 9/21/08)
2008 Oct 5, MEND, the main militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, said it had released around 19 Nigerian oil workers kidnapped last month but was still holding two Britons and a Ukrainian.
(Reuters, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 6, A Nigerian UN peacekeeper was killed when up to 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell Anglo-Dutch group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a key demand of armed rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling was given some months ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, Pirates in southern Nigeria seized eight fishing vessels with a total of 96 crew and later threatened to seriously harm them if ransom is not paid.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 21, Amnesty International criticized major failings in Nigeria's criminal justice system and called on the government to immediately put in place a moratorium on capital punishment.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 23, Nigeria's Supreme Court deferred ruling on challenges to President Umaru Yar'Adua's April 2007 election victory but did not set a date for handing down its final judgment. Nigerian troops killed two militants in a river clash with insurgents in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta. 2 AK 47 rifles and ammunitions were recovered from the militants.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)(AFP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 25, Pirates stormed and ransacked a French vessel in Nigeria's restive oil-rich south but there were no casualties.
(AFP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 29, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua dropped 20 government ministers out of a total of 44 in a cabinet shake-up.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Cameroon militia leader said one of the 10 hostages seized by a local militia off Cameroon's coast last week was killed in a failed rescue attempt by Nigerian marines.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Nigeria at least six navy personnel were killed in a gun battle between two rival gangs in southern oil-rich Bayelsa state.
(AFP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In southern Nigeria armed rebels killed a Nigerian sailor during an overnight attack on US giant Chevron's oil facility.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, An environmentalist group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in the Netherlands, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up oil spills in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 11, A Nigerian appeal court sacked the governor of the southern state of Edo following complaints of vote irregularities and declared his opponent the winner.
(AFP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Nigeria 22 Filipinos were arrested by a joint army-navy patrol on the Warri River with the vessel MT Akuada laden with its cargo of 12,500 metric tons of crude oil. On Feb 20, 2009, 13 Filipinos were sentenced to five years each or a fine of one million naira (6,800 dollars) for stealing crude oil from the Niger delta.
(AFP, 2/21/09)
2008 Nov 16, Officials said Nigeria's anti-drugs agency had seized 30,000 kilograms of cannabis contained in 5,923 bags in southern Edo state earlier this week. In June, the agency seized 80 ton of cannabis in its largest ever single haul, in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
(AFP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group Chevron suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian production after a militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said it was declaring "force majeure" until December 31 following the Nov 14 attack on the pipeline which carries supplies to its Escravos terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Abuja, Nigeria, MTV launched its first-ever music award program for Africa, with acts from across the world's poorest continent nominated for prizes in the capital.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 25, Nigeria’s state media said the country has signed a $780 million (605 million euros) loan agreement with the World Bank to finance three projects.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 26, Nigeria's food and drug control agency NAFDAC said 25 children have died in the last fortnight after taking a teething mixture discovered to contain a harmful substance. Laboratory tests on the drug found out that it contains a killer element known as diethylene glycol. The agency shut down the premises of the Nigerian manufacturer. The death count soon rose to 34 as more children lost their lives after being given "My Pikin" teething syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol, blamed for causing kidney failure.
(AFP, 11/26/08)(Reuters, 12/3/08)
2008 Nov 28, Clashes erupted in Jos, Nigeria, after a local election dispute, leaving at least three people dead and prompting the military to send troops into city streets to restore order. Over the next 3 days at least 300 people were killed and 7,000 displaced. In southern Nigeria gunmen abducted a Scottish oil industry worker.
(AP, 11/28/08)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.64)
2008 Nov 29, In Nigeria witnesses said hundreds of people have been killed in the central city of Jos as Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. The violence began following a rumor that the mostly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the election to the mainly Christian federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Over 10,000 people were displaced from their homes and sought refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Nigeria residents delivered more bodies to the main mosque in the central Nigerian city of Jos, bringing the death toll from two days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs to around 400 people. In July, 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said more than 700 died in clashes in Jos, and urged the prosecution of members of security forces it accused of "arbitrary killings."
(AP, 11/30/08)(AFP, 7/20/09)
2008 Dec 1, In Nigeria some two thousand angry youths stormed a mosque in the riot-torn city of Jos as a top parliament official appealed for an end to religious troubles that have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Nigeria authorities in central Plateau state announced the arrest of 16 alleged "mercenaries" from neighboring Niger. Isa Ibrahim, the Nigerien Ambassador to Nigeria, said that those arrested had been living in Jos for several years as water vendors.
(AFP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, In the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom one person was killed during an attack on a convoy of Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), a subsidiary of US oil group ExxonMobil.
(AFP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Pirates attacked an oil-services vessel before dawn off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped two foreign workers.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 12, Nigeria's Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua vowed to speed up electoral reforms after overcoming a legal challenge to his election and receiving a report on problems with the country's electoral laws. The Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to dismiss a suit by opposition leaders, but conceded that widespread irregularities had occurred in his 2006 election.
(AFP, 12/12/08)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 13, In southern Nigeria 5 aides of the governor Edo state were killed when their car collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle on a road.
(AFP, 12/14/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Nigeria's Niger Delta gunmen in speedboats attacked three oil services ships and kidnapped at least two Russians in separate incidents. The pair escaped on foot from a militant camp on Feb 15 and were found by naval personnel on patrol on Feb 19.
(AP, 12/20/08)(AP, 2/19/09)
2008 It was hoped that natural gas production would make the burning of natural gas into the atmosphere obsolete by this time.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2009 Jan 2, In southern Nigeria an oil pipeline was blown up with dynamite.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.
(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 6, In southern Nigeria armed men robbed an offshore oil platform operated by a subsidiary of US oil giant ExxonMobile although the attack did not disrupt oil production.
(AFP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Nigeria leaders of ECOWAS, West Africa's regional economic body, suspended Guinea's membership following a military coup in the country.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, Two Nigerian soldiers were killed and one wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen in the restive oil-rich Niger Delta. Police said the attack might be connected with the police seizure of a vessel, the Sandra Valleta, which was carrying stolen crude oil.
(AFP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Nigeria Susanne Wenger (93), Austrian-born sculptress, died. She had been initiated as a Yoruba traditional priestess and was responsible for towering works of art in one of Nigeria's two World Heritage sites.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Pirates attacked a Norwegian cable ship off the coast of Nigeria but failed to seize the boat despite gunfire, leaving the crew of 52 unhurt.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 18, Nigerian militants attacked a loading vessel, a tanker and a tug boat at a crude oil platform operated by Shell in Bonny and took 8 crew members hostage. One person was killed in the attack. Nigerian rebels holding two British oil workers said they had moved 3 British hostages to another location after what it claimed was a botched rescue attempt by government troops.
(AFP, 1/18/09)(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Dubai said it has reached a deal with Nigeria to invest in the African nation's conflict-ravaged oil industry and other sectors of the economy.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Nigeria the best-known militant group in the Niger Delta said one of its allies carried out an attack on a tanker in southern Nigeria in which one Romanian crewman was taken hostage. He was soon released. The MT Meredith, loaded with 4,000 tons of diesel, was attacked by gunmen in speedboats and sustained "massive damage" during the attack.
(AFP, 1/21/09)(AFP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 26, Halliburton said is has agreed to pay $559 million to the US to settle charges that one of its former units bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a gas plant.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 29, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a Nigerian boy (9) in the oil city of Port Harcourt, shooting dead a domestic worker who was taking him to school.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, Nigerian militants called off a cease-fire after clashing with government forces.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 5, In Nigeria a private security official said unidentified gunmen have attacked an oil-industry vessel off the coast of Nigeria and killed its captain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 6, Nigeria’s government reported that 84 infants and children have died after swallowing My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, a teething syrup laced with diethylene glycol. A failed bid to smuggle a bus filled with rice into Nigeria from Niger left seven people dead including two customs officers set ablaze with petrol.
(SFC, 2/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 10, Nigerian union officials said a 2-day-old strike by freight and forwarding agents to protest high charges was worsening cargo congestion in Lagos, the country's main seaport.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 13, Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said it has declared force majeure on shipments from its main Nigerian terminal because of increased attacks by insurgents on key facilities. Force Majeure (French for "superior force") is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties.
(AP, 2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure)
2009 Feb 17, In southern Nigeria gunmen attacked two oil facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell. A local militant leader claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter and threatened further violence. A Nigerian appeal court sacked the governor of the southwestern state of Ekiti after complaints of vote irregularities and ordered a fresh poll within three months.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen in a midnight raid attacked a compound housing ExxonMobil staff in the Niger Delta but were repulsed after a fierce battle with Nigerian troops.
(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 20, Nigeria ordered its customs service and security and environmental agencies to clamp down on illegal imports of potentially toxic electronic waste.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central Nigeria rioters burned homes, churches and mosques, when violence flared after Muslims parked their cars in front of a church in Bauchi. The clashes followed an argument between Christians and Muslims the previous day. Authorities in northern Nigeria have deployed troops and imposed a curfew following clashes between Christians and Muslims which left at least 11 people dead.
(AP, 2/21/09)(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Nigeria 2 days of clashes between rival gangs in the southern state of Edo left at least eight people dead.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Nigerian teachers in the country's southwest launched an indefinite strike to press demands for better pay.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Nigeria a source close to negotiations said US drug giant Pfizer has agreed to settle a multi-billion dollar damages case with 200 alleged victims of a drugs trial in Kano. Pfizer and families of the victims of the drug trial reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in principle and agreed to meet in Rome in March to put the deal in writing.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Nigerian military raided and destroyed a militant camp in the volatile Niger Delta as part of its drive to end unrest in the oil-producing region.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, The UN Children's Fund said 53 million children are being targeted by a mass immunization drive against polio in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Some 844 polio cases were reported in the 8 countries in 2008, 95% of them in Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 4, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized two passengers from a ferry near the Bonny Island gas terminal. 19 others were released shortly after the ferry was seized.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 11, US authorities deported 60 Nigerians accused of theft, credit card scams and drug-related offences.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, In southern Nigeria an attack took place on Chevron Nigeria Limited’s 16-inch Makaraba-Utonana pipeline. The attack forced Chevron cut its crude oil production by 11,500 barrels per day.
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 21, Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it was hunting down owners of an Indian business group, Vaswani Brothers, for allegedly defrauding the country of three billion naira in unpaid taxes. The brothers were deported from Nigeria in 2003 after a probe into their operations, but were allowed back into the country in 2007.
(AFP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 28, In Nigeria police s outside Lagos freed a Lebanese hostage after a shoot-out in which six of his captors were killed. The man was seized March 23 by gunmen from a waterfront construction site in Lagos' upmarket residential and business area.
(AFP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 3, In Nigeria a source close to negotiations said Pfizer has agreed to pay $75 million compensation over a 1996 drug trial that caused the death of 11 children in northern Nigeria. Kano state confirmed the settlement on May 14.
(AFP, 4/3/09)(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 Apr 5, In southern Nigeria gunmen killed a policeman as they kidnapped a Scottish oil-services worker in Port Harcourt. The British worker was released on April 25.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 8, Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua dismissed top managers across the board of the state Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 9, Nigeria's Central Bank cut its benchmark lending rate to 8% from 9.75% and announced measures aimed at boosting liquidity in the market.
(AFP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 12, In Nigeria fire broke out on the Trans-Niger Pipeline. All the feeder flowstations outside Ogoniland (in Rivers State) adjoining it were shut down to allow for repairs.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 13, In southern Nigeria gunmen riding in 18 boats attacked a military houseboat outside an oil facility and commandeered a naval vessel. The clashes left nine militants and one naval rating dead.
(AP, 4/13/09)(AFP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 15, Nigeria set up a panel to probe a multi-million dollar cash-for-contract scandal embroiling US giant Halliburton and reportedly implicating three former presidents.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, In northern Nigeria a Canadian woman was seized in the city of Kaduna where she had been attending an international conference. Julie Mulligan (45) was freed unharmed in the northern city of Kaduna on April 29.
(AP, 4/18/09)(Reuters, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 20, Nigerian pirates attacked the Aleyna Mercan ship about 50 nautical miles off Onne port, near the oil city of Port Harcourt. The vessel was delivering equipment to French oil group Total. On April 22 the kidnappers released the Turkish captain and the chief engineer.
(AFP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 21, In Nigeria officials said a strike by petrol truck drivers has caused a scarcity of fuel in the commercial capital Lagos, leading to long queues at petrol stations. The strike began at the weekend following a dispute between the tanker drivers and officials of the Lagos state traffic management authority LASMA. Gunmen in Nigeria attacked an oil tanker off the coast of the Niger Delta, kidnapping the ship's captain and an engineer. The Turkish vessel Ilena Mercan, chartered by French oil company Total, was attacked on its way to Onne port in Nigeria's southeastern Rivers state.
(AFP, 4/21/09)(Reuters, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Nigeria 7 high-ranking officials from the country's electricity regulatory commission were charged with "criminal diversion" of state funds. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused chairman Ransome Owan and six of the agency's commissioners of diverting for their private use about five billion naira ($33 million/26 million euros).
(AFP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 23, In Nigeria unknown gunmen kidnapped Peter Ademokhai, a retired army general, from his farm in the southern state of Edo.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 May 8, In Nigeria the governor of southern oil-rich Rivers state signed a law making life jail terms mandatory for kidnappers in the area.
(AFP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 13, Nigerian MEND rebels hijacked an oil industry ship and held 15 Filipino sailors hostage. They demanded that all oil workers leave the southern Niger Delta by May 16.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Nigeria the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared "all-out war" in the southern oil-producing region. The Nigerian military rescued 10 hostages from militants in the southern oil region and destroyed the camp where the victims were being held.
(AFP, 5/15/09)(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, Nigeria's main militant group said it destroyed two oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, the latest attack amid the worst outbreak of violence to hit the region in months. MEND accused government troops of killing a second unnamed hostage and said two bodies would be handed over to the Red Cross. An army spokesman said Nigerian troops have freed three more Filipinos held hostage by militants in the Niger Delta, bringing the total number of the Asians rescued in the past two days to nine.
(AP, 5/17/09)(AFP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, Nigerian university teachers decided to go on strike to demand the implementation of a pay agreement with government. After two-and-a-half years of negotiations, the government had yet to implement the agreement on pay rises and upgrading of facilities in the universities.
(AFP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 22, Nigeria's foreign minister said that the military has rescued 12 hostages, eight Filipinos and four Ukrainians, from militants being targeted by the armed forces in the southern oil region. The military said a dozen troops had gone missing in the region.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 24, The Nigerian army said that over the last 2 days it freed a total of six Filipinos held hostage in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
(AFP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 25, In Nigeria militants sabotaged major crude pipelines in the chaotic oil region, further trimming crude production as the military widened an operation to uproot the fighters. Chevron in Nigeria reported a 100,000 barrel-per-day oil output cut after a militant attack the day before on one of its pipelines in the southern Delta state. The militants said they had released three Filipino hostages seized this month.
(AP, 5/25/09)(AFP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 26, The Nigerian army said it destroyed a militants' camp in the restive Niger Delta as it kept up operations to stem the violence and kidnappings of soldiers and foreigners in the oil-rich region.
(AFP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 27, In Nigeria Ken Niweigha, a gang leader from the restive oil-rich Niger Delta, was killed in southern state of Bayelsa, a day after being arrested. Niweigha was accused of being behind the 1999 shooting of several police officers in Bayelsa that led to the town of Odi being razed by the security forces in reprisal.
(AFP, 5/27/09)
2009 Jun 1, In Nigeria MEND, main militant group in southern Nigeria said, it will release Mathew Maguire, a British hostage it has been holding for the past nine months. They noted that today was Maguire birthday. The next day MEND said "Mr Mathew Maguire has declined the gift of a release from captivity with an argument that he is now an advocate for change in the region and an honorary member of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta." Nigeria's navy killed seven militants in a gunbattle in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/1/09)(AFP, 6/2/09)(AFP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 4, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua made a new offer of amnesty to militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta, after earlier rejection by armed opponents.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 6, Somali pirates released the Yenegoa Ocean, a Nigerian tugboat they hijacked 10 months ago on Aug 4, 2008. A Dutch navy ship escorted it to a safe harbor.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Nigeria MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) set a pumping station of US oil giant Chevron on fire. Government troops killed seven civilians in a waterway at Kangbene community in Delta state according to a MEND claim on June 12. The military denied the incident.
(AFP, 6/10/09)(AFP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Nigeria MEND rebels breached Chevron’s Makaraba-Utonana-Abiteye pipeline and started a fire at the Makaraba Jacket 5 facility in Delta State. MEND also released a British oil sector worker who had been held for nine months.
(AFP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 15, Armed militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta claimed more attacks against facilities run by US oil giant Chevron and warned FIFA against letting the country host the under-17 World Cup tournament.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 15, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and China's state oil firm SIPEC said they have discovered crude oil in Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua made a fresh amnesty offer in Abuja to militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta and promised that an amnesty centre would be set up.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 17, In Nigeria a Ukrainian plane made an emergency landing due to technical problems in the northern city of Kano. Eighteen crates of mines and ammunition, destined for Equatorial Guinea, were found aboard the aircraft. The crew and a Nigerian collaborator were detained and soon transferred to Abuja for questioning.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 17, Royal Dutch Shell said it had deferred shipments of crude oil from its Nigerian Forcados exports terminal for two months due to delays in repairing a key pipeline damaged by vandals.
(AFP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 18, Nigeria's main militant group said it had destroyed a major crude oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell as it fights a campaign against foreign oil companies.
(AFP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 19, Nigeria's main militant group said it had destroyed a major pipeline supplying crude oil to Italian oil group Agip's Brass exports terminal.
(AFP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jun 21, Nigeria's main militant group said it had attacked a Shell offshore facility, the third attack against the Anglo-Dutch company's facilities in Nigeria in one day. The company denied the incident, saying the alleged incident was part of the attack on two other Shell oil pipelines in southern Rivers state earlier in the day.
(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 24, The Nigerian government met with militants from the oil-producing states of the Delta to make an amnesty offer for fighters who cease hostilities in the south of the country. President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of the leader of a militant group from the oil-rich Niger Delta. Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, head of the Niger Delta People's Volunteers Force (NDPVF), was arrested the previous evening on returning from a medical exam in Germany.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 24, Russia’s Pres. Medvedev arrived in Nigeria to sign gas and nuclear energy pacts, becoming the first Kremlin leader to visit Africa's most populous and energy-rich nation.
(AFP, 6/24/09)
2009 Jun 25, Nigerian rebels said that they carried out a pre-dawn attack against Royal Dutch Shell facilities in a warning to Russia not to invest in the country's oil and gas industry. Later in the day the main militant group blew up a well-head in a Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) oil field in Delta state, hours after President Umaru Yar'Adua announced an amnesty offer for gunmen.
(AFP, 6/25/09)(Reuters, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 26, Four Nigerian militant factions accepted in principle an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar'Adua, giving a boost to his efforts to end years of unrest in Africa's biggest oil industry. The amnesty will take effect from August 6.
(Reuters, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 28, In Nigeria at least eight people were killed in the collapse of a three-story building in Lagos, the capital.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 29, Nigerian rebels announced a new raid against a Shell oil facility and said they had killed at least 20 soldiers in a gun battle, a claim denied by the security forces.
(AFP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 1, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua extended an amnesty offer to the jailed rebel leader Henry Okah, detained on treason charges for over 18 months.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 3, Algeria, Niger and Nigeria signed an accord to build a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.
(AFP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 4, Nigeria's rebel group MEND threatened to thwart a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe. The army vowed to protect the project. Rebels Sichem Peace oil tanker and its six crew members. The ship and crew were freed July 21 after spending 18 days in captivity in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 7/4/09)(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 5, Nigerian rebels announced they had launched a fresh attack on an oil facility run by the Anglo-Dutch group Shell in the restive Niger Delta. The militants destroyed a Chevron oil pipeline junction in the latest attack on Nigeria's key money earner since the government offered an amnesty.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 8, Nigerian MEND militants said they blew up two key oil pipelines as they stepped up attacks in response to a government amnesty offer.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 9, In Nigeria Henry Okah, a key militant in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta detained since September 2007, accepted President Umaru Yar'Adua recent offer of unconditional amnesty. Armed robbers killed six police officers as they fled after a raid on a commercial bank at Idi-Iroko, a Nigerian border town with Benin.
(AFP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 10, Nigerian militants claimed to have blown up for a second time a recently repaired oil pipeline operated by US petroleum giant Chevron.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 12, Nigerian rebels took their battle with the government into the country's main city, targeting an oil tanker loading facility in Lagos harbor in an unprecedented attack there.
(AFP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, Nigeria's main militant group declared a 60-day truce, effective July 15, in its "oil war" with the government after the release of its leader Henry Okah under an amnesty deal.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Nigeria Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel laureate in literature, slammed Nigeria's handling of the crisis in the oil region and urged the government to adopt a "holistic" approach in tackling it. Excerpts of the news conference were reported the next day on private Channels television.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, In northern Nigeria Islamist militants attacked a police station in Bauchi. Police killed over 50 militants and arrested more than 150 others. The fundamentalists, known as Boko Haram (education is prohibited) in the local Hausa language, clamored for the prohibition of western education in Bauchi and Yobe states. In 2010 Nigerian police said 32 of its men were murdered in the Bauchi attack.
(AP, 7/26/09)(Reuters, 7/26/09)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.44)(AFP, 7/29/10)
2009 Jul 27, In Nigeria Residents of Gamboru-Ngala in Borno state said heavily armed members of a Nigerian Taliban sect stormed the town and went on the rampage, burning a police headquarters, a church and a customs post. Police put the death toll in weekend religious clashes at 65, including 5 police officers.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, Nigerian authorities imposed curfews and poured security forces onto the streets of several northern towns after a two-day wave of Islamic militant attacks against police killed dozens of people.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 29, In northern Nigeria troops struggled to crush an Islamist sect as the death toll from four days of clashes surged past 300. Thousands of people were forced from their homes. Militants attacked security forces in Yobe state. Police said that 43 sect members were killed in a shootout near the city of Potiskum. The government, which blames the Boko Haram sect for instigating days of violence in the mostly Muslim region, shelled and stormed the group's mosque and headquarters in Maiduguri. Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed.
(AFP, 7/29/09)(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 29, Drug maker Pfizer Inc. confirmed that it has resolved a long-running legal dispute with the Nigerian government over allegations that children there were harmed in a 1996 Pfizer study of an experimental antibiotic during a meningitis outbreak. The settlement reportedly called for a $75 million payment by Pfizer.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, In northern Nigeria security forces hunted door-to-door for Islamic militants after killing more than 100 of them by storming the sect's compound. A top rights group said innocent people were getting executed in the process. Mohammed Yusuf (39), the leader of the Boko Haram movement, was shot dead while in police detention. In February, 2011, seven suspects accused of killing Yusuf were arraigned in a federal court. Abubakar Shekau took over Boko Haram following the death of Yusuf.
(AP, 7/30/09)(Reuters, 7/31/09)(AP, 7/19/11)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.54)
2009 Jul 31, Nigeria's national police claimed victory over a radical Islamist sect after its leader was killed by security forces. Experts warned revenge attacks could occur and a leading human rights group demanded a probe into the killing. At least 300 people were killed in violence that erupted in several states around northern Nigeria since July 26.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 1, In Nigeria robbers hijacked the bus on Sagamu-Benin expressway in Ogun State and forced passengers to lie on a road at gunpoint as they ransacked their bus. 20 people were crushed to death as a truck ran into them.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 2, Red Cross and Nigerian defense officials said more than 700 people were killed during a 5-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in the north. Over 700 dead bodies were given mass burial in Maiduguri town alone, as a search for bodies continued.
(Reuters, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 4, The Lithuanian ministry said that the Lithuanian-flagged refrigerator vessel Saturnas, with a crew of 14, was attacked by unidentified perpetrators off the coast of Nigeria. Five crew members were said to have been taken hostage. The attackers did not seize the vessel itself but left in a high-speed boat with the hostages. The 5 Lithuanian sailors were reported freed on Aug 14, ending their 11-day ordeal.
(AFP, 8/4/09)(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 6, Nigeria began a 60-day amnesty for militants fighting in the country's oil-rich Delta region, a government official said, but the main militant group said it would not participate. A cache of weapons and ammunitions was uncovered at an arms depot owned by Niger Delta militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 6, Nigeria's northern Kano state withdrew a landmark criminal and civil suit against US drug group Pfizer over a 1996 drug trial that left 11 children dead and 189 others deformed. The withdrawal of the suit followed a 75-million dollar (52 million euros) out-of-court settlement between the two parties.
(AFP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua formally received the first set of 32 Niger Delta militants who have surrendered their arms under an amnesty he offered them in June and commended them for their "patriotism."
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Nigeria US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged the government to take a firmer line on corruption and offered US help to implement badly needed electoral reforms in Africa's biggest energy producer.
(Reuters, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 14, Nigeria’s banking chief said the government will inject US$2.55 billion into five troubled banks, in Africa's first major bank rescue program since the global credit crunch began. Central Bank Chief Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also announced the sacking of the heads of five major banks for piling up debts worth billions of dollars and poor management. The heads of Afribank plc, Intercontinental Bank plc, Union Bank plc, Oceanic Bank plc and Finbank plc were removed by Sanusi. The Nigerian anti-graft agency soon froze the accounts of the sacked directors for running the institutions into insolvency.
(AP, 8/14/09)(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Nigeria the number of polio cases caused by the vaccine was reported to have doubled so far this year with 124 children paralyzed, compared to 62 in 2008, out of about 42 million children vaccinated. For every case of paralysis, hundreds of other children don't develop symptoms, but pass on the disease.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it had recovered more than 50 billion naira ($320.5 million / €224.2 million) in looted funds and secured 70 convictions in the past year. Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger raided the Darul Islam community and detained hundreds of its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast. Sect leader Amrul Bashir Abdullahi said: "We decided to create a camp for ourselves outside the community because of the problems in the larger society. These are problems of corruption, drunkenness, prostitution and so on which Allah forbids."
(AFP, 8/15/09)(Reuters, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Nigeria a top militant commander and nearly 1,000 of his followers surrendered to the government, handing over rocket launchers, gunboats, guns and bullets in the biggest move since a government amnesty began two weeks ago. Ebikabowei "Boyloaf" Victor Ben, state commander for the region's biggest armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), and 25 commanders under his leadership delivered weapons to police overnight.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 24, Nigeria's anti-graft agency EFCC declared two sacked bank directors wanted over alleged frauds and running their institutions into insolvency.
(AFP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 26, Nigerian authorities arrested two dozen people wanted over massive debts owed to troubled banks in a scandal that has rocked the country's financial industry.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 31, The Nigerian anti-graft agency filed charges against 16 bank chiefs arrested for incurring billions of dollars in bad loans for five ailing banks.
(AFP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 5, Gani Fawehinmi (71) prominent Nigerian lawyer and rights activist died in Lagos after a prolonged battle with cancer. Fawehinmi, holder of Nigeria's highest legal title, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was an author, publisher, philanthropist, social critic, human and civil rights lawyer and politician.
(AFP, 9/5/09)
2009 Sep 16, Nigerian militants (MEND) announced they will extend a cease-fire that expired overnight by one month, holding off on attacks on oil installations and kidnapping foreigners, but warned that the government must address the group's grievances.
(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 19, Nigeria’s Information Minister Dora Akunyili said she's asked movie houses to stop screening "District 9" because the South Africa-based sci-fi movie about aliens and discrimination makes Nigerians look bad. Akunyili said she has asked Sony for an apology and wants them to edit out the Nigerian antagonists and the name of the main Nigerian gangster Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The film brought in some US$37 million (euro25.16 million) during its US debut weekend in August.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 20, In Nigeria Bayo Ohu (45), assistant news editor at the influential Guardian newspaper, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he answered a knock at the front door of his house in a northern suburb of Lagos. On March 15, 2010, police detained three suspects for the murder of Ohu.
(AFP, 9/22/09)(AFP, 3/15/10)
2009 Sep, Nigeria launched a multi-million-dollar dredging exercise to boost navigation and commerce on the Niger River. Then government planned to construct seven ports to serve the 152 host communities along the river.
(AFP, 11/8/09)
2009 Oct 1, In Nigeria Tom Ateke, leader of Niger Delta Vigilante, an ethnic Ijaw militia group, formally accepted an amnesty offer in a meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AFP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 1, A Nigerian official said 9 people died and several others were hospitalized this week following a cholera outbreak in northern Taraba State, bringing the death toll in the region to 97 over the last few weeks.
(AFP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sacked the managing directors of three banks which it said were in "grave situation", seven weeks after it applied similar sanctions to the heads of five other banks.
(AFP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Nigeria Farah Dagogo, a former commander of the country's main militant group, said that he and other field commanders in Rivers state have surrendered all of their weapons. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it has already replaced the commanders who have surrendered. The group has said it would not accept an amnesty deal. Loyalists of Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, filled up boats from the oil city of Warri and made for Oporoza camp, a two-hour boat ride, to witness him giving up his weapons.
(AP, 10/4/09)(AFP, 10/4/09)
2009 Oct 7, In Nigeria the armed Niger Delta militant group MEND dismissed a government amnesty program as a "charade" and warned it would resume attacks on oil facilities once its ceasefire expires next week.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 4, In Nigeria an amnesty for militant in the Niger Delta officially expired.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.57)
2009 Oct 8, Nigerian officials said more than 8,000 militants who laid down arms in the troubled oil hub have so far been registered and that the number could double when the documentation is complete. The grand total was later thought to exceed 15,000.
(AFP, 10/8/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.57)
2009 Oct 9, In southeastern Nigeria some 70-80 people died when a petroleum tanker truck exploded and set nine other vehicles alight on a road. At least five minibuses packed with up to 18 passengers each and two cars were incinerated by the fireball. The truck had toppled and leaked into a deep pothole and then exploded after a car crashed into it.
(Reuters, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria’s central bank said ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar is among more than 600 debtors owing five troubled banks some 450 billion naira (2.96 billion dollars, 2 billion euros). Abubakar, who was deputy to former president Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), owed Spring Bank 111.15 million naira (731,490 dollars, 491,592 euros). The CBN also listed billionaire tycoon Aliko Dangote (52) and Mohammed Buba Marwa, Nigeria's ambassador to South Africa, as major debtors.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria's most high-profile armed group MEND threatened to resume attacks on the country's oil sector when a unilateral ceasefire lapses at midnight.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 16, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency EFCC arrested two sacked bank chiefs and a senior stockbroker for alleged fraud running into several millions of dollars. EFCC said the former managing director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, Charles Ojo of Finbank and Peter Ololo of Falcon Securities would be prosecuted for alleged fraud and granting loans without collateral.
(AFP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 16, In northern Nigeria the toll in a cholera outbreak rose to 149 with 52 more deaths recorded. The disease was first reported on September 10 in Gwoza local government on the border with Cameroon from where it spread to six other districts.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 17, It was reported that an increasing number of children in Africa are being accused of witchcraft by pastors of evangelical Christianity and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files. Campaigners against the practice said around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 19, Nigeria reported plans to offer inhabitants of its oil-producing Niger Delta region 10% of oil and gas ventures in a bid to end a rebellion that has hampered output for years.
(AFP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, Nigeria’s main rebel group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), expressed cautious optimism after a landmark meeting between its leader and President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AFP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 25, Oil-rich Nigeria's main militant group (MEND) called an indefinite cease-fire to encourage dialogue with the government.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 26, A key member of Nigeria's ruling party and close associate of former president Olusegun Obasanjo was sentenced to a total of 28 years in jail for corruption. Bode George and five co-accused "were given 28 years on the charges, but will serve two-and-half years since the sentences will run concurrently." George and five other directors of Nigeria Ports Plc were found guilty of fraud and contract inflation while serving on the board of the state-run company during Obasanjo's regime from 1999 to 2007.
(AFP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 26, Nigeria signed a deal worth almost a billion dollars with a state-owned Chinese engineering firm to resuscitate part of its dilapidated railway system.
(AFP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 27, In Nigeria the 78-year-old father of ex-Central Bank of Nigeria governor Charles Soludo was seized from his home. He was released on Nov 4. Soludo, who left office in June, was last month controversially nominated candidate for the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) for upcoming state governorship elections. Aggrieved aspirants contested the nomination in the courts.
(AFP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 4, A Nigerian senior health official said a fresh cholera outbreak has killed 20 people and left 200 others infected in northern Adamawa State in the past week.
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 10, Nigerian football star Stephen Worgu (20) was fined and sentenced to 40 lashes in Sudan after being convicted of drunk driving in Khartoum. Worgu said he was stopped by police driving home late from dinner at a friend's house in August. No tests were done but officers told the court they had smelled the home-brewed spirit aragi on his breath.
(Reuters, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 14, Nigeria's president held "frank and fruitful" talks with former oil rebel leaders in an effort to end the conflict in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 18, In Uganda a new 12 million dollar family planning drive was launched in Kampala highlighting how Obama administration funding has revamped a contraception drive in Africa and developing states. Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Kenya will share in the 12-million dollar funding, but international organizations still have to persuade certain African governments that it is in their interest to curb population growth.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, The European Commission signed a 677 million euro (one billion dollar) deal in Brussels to help Nigeria tackle challenges in its restive oil-producing region, promoting peace.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Swiss authorities said that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for graft.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Dec 3, Nigerian AIDS and malaria activists said at least 144 women die each day in Nigeria during pregnancy or childbirth, according to the UN and World Bank statistics. Activists premiered three short but hard-hitting Nollywood films to push for an urgent change in attitude and provision of adequate healthcare services to avoid pregnancy-related problems.
(AFP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 9, Amnesty International said that police in Nigeria carry out hundreds of extra-judicial killings every year and only those who can afford to pay bribes can guarantee their safety from execution or torture.
(AFP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Nigeria 23 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with a truck on a road in southwest Oyo state.
(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 16, Nigerian authorities announced the creation of five committees that will address oil, environmental and disarmament issues, following an amnesty in the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 17, A Nigerian judge dismissed a 170-count indictment that accused former Delta state governor James Ibori, of corruption and money laundering. Ibori was also a financial backer of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 18, In Nigeria fresh clashes began between farmers and nomads leaving at least 32 people killed and scores of houses were burnt in central Nassarawa State.
(AFP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 19, Nigerian militants said they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since an amnesty offer because the absence of Pres. Yar'Adua was delaying peace talks. A truck carrying bags of cement crushed and killed at least 55 people when the driver lost control and ran into a crowd on a road in Dekina, in central Kogi state.
(Reuters, 12/19/09)(AFP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 20, In Nigeria 12 people were burned to death when the two vehicles they were traveling in collided and burst into flames at Sabongida-Tasharanda in Bauchi State. A separate crash in neighboring Gombe State killed 9 people and injured five others in a head-on collision between a commuter bus and a car at Lafiyawo village.
(AFP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 23, In northern Nigeria a truck packed with cattle and people collided with a car, killing 18 people and injuring 22 others in the town of Talata Mafara.
(AFP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 25, An attempted bombing took place as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam prepared to land in Detroit just before noon. Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (23), a Nigerian man, who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner with a bomb sewed into his underwear. Abdulmutallab later told US investigators he had received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen. On Oct 12, 2011, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all federal counts against him.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AFP, 12/29/09)(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A8)
2009 Dec 28, In northern Nigeria fighting between Islamic militants and security forces in Bauchi state left at least 70 people dead as Kala Kato sect members armed with spears and arrows ransacked a neighborhood and set homes ablaze.
(AP, 12/29/09)(AFP, 12/30/09)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.56)
2009 Dec 30, A Nigerian official says the nation will purchase 3-D, full body scanners after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed through Nigeria's biggest airport before trying to bring down a US-bound flight on Christmas Day.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 The South African directed film “District 9" depicted Nigerians eating the flesh of, and prostituting themselves, to aliens.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.44)
2009 Nigeria’s population reached about 160 million, making it Africa’s most populous country.
(Econ, 11/14/09, p.31)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 8, In Nigeria a crude-oil pipeline operated by Chevron was attacked by unknown gunmen in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 12, Nigerian lawmakers voted to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss "issues of national importance" with ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua as protests mounted for him to stand down. Gunmen seized 3 Britons and a Colombian, shooting dead their police escort in the first major kidnapping for six months in southern Niger Delta. Gunmen soon demanded a ransom of 300 million naira (1.98 million dollars, 1.38 million euros) for the release of three Britons and the Colombian. On Jan 18 gunmen freed the 3 British expatriate workers and their Colombian colleague.
(AFP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/15/10)(AFP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Nigerian high court ruled that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Nigeria clashes took place in the central city of Jos as tensions reignited between Muslims and Christian gangs, a year after similar fighting killed hundreds of its residents. Angry Muslim youths set a Catholic church filled with worshippers ablaze, starting a riot that killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 300 others.
(Reuters, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, In Nigeria religious violence between Christians and Muslims erupted again in central Nigeria. Gregory Anyating, Plateau state's police commissioner, declared a 24-hour curfew as the number of dead reached close to 150 in 3 days of violence.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Jos, Nigeria, charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Nigeria religious leaders in Jos prepared for mass burials after four days of Christian-Muslim clashes left nearly 300 dead.
(AFP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 23, In central Nigeria a village headman said at least 150 bodies were recovered from wells following deadly Muslim-Christian clashes, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Nigeria the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jos condemned clashes between Christians and Muslims there which are said to have claimed more than 450 lives. Reverend Peter Imasuen, the Anglican bishop of Benin City, was kidnapped in southern state of Edo shortly after saying mass.
(AFP, 1/24/10)(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, A Nigerian state police commissioner said sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Jos left 326 people dead last week. Police in central Plateau state have arrested 303 suspects from last week's inter-religious violence. In southwestern Ogun State gunmen shot dead Chief Dipo Dina, a prominent opposition politician, amid rising tensions ahead of general elections next year.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 26, A Nigerian naval helicopter crashed in the Niger Delta, likely killing the four people onboard.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Nigeria Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria, said chilling text messages urged both Christians and Muslims to commit violence during rioting that left more than 300 people dead. He said his group has collected about 150 text messages that were sent before and during the violence in Jos.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, A Nigerian court rejected a demand by top lawyers that a caretaker head of state be appointed until ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua returns from hospital treatment in Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, Nigeria's main rebel group called off a truce in the oil-rich Niger Delta, threatening an "all-out onslaught" and adding to the country’s political and economic woes. A leak was observed on the Anglo-Dutch Trans-Ramos pipeline. The leak was stopped and an investigation confirmed the leak was due to a sabotage. Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell shut down some oil production following the sabotage.
(AFP, 1/30/10)(AFP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 6, Nigerians voted to choose a governor for the politically turbulent state of Anambra in a race expected to test the country's readiness to hold credible presidential polls next year. The next day the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Peter Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance victor despite glitches and fears the vote would be rigged in favor of President Umaru Yar'Adua's party.
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 9, Nigeria's Parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over for ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, whose absence has stoked unrest.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 10, Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan removed the powerful justice minister in his first major step since assuming executive powers in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Outgoing Justice Minister and Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa had been among the group of ministers who held out most strenuously against formally transferring power to Jonathan.
(Reuters, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least 20 bus passengers were killed in Port Harcourt when a cable fell onto the bus and electrocuted the people inside.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Nigeria Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa state, was arrested for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for public projects. He was currently serving as secretary to the board of trustees of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria's ruling political party.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Nigeria's ailing Pres. Umaru Yar'Adua returned home after a three-month stay in a Saudi Arabian hospital. An advisor said the leader needed time to recuperate and so the vice president would remain in charge.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, French oil giant Total said it is to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 1, In Nigeria a spokesman said police detained 17 officers over the weekend for questioning after the Al-Jazeera news channel aired a video on Feb 9 showing uniformed men executing people in Boko Haram town where religious rioting left 700 people dead last year. Gunmen attacked a van carrying 21 people working for the network's SuperSport channels after the crew filmed a soccer match in the Niger Delta. One of three kidnapped sports journalists escaped his captors.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 2, In Nigeria planted explosives in the Niger Delta damaged the Kokori oil flow station operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, marking the latest attack in a region supposedly brought under control by a government amnesty program.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 7, In Nigeria some 500 people, mainly women and children, were allegedly killed in overnight attacks in the three villages of Dogo Nahawa, Ratsat and Zot near the city of Jos. Residents and local rights activists blamed the overnight attack on ethnic Fulani pastoralists. A military spokesman said security forces have arrested 24 people last week accused of stealing crude oil and illegally refining it. Security forces soon detained 95 suspects in the violence.
(AFP, 3/7/10)(AP, 3/8/10)(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Nigeria some 5,000 activists staged a march in Abuja to demand the sacking of the cabinet and a public appearance by ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned to the country. 2 people were killed overnight by soldiers in Jos enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages. Plateau state police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba gave a breakdown of the list of people killed, saying the toll was 109. Aduba also revealed that 49 people were to be charged over the killings, saying they had already confessed to being on a revenge mission.
(AP, 3/10/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 19, A Nigerian armed rebel group claimed to have blown up an oil facility in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta region and threatened to step up attacks in coming days.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Nigerian authorities said police have arrested 164 people over a recent massacre near the central city of Jos and plan to charge most with offences ranging from terrorism to arson.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Nigeria the Magajin Gari Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna ordered the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), one of the country's leading rights groups, to suspend its Twitter and Facebook online debates on Malam Buba Bello Jangebe’s wrist amputation for theft, which was carried out in 2000.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Two Nigerian oil workers were found dead in the oil-rich Niger Delta region after being kidnapped on March 13.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, Most of Nigeria was shrouded in a thick dust storm, disrupting air travel and threatening to trigger respiratory problems.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, Pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, injuring three crew members. Eight to 10 pirates with automatic weapons boarded the Ozay 5. They robbed the crew of money and cellphones but fled after the ship began making distress calls.
(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 31, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped Chris Nnaji. a local employee of French oil group Total, on his way to work in the country's oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 1, Nigerian authorities charged 20 people over their roles in sectarian clashes that killed hundreds in central Plateau state last month, and some could face the death penalty.
(Reuters, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Nigeria at least two people were killed when police fired live rounds to disperse a group of protesting youths in a suburb of Lagos.
(AFP, 4/4/10)
2010 Apr 6, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan installed his new cabinet, appointing senior Goldman Sachs executive Olusegun Aganga as his new finance minister. Jonathan also named former mines minister Deziani Allison-Madueke and Godsday Orubebe as the new oil and Niger Delta ministers. Police said that religious massacres have stopped, but "secret" killings of Christians and Muslims continue on a smaller scale across central Nigeria, claiming more than 30 lives this year.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 9, Nigerian gunmen kidnapped three Syrian expatriates and one Lebanese worker near the oil hub Port Harcourt. A police officer attached to the construction firm was killed when gunmen launched the attack. The 4 kidnapped men were released on April 12.
(AP, 4/9/10)(AFP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 11, In Nigeria suspected Muslim ethnic Fulani attackers burned homes in a Christian village near the city of Jos, which has been at the centre of tit-for-tat attacks this year which have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 13, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency sought the arrest of Chief James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich Delta State (1999-2007), suspected of siphoning off millions of dollars of state assets. Hundreds of Nigerian youths rallied in the commercial capital Lagos demanding Acting President Goodluck Jonathan implement much needed electoral reforms to ensure credible national polls next year.
(AFP, 4/13/10)(Reuters, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 15, In Nigeria the burnt bodies of a Pentecostal pastor, Ishaya Kadah, and his wife, Selina, were discovered by the police in Boto village, two days after they were kidnapped.
(AFP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 17, In Nigeria at least five people were killed and several wounded when two oil tankers collided and burst into flames in southwest Ogun state.
(AFP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 18, In Nigeria gunmen abducted two Germans who sought respite along a beach in the oil-rich and violent southern region.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, The Nigerian army averted an attack by suspected Muslim extremists on a mainly Christian village in the flashpoint central Plateau State, killing two gunmen. 2 Christian farmers were killed and two others went missing in fresh attacks by suspected Muslim-Fulani nomads in central Plateau State.
(AFP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 22, Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan approved a 4.6 trillion naira (31-billion-dollar) budget that increased spending by about 50%. He also signed a bill that gives preferential treatment to Nigerian companies wanting to take part in the country's oil industry.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 24, Nigeria and the United States agreed to work together to counter the spread of nuclear weapons. The agreement was announced following a meeting between US undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns with acting Pres. Goodluck Jonathan.
(AFP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 24, In Nigeria Edo Ugbagwu (42), a justice reporter for the daily newspaper The Nation, died in a shooting after some sort of confrontation at his home in Lagos. Two journalists working for a Christian magazine were stabbed to death by a mob in a predominantly Muslim suburb in the flashpoint Nigerian city of Jos. Kidnappers seized the commissioner of the environment in southern oil-rich Bayelsa State, along with her mother-in-law, during a private visit to Abia state. Mrs. Victoria Denenu and her mother-in-law were released on April 29.
(AP, 4/26/10)(AFP, 4/26/10)(AFP, 4/27/10)(AFP, 5/1/10)
2010 Apr 26, A Nigerian court charged the country's ruling party chairman over a series of corruption allegations, creating a criminal case against the most powerful man blocking the acting president from running in next year's election. Vincent Ogbulafor faced 16 counts accusing him of funneling money toward fictitious projects during his service as minister of special duties.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, Nigeria's senate ordered a probe into Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49) for his alleged marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, after the national rights watchdog and other 10 groups accused him of shaming the country. Gunmen seized four officers of an agency responsible for combating counterfeit pharmaceuticals in the southern state of Abia.
(AFP, 4/28/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 30, A Nigerian court sentenced six Ghanaians and a Nigerian to 8 years in prison each after they were found guilty of stealing 4,000 tons of oil products. Rebels in the restive Niger Delta claimed to have blown up a Shell pipeline in the creeks of the southern oil producing region and threatened further attacks.
(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 May 1, Nigeria's navy seized a Greek-flagged vessel carrying more than 80 tons of stolen crude oil and arrested its crew in a crackdown on a multi-million dollar smuggling racket.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 3, Nigeria's private pay TV station NN24 began a 24-hour news coverage service in a first for the west African country. Nigerian police freed a Ghanaian woman after a shootout with her kidnappers in the restive oil city of Port Harcourt. The kidnappers seized another woman, Rita Oparaocha, an employee of the state ministry of works and housing after snatching her car.
(AFP, 5/3/10)(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Royal Dutch Shell said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 6, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan (52) was sworn as president of the oil-rich African nation riven by religious and political divisions, hours after the death of the incumbent Umaru Yar'Adua (58). Jonathan vowed that electoral reform and fighting graft would be top priorities.
(Reuters, 5/6/10)
2010 May 7, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it had deferred crude shipments from its Bonny Light terminal in the Niger Delta for two months due to a fire that has hampered production.
(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 11, Nigerian Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49), under fire over marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, justified his actions by saying he was following in the footsteps of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, who had married a nine-year-old girl, Aishatu.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, Former Nigerian minister Nasir el-Rufai appeared in court on charges of doling out government lands to associates and family members during his four years in office. The minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja from 2003 to 2007 faced charges of criminal conspiracy and abuse of office following an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, In Dubai James Ibori, former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state (1999-2007), was arrested on a UK warrant. Nigerian anti-graft agency chief Farida Waziri said Ibori was wanted on charges of stealing 44 billion naira ($292 million) in state funds while he was in office. In July Ibori was scheduled for extradition to Britain.
(AP, 5/14/10)(AFP, 7/26/10)
2010 May 13, In Nigeria Vincent Ogbulafor, chairman of the ruling People's Democratic Party, wrote that he would be resigning his post following accusations of embezzling government money. The move pushed aside the most powerful man blocking the nation's new president from running in next year's election.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 13, In Abuja, Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) sealed a $23 billion deal to build three refineries and a petrochemical complex.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In southern Nigeria gunmen sporting military uniforms kidnapped four Lebanese road construction workers in an attack that left a soldier and a gang member dead in Abia state. The 4 workers were freed on May 22.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 17, A report by civil liberties group Open Society Justice Initiative alleged that Nigeria's federal police force kills with impunity, extorts those it's charged to protect and rapes arrested prostitutes as a "fringe benefit" of the job.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, In Nigeria both houses of parliament voted to approve Namadi Sambo, a northern Muslim, as new vice president of the country, maintaining a delicate religious and geographical balance in power.
(AFP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced it will spend more than $2 billion to sharply reduce the burning off of natural gas at its oil wells in Nigeria, gases that when burned contribute to global warming and sicken people living nearby.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 21, Nigerian officials and residents said hundreds of Niger nationals, mostly women and children, have flooded into the country in search of food.
(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 22, Nigerian youths in Jos hacked to death 3 Muslim herders and burned their bodies.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 23, In Nigeria fresh violence between Muslims and Christians in Jos left one person dead and another seriously wounded, a day after three others were killed. 15 suspects were arrested for the previous day’s killings. Gunmen in the delta seized 3 Chinese technicians. The men were freed on May 29.
(AP, 5/23/10)(AFP, 5/23/10)(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 30, In northern Nigeria a chlorine gas leak led 300 people to fall ill after a welder cut into a tank of the noxious gas in Kaduna.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 Jun 1, Christie Ibori-Ibie was found guilty by London's Southwark Crown Court on charges of aiding her brother James Ibori, the former governor of Delta state, who himself stands accused of siphoning nearly 300 million dollars of public funds in Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 3, Nigeria's parliament approved a constitutional amendment on transferring presidential powers, aimed at avoiding a repeat of a crisis when the late President Umaru Yar'Adua fell seriously ill last year.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 4, A senior Nigerian official said lead poisoning caused by illegal gold mining has killed 163 Nigerians, including 111 children, since March in several northern remote villages.
(Reuters, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 17, Royal Dutch Shell PLC warned Nigeria that $40 billion of planned investments in the oil-rich nation could be in jeopardy if lawmakers pass a proposed bill to overhaul the petroleum industry. Government officials say the bill would allow more oil money to return to Nigeria's people. The bill also would require the government-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., which partners with all foreign oil firms, to seek profits like a private business and not rely on government subsidies.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jul 2, In Nigeria a gasoline tanker flipped and exploded in Gombe killing 14 people.
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 3, In Nigeria gunmen attacked two cargo vessels off the coast of the oil-producing Niger Delta, killing one crew member and kidnapping 12 foreign workers. The crew members were seized near Bonny in southern Rivers state. The military believe they were from eastern Europe. The workers were freed 2 days later along with three sailors taken hostage in May.
(Reuters, 7/3/10)(AFP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency ruled that it lacks sufficient evidence to criminally charge Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49) for marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, the daughter of his driver, to whom Yerima allegedly paid a $100,000 dowry.
(AP, 5/11/10)(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 7, Royal Dutch Shell said it has begun production at a major project in Nigeria that should eventually provide up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day and help boost electricity for the power-starved nation.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 7, The UN WHO said at least 2,000 lead-poisoning victims in northern Nigeria may require treatment to remove brain-damaging lead. The poisoning was believed to be related to the processing of lead-rich ore for the extraction of gold.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 9, Aid agency Oxfam warned that the food crisis gripping the Sahel region of Africa was reaching disastrous levels and called on governments and the international community to act now. The crisis stretched across the region taking in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped 4 journalists traveling through the country's oil-rich southern delta. The kidnappers made a ransom demand of $1.67 million. The journalists were freed on July 18 with no ransom paid.
(AP, 7/12/10)(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 13, In Nigeria the junior finance minister said the country’s corruption-ridden giant state oil firm NNPC is insolvent with debts of five billion dollars.
(AFP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 13, In eastern Nigeria Christians and Muslims clashes, left eight people dead and 40 seriously wounded, with six mosques and one church also torched.
(AFP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 15, French oil firm Total SA said it has signed a deal to acquire Chevron Corp.'s stake in an offshore oil block near Nigeria's coastline.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 17, In central Nigeria Muslims attacked a Christian village, killing eight people with machetes and burning seven houses and a church in fresh religious violence.
(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 21, Nigeria laid out plans to bail out its badly struggling banks by removing up to 21 billion dollars in deadbeat loans from their balance sheets.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 26, Nigeria's drug enforcement agency seized nearly half a ton of cocaine and arrested two Chinese nationals and a Nigerian in connection with the seizure. The shipment originated from Chile and passed through Peru, Bolivia and Antwerp in Belgium before being shipped to Nigeria.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Nigeria Islamic police smashed 80,000 bottles of beer in the city of Kano to enforce a sharia law ban on consumption of alcohol that exists in much of the country's north.
(AFP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Nigeria Erastus Akingbola, ex-chief executive of Intercontinental Bank, turned himself in after returning from Britain. He was accused of taking part in corruption blamed for helping cause a financial crisis. The central bank removed a list of executives from their jobs at financial institutions, including Akingbola, in 2009 in a bid to clean up the banking sector.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 6, In northern Nigeria authorities shot three people dead as a mob threatened to burn down a police station in an area that has been a hotbed of political and religious violence.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 11, In Nigeria a condemned building collapsed in Abuja and killed 23 people. Squatters who lived there described jumping from two storeys up to escape. Russian sailors Igor Ivanov and Andrei Pukke were kidnapped in the southern delta. On Sep 9 they were reported to have been released by their captors following a $60,000 ransom.
(AFP, 8/12/10)(AFP, 8/14/10)(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Nigeria a senior official said a cholera outbreak has killed 40 people while 115 others have been infected in northern Nigeria's Borno State in the past week.
(AFP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Nigeria Royal Dutch Shell PLC warned that thieves in the oil-rich and restive southern delta are increasingly targeting the company's crude pipelines, including at least three incidents of sabotage this month alone.
(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Nigeria a fiery road crash outside the commercial capital of Lagos burned at least 15 people to death and injured 18 others.
(AFP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, Nigerian officials said a cholera outbreak has killed 87 people during the past month while 1,315 others have been infected.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 17, A Human Rights Watch report said Nigerian police corruption has led officers to regularly detain innocent people to extort cash, with some tortured or allegedly killed in the process. The report was based on interviews with more than 145 victims of or witnesses to police corruption.
(AFP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 18, Officials with Nigeria's security services say they've intercepted 52 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds heading for Kos, an area that has been the scene of religious violence. They said five men were arrested for trying to bring the weapons from neighboring Chad.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 18, Shell in Nigeria said it has warned it may not meet contractual obligations on Bonny Light crude, after oil thieves sabotaged two pipelines in the country's south.
(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 19, Nigeria’s Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the death toll from a cholera outbreak in northern Nigerian has risen to 231 while 4,600 others have been infected.
(AFP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 23, Officials said the United States has granted Nigerian airlines permission for direct US flights.
(AFP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In Nigeria gunmen ambushed Soboma George, leader of the feared Outlaws Gang, in the oil town of Port Harcourt. The gunmen fired at George, and killed one woman and wounded another during a running shootout. George’s body was recovered Aug 27.
(AP, 8/25/10)(AFP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 25, In Nigeria 2 motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed a police constable in Yobe state. Separately 2 policemen were shot and killed by 4 gunmen dressed in black and riding motorcycles in Maiduguri. The gunmen were suspected to be members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
(AFP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 25, Nigeria's worker union for the state-run power company called a general strike, a day before the nation's president is to announce his plans to privatize the industry.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 25, Shell said it has shut down an oil facility in southern Nigeria due to protests by a group of local women, after a similar demonstration targeted a Chevron pipeline.
(AFP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 25, Nigerian health officials warned that the whole country is at risk in a cholera epidemic that has killed 352 people in only three-months time.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 26, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan laid out plans to privatize most of the country's power sector, as corruption and mismanagement continued to cause daily outages in the oil-rich nation.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 27, In Nigeria Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, a physician, businessman and son of the country's first prime minister, was abducted by gunmen and taken to a forest in Katampe area on the outskirts of Abuja. The next day police engaged the suspects and rescued the abductee.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Aug 27, Some Nigerian women and girls are being forced into prostitution in neighboring Ivory Coast after being deceived with promises of a better life outside of their country, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 30, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot and killed a personal assistant to Bauchi state Gov. Malam Isa Yuguda, the son-in-law to the late Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua. A police guard for Yuguda was shot and seriously injured.
(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Sep 5, In Nigeria more than a dozen vehicles including three fuel tankers and two mini-buses caught fire in a pile-up on a highway, site of a deadly multi-car crash three weeks ago. No death toll was immediately available. Three separate shootings occurred by motorcycle-riding gunmen, leaving a retired police officer dead. Another person reported wounded later died, and four others were injured.
(AFP, 9/5/10)(AFP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 7, In northern Nigeria the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect used assault rifles to launch a coordinated sunset raid on a prison in Bauchi, freeing over 700 prisoners including more than 100 followers and raising new fears about violence just months before elections. Five people, a soldier, a police officer, two prison guards and a civilian, died in the attack and six others were in critical condition.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 10, A US federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a jury verdict clearing the Chevron Corp. of alleged human rights abuses during a violent 1998 protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria.
(AP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 13, In Nigeria unknown attackers brandishing machetes stormed the home of Garba Bello, a senior intelligence official, and hacked him and four members of his family to death in an apparent targeted killing.
(AFP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 14, A Nigerian official said police over the weekend arrested 10 members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect accused of a recent spate of targeted killings of police officers and local officials. Police also arrested two more sect followers freed in a recent prison break. Pere Fiofori, Emmanuel Gladstone and Dobra Ogbe, aged between 30 and 35, were arrested in a hotel in Ondo town and handed over to the Rivers State police in connection with last month's murder of Soboma George, in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 9/14/10)(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 17, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan, current chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said Guinea-Bissau risks sliding into anarchy unless a security solution, including taming the military, is found in the coup-prone west African nation.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 17, Nigeria’s national security adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan resigned to compete against his boss to become the ruling party's candidate in next year's presidential election.
(AFP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 18, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan formally declared his bid for the 2011 presidential poll, three days after launching it on his Facebook page, ending months of doubts over his ambition.
(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency said the United States has removed Nigeria from the list of major drug trafficking countries, describing the move as recognition of its fight against trafficking.
(AFP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 22, A Thai national and 3 French employees of marine services company Bourbon were kidnapped overnight in an attack on one of its ships, the Bourbon Alexandre, in an oil field off Nigeria. The hostages “in poor health" were released on Nov 10.
(AP, 9/22/10)(AP, 11/10/10)(AFP, 11/12/10)
2010 Sep 25, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka attended an event in Lagos announcing the platform of the Democratic Front for a People's Federation. The party claims to be a "zero resource" party, a jab at oil-rich Nigeria's culture of government graft and corruption.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, Nigerian officials said opened dams in Jigawa state have displaced some two million people in the north, adding to flood misery that has already washed away entire villages across a wide swathe of the region. The next day spokesman for the Hadejia-Jama'are River Basin Development Authority, said the dams, located in Kano state, which borders Jigawa, are never manually opened and simply empty automatically into a spillway once the reservoir fills. He said heavy rainfall almost everywhere in the country caused the flooding.
(AFP, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, In Nigeria gunmen hijacked a school bus in Abia state and kidnapped 15 children on board in the oil-rich south. The next day they demanded a $130,000 ransom for their release. On Oct 1 a joint military and police taskforce "rescued" the children and no ransom was paid.
(AFP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Sep 29, Nigerian authorities said as many as 40,000 girls and women have been trafficked to nearby West African countries to serve as sex workers.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Sweden activists from Nepal, Nigeria, Brazil and Israel were named the winners of this year's Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," for work that included fighting to save the Amazon rain forest and bringing health care to Palestinians cut off from services. The recipients included Nigeria's Nnimmo Bassey (42), Catholic Bishop Erwin Kraeutler (71) of Brazil, Shrikrishna Upadhyay (65) of Nepal, and the organization Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, In Nigeria car bomb explosions killed 12 people and injured 17 near a parade Abuja marking the 50th anniversary of independence. Two blasts, which also destroyed three cars, came an hour after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), warned it had planted several bombs and told people to evacuate the area.
(Reuters, 10/1/10)(Reuters, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 1, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria's southern delta kidnapped two foreign sailors from the MV Eckhardt tanker. A naval spokesman later suggested the crew worked in the black market trade of stolen crude from the region.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 2, South African authorities arrested Henry Okah, an ex-leader of a militant group that claimed responsibility for the Oct 1 dual car bombing that killed 12 people in Nigeria. A day before the bombings, security agencies in South Africa had raided Okah's home and seized a laptop, though they did not arrest him. On Jan 21, 2013, a South African court found Okah guilty of masterminding the bombings. On March 26, 2013, Okah was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
(AP, 10/3/10)(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2010 Oct 3, Nigeria's federal police force named two men, Ben Jessy and Chima Orlu, as the "masterminds" behind the Oct 1 bombings in Abuja.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 5, Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF) said lead poisoning has killed more than 400 children under five in the past six months in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara.
(AFP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Nigeria suspected members of Boko Haram, a northern radical Muslim sect, shot and killed Awana Ngala, the leader of the ruling All Nigeria People's Party, the latest attack by a group that engineered a massive prison break last month.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, A Nigerian court handed a 6-month jail sentence to Cecilia Ibru, one of the country's most prominent women, over millions of dollars loaned by her bank in a case linked to a financial crisis in the oil-rich nation.
(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, In northern Nigeria gunmen on motorcycle taxis killed Islamic cleric Sheikh Bashir Mustapha. He had been an outspoken critic of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect blamed for a rash of recent shootings. Authorities believed Sheikh Bashir Mustapha was slain by members of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 11, A Nigerian official said scores of slum residents in Lagos have been left homeless by flooding from the Ogun River following last month's opening of a dam.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 11, In northern Nigeria suspected members of a radical Islamic sect set a police station ablaze, wounding three officers in an attack similar to one that sparked rioting and a government crackdown that left 700 dead last year.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In India a second doping case in two days, and again involving a Nigerian runner, was reported. Both cases involved Methylhexaneamine. It was also found in about a dozen Indian athletes in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 14, In Nigeria gunmen in the southern delta kidnapped, Lakshmi Tombush, the principal of a school sponsored by Exxon, and killed 2 police officers in a firefight. Gunmen attacked a police roadblock northern Bauchi state and two policemen were killed. Police officers recovered Tombush on Oct 28.
(SFC, 10/15/10, p.A2)(AFP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 16, A Nigerian army spokesman said soldiers have arrested this month about 100 suspected kidnappers and armed robbers in the southeastern state of Abia, including a Roman Catholic priest. Nigerian investigators raided a Lagos home of Charles Okah, the brother of former militant group leader Henry Okah, taking him into custody over his alleged role in funding the Oct 1 bombings that struck independence anniversary celebrations in Abuja.
(AFP, 10/16/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, A Nigerian government spokesman said a Dubai court found cause to honor an extradition request for former Delta state Gov. James Ibori, a prominent politician in the ruling People's Democratic Party. Authorities have said Ibori faces charges over stealing $292 million in state funds while in office.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 19, The UN said that 377 people had died in flooding in central and west Africa, with nearly 1.5 million people affected since the start of the rainy season in June. The highest toll was in Nigeria with 118, followed by Ghana (52), Sudan (50), Benin (43), Chad (24), Mauritania (21), Burkina Faso (16), Cameroon (13), Gambia (12), with other countries reporting less than 10 dead.
(AFP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Nigeria Mallam Tukur, a local government official, died after being shot in the body and head at his home in Bauchi state.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 22, The UN Children's Fund said about 1,555 people have died of cholera in Nigeria this year, marking a likely peak in a three-year-old surge in the disease in the country.
(AFP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 24, In southeastern Nigeria fighting erupted linked to a land dispute between the feuding Nsadop and Boje communities in Cross River state. Fighting led to the burning of dozens of houses and churches. After 2 days of unrest police recovered 13 burnt corpses.
(AFP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 26, Nigerian police arrested 10 local chiefs from Boje community accused of murder in a land dispute with neighbors after which 13 burnt corpses were recovered.
(AFP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 27, Nigerian officials allowed journalists to see the 107 mm rockets, rifle rounds and other weapons seized at Apapa Port. Authorities said the shipment also contained grenades, explosives, mortars and possibly rocket launchers. However, journalists visiting the holding yard just inside of the port's main gate did not see those weapons. the manifest for the weapons described the shipment as "packages of glasswool and pallets of stone." The next day customs officials said the shipment of 13 containers came from a ship that had just left India and investigators continued to trace the weapons' origins.
(AP, 10/27/10)(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 28, Israeli officials said that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. On Oct 30 an international shipping company said the weapons cache originally came from Iran. Last week, the Iranian shipper filed a request for the containers to be picked up again and this time shipped to the West African nation of Gambia. On Feb 1, 2011, Azim Aghajani of Iran and his alleged accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, both maintained their innocence against three charges over the shipment.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Oct 29, In Nigeria Italian oil firm Eni SpA said a pipeline carrying some of its crude out of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta has erupted after an "act of sabotage."
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Nov 1, ExxonMobil in Nigeria announced the discovery of rich gas condensate off the West African country's coast as the government seeks to boost gas supply to help solve electricity shortages.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 3, Northern Nigeria began deporting hundreds of illegal immigrants from neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon amid tight security and military patrols over a series of attacks blamed on an Islamist sect. Immigration officials said they were deported some 700 illegal immigrants to prevent them from casting votes in next year's presidential election.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 4, Nigerian lawmakers approved constitutional changes allowing the postponement of presidential elections set for early next year after warnings there would not be enough time to prepare.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Nigeria an oil rig in the volatile Delta region was attacked and 7 crew members were taken hostage. A security source said the crew included 2 Americans, 2 French, 2 Indonesians and a Canadian.
(AFP, 11/8/10)(AFP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, Nigerian authorities announced 23 new arrests announced, bringing the number of suspected Boko Haram sect members in police custody to 128.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 10, Nigerian trade unions called off a strike protesting the minimum wage across the oil-rich nation, one day into the planned 3-day action. They said Pres. Goodluck Jonathan made promises to raise the wage. The current minimum monthly wage was 7,500 naira, or $50.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, A Nigerian government report identified Iranians Azimi Agajany and Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi as the men who organized a shipment of arms through a Tehran-based company called International Trading and General Construction. The arms containers sat at Lagos' busy Apapa port from July until Oct. 26, when Nigerian security agents carried out a raid and discovered the weapons inside.
(AP, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 13, A Nigerian soldier was killed and another wounded in a suspected attack by a radical Muslim sect in northeastern Borno state. The assailants fired a Kalashnikov rifle at the soldiers from a motorbike. Gunmen burst into a burial vigil outside the oil city of Port Harcourt, firing shots and kidnapping 4 people.
(AP, 11/14/10)(AFP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 14, A Nigerian army spokesman said its special joint military force has arrested 449 suspected kidnappers in four oil-producing states in the Niger Delta in under 7 weeks. Gunmen attacked an offshore facility operated by Exxon Mobil off the southern coast. 8 people were missing following the raid that knocked out 45,000 barrels per day of condensate production.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AFP, 11/15/10)(Reuters, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 15, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the issue of an alleged Iranian arms shipment intercepted in Nigeria was a "misunderstanding" that has been settled.
(AP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 17, Nigeria's security forces rescued 19 foreign and local hostages from militant camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta oil region.
(Reuters, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 18, Nigeria's drug enforcement found and seized 286 pounds (130 kg) of high-quality heroin, destined for Europe, hidden inside a shipment of auto parts sent from Iran.
(AP, 11/19/10)(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 19, The Nigerian army arrested a militant leader and 62 of his followers suspected of involvement in a string of recent kidnappings of oil workers, including foreigners. Gunmen suspected of being members of Boko Haram, an Islamist sect behind a deadly uprising last year, shot dead three worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 23, Nigeria's most prominent armed group MEND said that on Nov 21 it had attacked and destroyed the Obidi refinery trunk line feeding a refinery in the Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, Nigeria said it has seized another illegal arms shipment at its main port, including pistols and military vehicles, weeks after the discovery of a weapons cache sent from Iran. The military items which were packed inside a vehicle painted in army green. The illegal arms shipment came from Belgium through Germany,
(AFP, 11/24/10)(AFP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 25, A court in Nigeria charged an alleged member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and three Nigerians over a shipment of mortars and rockets seized in the main port of Lagos last month.
(Reuters, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 26, A Nigerian court annulled the election of the governor of the southwestern state of Osun and installed his opposition rival, in the latest blow to the ruling party ahead of national elections next April. The court ruled that Osun state governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) had been wrongly elected in the 2007 polls and installed his rival Rauf Aregbesola of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
(Reuters, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 29, Nigerian union leaders ordered their tanker drivers to halt the supply of petrol nationwide for 7 days in protest at alleged maltreatment and killing of their members by the military. The strike was suspended the next day after a group of soldiers behind the killing of one of their colleagues were handed over to police.
(AFP, 11/30/10)(AFP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 1, In southern Nigeria a gun battle between police and armed robbers left seven people dead, including a policeman and three passersby.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 2, Nigeria's anti-corruption police said they planned to file charges against former Vice President Dick Cheney in a $180 million bribery case involving a former unit of oil services firm Halliburton.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 2, ExxonMobil said management staff in Nigeria have begun an indefinite strike after dozens of local employees were sacked, but that oil production has not been affected. A military taskforce (JTF) comprising the army, navy and air force began raiding three camps which are believed to belong to a notorious gang leader in Delta state. The next day local residents said several civilians were killed and scores displaced during the raids against armed gangs in the Niger Delta. At least 9 people were reported killed and houses were found burned after the military raids. Activists and witnesses said as many as 150 people were killed around the village of Ayakoromo.
(AFP, 12/2/10)(Reuters, 12/3/10)(AFP, 12/4/10)(SFC, 12/4/10, p.A3)
2010 Dec 4, In northeastern Nigeria a shootout between suspected members of a radical Muslim sect and security forces killed three people, including an 8-year-old boy.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Nigeria's military acknowledged that raids in pursuit of an alleged gang leader in the main oil-producing region may have killed civilians, but insisted only militants were targeted. On Dec 15 the military said 14 people, including 8 soldiers and 6 civilians, were killed during the operation targeting a notorious gang leader.
(AFP, 12/5/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 6, In Nigeria's Niger Delta a militant faction said it had ruptured an oil pipeline in response to what it said was the killing of innocent civilians during a military offensive last week.
(Reuters, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged former US Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during the time he served as its top executive. A Nigerian court charged Charles Okah, the brother of an alleged militant, and three other suspects with treason and terrorism over the October 1 Independence Day twin car bombings that killed 12 people.
(AP, 12/7/10)(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, In Nigeria police arrested four men while four others had fled, after a 30-minute shootout with members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, who ambushed security officers at a checkpoint in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 9, In Nigeria an election officials said thieves had infiltrated Murtala Muhammed International Airport and stole just-arrived equipment needed to register voters ahead of next year's hotly contested presidential election. Police arrested four men while four others had fled, after a 30-minute shootout with members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, who ambushed security officers at a checkpoint in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 12, Nigeria's military said it had taken control of eight camps belonging to Ateke Tom, a militant leader in southern Rivers State. In the southeast Obioma Nwankwo, a gang leader accused of kidnapping children from a school bus, was killed. An unknown number of alleged gang members also died. 6 others were arrested. The operation freed a family of five.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 14, A Nigerian official said Nigeria has negotiated a 250 million dollar settlement deal that would see it drop charges against US ex-vice president Dick Cheney and others over a bribery scandal.
(AFP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 16, In Nigeria Pentecostal pastor John Nadrew (46) was given three years and eight months after security agents found an AK-47 rifle and five pistols in his house in Dot village during a raid last month.
(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, A Nigerian court sentenced 15 Muslim herdsmen to 10 years each over sectarian violence in the country's central region that left hundreds dead this year. Nigerian tanker drivers suspended petrol deliveries to Lagos and other areas to protest the firing of 2,500 members, sparking long queues at filling stations.
(AFP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 17, Nigerian NDLF militants attacked three pipelines operated by the US oil giant Chevron and Italian firm Agip in the key oil producing state of Delta.
(AFP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 17, Nigeria dropped charges against US ex-vice president Dick Cheney and others over a bribery scandal allegedly involving Halliburton after a reported settlement of 250 million dollars. On Dec 21 Halliburton said it had agreed to pay 32.5 million dollars to the Nigerian government, plus 2.5 million dollars in costs.
(AFP, 12/17/10)(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 22, Nigeria’s state oil firm said it has shut down three of its four refineries because of sabotage of pipelines leading to them. It called on the military to increase security.
(AFP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, Nigeria said it has signed loan deals with China worth 900 million dollars that will be used to finance rail and communication projects in Africa's most populous nation.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In central and northern Nigeria a series of unprecedented Christmas Eve bomb blasts and attacks on churches left 32 people dead in Jos. 6 people were killed when petrol bombs were thrown at churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.
(AFP, 12/25/10)(Reuters, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 25, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan handed out $1 billion from the nation’s “excess crude account" to government officials for Christmas presents.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.58)
2010 Dec 26, In Nigeria clashes left at least one person dead and a number of houses burned in the city of Jos amid tensions following a series of Christmas Eve bomb attacks.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Nigeria members of the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram shot and wounded a retired senior police officer and two civilians in the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve bomb blasts in Jos that left at least 32 dead.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 29, In southern Nigeria 2 bombs exploded during a political rally in Yenegoa, Bayelsa state. No one was killed but a number of people were taken to hospital with injuries. Suspected Islamists killed 8 people, including 3 policemen, in five separate attacks in the northern city of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 31, Nigerian police said they have arrested Bunu Wasili (55), a man suspected to be a leader and financier of Boko Haram, along with 91 others. The radical Muslim sect was responsible for dozens of recent killings in northern Nigeria. A New Year's Eve bombing in Abuja killed 4 people.
(AP, 12/31/10)(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2010 Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) was set up to execute a deal with the Nigerian government to build and operate a gas-processing plant in the southeastern port city of Calabar. When the deal collapsed, P&ID took the government to arbitration, eventually winning a $6.6 billion award that has been accruing interest since 2013. In 2019 the company was ordered by a court in the capital Abuja to forfeit its local assets to the government. The order came after two men linked to P&ID pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on the company's behalf.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2010 In Nigeria theft, sabotage and operational reasons caused 27,580 barrels of oil to spill from the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell facilities this year.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Nigeria a policeman was shot dead in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where an Islamist sect last week killed at least 16 people in a series of religiously motivated attacks. Security officers killed 3 bystanders and arrested 7 suspected Boko Haram sect members, including a man they were chasing in Maiduguri movie theater.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 6, Nigerians voted in a key state governor's ballot seen as a test ahead of April's nationwide elections, with massive security deployed amid fears of further violence.
(AFP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 7, In Nigeria's southern delta gunmen opened fire on a ceremony welcoming Timi Alaibe, a former presidential adviser on the region, back home in Bayelsa state. 2 people were killed and 6 others wounded, but Alaibe was not hurt. In central Nigeria Christian youths attacked a car full of Muslims returning from a wedding, killing seven people inside the vehicle and sparking retaliatory violence in Jos that left one other person dead. Gunmen opened fire at an open-air tavern in northeastern Nigeria, killing six people in Gombe.
(AP, 1/8/11)(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 7, A UN report said over 400 children have died in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state due to lead poisoning related to mining a processing gold ore.
(SFC, 1/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 8, In Nigeria at least 11 people died around Jos from religious violence and a political rally gone awry.
(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 9, In Nigeria witnesses heard gunshots and saw smoke rising from neighborhoods in the city of Jos. Gunmen attacked a church near the Maiduguri International Airport in a drive-by shooting. A police officer was killed and the church watchman wounded.
(AP, 1/9/11)(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 10, Former Nigerian leader and mediator Olusegun Obasanjo left Ivory Coast as incumbent Pres. Gbagbo continued to defy the world and insist he had won the recent election. Men armed with rifles and machetes killed 19 people in attacks on three villages in volatile central Nigeria. Three homes were attacked in the Christian village of Kuru Station. Those that escaped said they saw military men shooting and other people burning the houses and macheteing the villagers.
(AP, 1/10/11)(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 12, Nigerian authorities presented Keiti Sese, aka Commander Noumekeme, to journalists. He said he surrendered because he wanted to become part of the amnesty program, though it was unclear whether he would be allowed since deadlines to do so have long passed. His gang in Bayelsa state has been suspected of sabotaging Chevron pipelines, as well as involvement in kidnappings and the illegal oil trade.
(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, Nigeria's former anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, who won international acclaim for seeking charges against members of the oil-rich nation's political elite, was chosen as the presidential candidate of the country's strongest opposition party. President Goodluck Jonathan won his ruling party's primary.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AFP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Nigeria soldiers shot and killed a motorcyclist who tried to avoid an army checkpoint, mistaking him for an Islamists seeking to carry out an attack.
(AFP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 23, In northern Nigeria suspected members of an Islamist sect, blamed for a series of attacks in Maiduguri, shot dead a soldier guarding a church and stole his rifle. Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect shot two soldiers to death and injured another manning a checkpoint in northern Biu village.
(AFP, 1/23/11)(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 24, Nigeria's foreign minister called on the UN Security Council to authorize force in Ivory Coast as West African nations seek to further pressure Laurent Gbagbo to quit power.
(AFP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 26, In northern Nigeria a fight over a game of billiards disintegrated into religious violence in Bauchi state, leaving at least four people dead among the smoldering ruins of churches and mosques in the town of Tafawa Balewa. Members of a radical Muslim sect killed a police officer guarding a voter registration site in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 26, Environmental groups accused Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of destroying lives and the environment in the Niger Delta, and urged Dutch MPs to intervene as the company defended its record.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 28, In central Nigeria up to 13 people were killed overnight when men with rifles attacked 4 Christian villages near Jos. Authorities in Maiduguri said gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed Modu Fannami Gubio, a dominant gubernatorial candidate.
(AP, 1/28/11)(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 29, In central Nigerian soldiers opened fire on university students in Jos protesting continuing violence between Christians and Muslims. At least 9 people were killed in the ensuing violence.
(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 30, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked a police checkpoint, killing a policeman and leading police to shoot dead two Boko Haram gunmen in Maiduguri. Police said they have arrested 19 people over the slaying of the region's dominant gubernatorial candidate.
(AP, 1/30/11)
2011 Feb 3, Nigerian militants threatened new attacks on oil facilities, saying they would blow up pipelines and other targets because the government had not addressed "fundamental problems."
(AFP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 8, Hussein Abdullahi, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, said that he had spoken to senior officials of the Nigerian government as soon as an arms shipment was seized last Oct 26 and told them that the intercepted cargo was the third of four Gambia-bound shipments originating from Iran.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 9, Hussein Abdullahi, Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, said that a Gambia-bound arms shipment seized at Nigeria's busiest port three months ago did not breach sanctions imposed by the UN, because Iran and Gambia had signed a secret agreement two years before the UN's 2010 ban on Iranian arms exports.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 12, In Nigeria a stampede happened shortly after President Goodluck Jonathan addressed a surging crowd of party supporters in a sports stadium in Port Harcourt. 11 people were killed and a 12th person died the next day.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 15, In central Nigeria a police officer arguing with a merchant was stabbed to death in a market in Jos and at least two others were killed during the latest violence to hit the region beset by sectarian fighting.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 17, In northern Nigeria police killed three men after they attacked a bank and a police station in Darazo, Bauchi state.
(AP, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 17, Chevron and a US aid agency announced a $50 million plan aimed at improving conditions in Nigeria's main oil-producing region, where pollution and poverty have led to years of unrest.
(AFP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 22, In central Nigeria at least 12 people were killed after cattle thieves attacked the village of Bere Reti Fan, a region beset by religious and ethnic killings.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 23, In Nigeria two men on a motorbike killed a senior police officer inspector after following him to his home in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 26, Nigerian police arrested Boko Haram arms dealer Mohammed Zakaria in the town of Maiduguri. Police shot dead, Alhaji Salisu Damaturu, a man financing the radical Islamist sect. Mohammed Goni was identified as another financier of the group. Weapons recovered from their hideout included 12 rocket launchers, two pistols, one loaded AK-47 rifle, two detonating bomb cables and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition.
(AFP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 3, In Nigeria a bomb exploded at a political rally in Suleija, Niger state, for Babangida Aliyu, the gubernatorial candidate for the People's Democratic Party, Nigeria's ruling party, killing 3 people and wounding 21 others. A 4th person died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 3/3/11)(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 3, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos attacked a chemical tanker in an unsuccessful bid to board and rob the ship in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 11, Jeffrey Tesler (62), a former British lawyer accused of helping a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary illegally bribe Nigerian officials to win over $6 billion in construction contracts, pleaded guilty in Houston to federal charges of conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
(SFC, 3/12/11, p.A9)
2011 Mar 13, In central Nigeria 6 people died in attacks on two villages near Jos.
(SFC, 3/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 18, In Nigeria sea raiders carted away some $400,000 from Douala’s Pan-African Ecobank killing 7 people. Two gunmen were arrested after the attack. Cameroon’s army later said it killed 18 pirates suspected of the robbery. Police in Cameroon later detained 4 navy officers and 5 civilians in connection with the robbery.
(SFC, 4/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 20, In Nigeria a bomb carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them when it accidentally exploded in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 21, In central Nigeria at least three people died in Jos after a fight over where a political rally would be held for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler running for president.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Nigeria police and local media said John James Akpanudoedehe, an opposition politician for governor in Akwa Ibom state, has been charged with treason after clashes killed four and left a campaign office for the president burnt in the main oil region.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Apr 1, Nigeria tightened security and shut its land borders ahead of the start of a landmark election period to choose a new legislature, president and state governors over three successive weekends.
(AGFP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 1, In central Nigeria a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint, sparking an inferno in which 17 vehicles were engulfed in flames. Some 50 people were killed.
(AFP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 2, Nigeria postponed parliamentary elections until April 4 after voting materials failed to arrive in many areas, a major blow to hopes of a break with a history of chaotic polls. Attackers stormed three villages In central Nigeria killing at least two people and setting a number of houses ablaze.
(Reuters, 4/2/11)(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 3, Nigeria’s electoral commission postponed the legislative vote to April 9.
(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 6, In Nigeria 3 motorcycle-mounted gunmen, members of Boko Haram, killed two passers-by in Maiduguri. One of the suspects was shot dead after a police chase. A senior immigration official said Nigeria has deported 87 Niger nationals over fears they could be involved in election rigging during this month's rescheduled polls.
(AP, 4/6/11)(AFP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 8, In Nigeria a bomb targeting election officials exploded in Suleja killing at least 8 people. Thugs attacked a police post storing voting materials killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A2)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.52)
2011 Apr 9, Nigeria held parliamentary elections. The ruling party lost key parliament seats in the first of three crucial elections this month.
(AFP, 4/10/11)
2011 Apr 15, In Nigeria gunmen who hid their Kalashnikov rifles in long flowing gowns attacked residents in the city of Maiduguri. Two people were killed and five others wounded a day ahead of the country's presidential election.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 16, Nigeria held elections on whether to keep their accidental president, Goodluck Jonathan, in power. An explosion hit a police station in the northeastern city of Maiduguri just as presidential elections were beginning.
(AP, 4/16/11)(Reuters, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, In Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan took what appeared to be an unassailable lead as votes were tallied from around the country, despite a strong showing by rival Muhammadu Buhari in his mainly-Muslim strongholds. Rioting began in the Muslim north as early results showed Jonathan in the lead. Christians retaliated and the violence over the next few days left at least 70 people dead.
(Reuters, 4/17/11)(SFC, 4/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 18, The Nigerian Red Cross said rioting in cities across northern Nigeria has killed many people with homes, churches and mosques set ablaze as election officials released results showing the Christian incumbent had gained an insurmountable lead.
(Reuters, 4/18/11)(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Nigeria burned corpses with machete wounds lay in roads and smoke rose above Kaduna where rioting broke out again among Muslim opposition supporters who were angered by the announcement that the Christian incumbent president had won the election.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In Nigeria opposition presidential candidate, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, urged calm saying he would pursue his complaints through legal means as post-poll unrest in Nigeria was reported to have killed more than 200 people.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 22, In northern Nigeria suspects detained in post-election violence have rioted at an overcrowded jail and more than a dozen of them escaped.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 23, In northern Nigeria at least two suspected bomb-makers were killed in a blast in Kaduna close to a residential neighborhood for members of local government.
(Reuters, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 24, Nigerian police said at least 11 recent college graduates who helped run polling stations as part of the country's national youth service corps have been killed in postelection violence in northern Nigeria and other female poll workers have been raped. A Nigerian human rights group said more than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Muslim north.
(AP, 4/24/11)(Reuters, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, In northeastern Nigeria police said an explosion at a hotel killed three people and wounded 14 others only days before the state's gubernatorial election.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Nigeria voted for state governors, the last of three landmark elections that have triggered deadly unrest, as fresh bomb blasts jolted the northeastern city of Maiduguri. The presidential poll earlier this month left at least 500 people dead. A suspected Islamist sect member opened fire at a polling station in Maiduguri during voting, killing one person and wounding four.
(AFP, 4/26/11)(AP, 4/26/11)(AFP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 28, Nigeria's ruling party won the delayed governorship elections in two northern states where hundreds died in rioting after a vote two weeks ago.
(Reuters, 4/30/11)
2011 May 6, In Nigeria polling opened in some parts of the state of Imo for a governorship election after irregularities marred a previous exercise. Attackers killed at least 16 people and set fire to more than a dozen houses in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state, a town that has been beset by years of sectarian violence.
(AFP, 5/6/11)(Reuters, 5/7/11)
2011 May 8, Nigeria's opposition Congress for Progressive Change party asked a court to nullify the election of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan because of alleged irregularities in some areas.
(AFP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 12, In northern Nigeria two motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on local chief Abba Mukhtar outside his home in Maiduguri, killing him and seriously wounding a friend. In the northwest gunmen kidnapped an Italian and a Briton who had been working for a construction company in the state capital of Birnin-Kebbi. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara (48) and his British colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot dead by their captors during a British-Nigerian rescue attempt on March 8, 2012.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/14/11)(AP, 3/9/12)
2011 May 13, In northern Nigeria suspected members of an Islamist sect shot and killed a driver for a state governor. A blast in Borno state killed two bystanders at a bus stop. 18 people were killed after a bus crashed head-on with a car in the country's northeast.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 May 19, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off wounding five soldiers and policemen just hours after a gang of suspected Islamists raided a police station.
(AFP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 23, In Nigeria a Borno State policeman on patrol was killed in a drive-by shooting near St. Mary Catholic Church in the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect, was blamed for the killing.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, In Nigeria a fire engulfed a pipeline belonging to a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the town of Amukpe.
(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 29, In Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for a full four-year term as president and faced the challenge of uniting a country that saw deadly postelection violence despite what observers called the fairest vote in over a decade. A blast in the city of Bauchi killed 15 people. One bomb went off at a beer garden in Zuba, near the capital, killing two people and wounding at least 11. Another explosion in the northern city of Zaria also targeted a bar hours after the inauguration.
(AP, 5/29/11)(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 29, Nigerian police raided the Cross Foundation in Aba, a home allegedly being used to force teenage girls to have babies that were then offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes. Dr. Hyacinth Orikara was arrested and 32 pregnant girls, aged 15-17, were rescued.
(AFP, 6/1/11)(Reuters, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 7, In Nigeria at least 11 people were killed in multiple blasts and targeted attacks by the Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(SFC, 6/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 15, In Nigeria a man claiming to be a Boko Haram spokesman warned that the group would launch more attacks after being angered by comments from the national police chief. A day earlier Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim said during a visit to the northeastern city of Maiduguri that "the days of Boko Haram are numbered."
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 16, In Nigeria a suicide bombing blamed on radical Islamist militants killed a policeman in the parking lot of police headquarters in Abuja. The next day the Boko Haram sect said it was behind the attack. Security experts said it was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria.
(AP, 6/16/11)(AFP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 20, In Nigeria gunmen shot a nurse dead and wounded four others who were playing poker at a bus stop in the city of Maiduguri. The same group of gunmen killed a security officer in a separate attack hours later. Police suspected members of the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram. Gunmen killed five police officers and a bystander in a bank robbery in Kankara staged to look like a militant attack.
(AP, 6/20/11)(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Nigeria unusually heavy rains flooded a neighborhood in the northern city of Kano killed 24 people overnight.
(AFP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Nigeria 2 men riding motorbikes tossed bombs and fired on a crowded beer garden in Maiduguri killing at least 25 people. The attackers were believed to be members of Boko Haram.
(AFP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Nigeria two girls were killed and three customs officers wounded from a bombing in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/28/11)
2011 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria lightning strikes in Gombe and Yobe states killed eight men, four women and three children.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the country's first Freedom of Information bill. As of April 2012 government agencies still largely refused to release information, while security personnel routinely harassed, beat and arrested working journalists.
(AP, 4/6/12)
2011 Jul 2, In Nigeria 3 gunmen from the Boko Haram sect shot and killed four people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Nigeria assailants threw a bomb at drinking spot near a police barracks in Maiduguri. At least 8 people were killed and 15 others wounded.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 4, Nigeria's secret police said it was holding over 100 leaders and members of a northern-based "dissident" group it did not name.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, In Nigeria 11 people were killed and 30 rescued when a four-storey building collapsed in the central business district of Lagos.
(AFP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Nigeria 3 soldiers were injured when a bomb hit a military checkpoint near a food market in Maiduguri where attacks by suspected Islamist radicals have killed dozens. Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of northern Borno state (2003-2011), sent an apology to Boko Haram over his role in the brutal military crackdown on the radical Islamist sect. Last week, ex-governor of neighboring Gombe State Danjuma Goje, now a senator, and Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda, in separate statements apologized to Boko Haram for any role they might have played in rights violations against its members during the uprising. The sect has demanded a public apology as part of condition for a truce with the government. Gunmen suspected of being members of an Islamist sect raided a police station overnight in the northern state of Bauchi, stealing weapons.
(AFP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Nigeria motorcycles were completely banned in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, wracked by violence blamed on the Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 9, Nigerian special military forces in Niger Delta arrested four suspects after troops raided sites where stolen oil was illegally being "refined." More than 1,000 the sites were destroyed during the operation. At least 25 people, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed during a military and police operation against a radical Muslim sect in Maiduguri. Security forces launched a search operation after two suspected members threw two homemade bombs at patrol cars from a moving bus. The blasts wounded five soldiers.
(AFP, 7/9/11)(AP, 7/10/11)(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Nigeria a bomb blast killed three people outside a church in Suleja, just north of Abuja.
(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Nigeria numerous roads and highways were flooded following the heavy downpour which a day earlier and continued in Lagos, a city of some 15 million people. At least 29 people died from flooding in Katsina and Lagos. An explosive went off under a van as its driver slowed down at a military checkpoint in the city of Maiduguri. 3 people were killed.
(AFP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Nigeria the University of Maiduguri said it is closing indefinitely after receiving bomb threats from Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect. spokesman Ahmed Mohammed said the school could no longer guarantee the safety of its 35,000 students.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 14, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the president of oil-and-gas rich Nigeria after her trip to Angola the previous day sparked controversy over an offer to sell patrol boats.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Nigeria assailants from the Boko Haram sect threw a bomb at a police patrol car in Maiduguri wounding seven civilians. Colonel Victor Ebhaleme said a bomb was planted and a police van drove over it, exploding and injuring eight policemen.
(AP, 7/15/11)(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Nigeria a second building collapsed since the start of the month in Lagos killing two people. 6 others were rescued.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, The Greek oil tanker 'Aegean Star' belonging to the Endeavour Marine Agency company and flying a Liberian flag was hijacked, 30 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria. The ship was released on July 18.
(AFP, 7/18/11)(Reuters, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, Britain’s PM David Cameron visited Nigeria, pushing a message of trade, aid and democracy before making an early return home to deal with the spiraling phone hacking crisis. Fresh clashes between Muslim and Christian youths left five people dead and 12 seriously injured in Jos.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 21, In Nigeria a gun battle between soldiers and suspected Islamists broke out after a failed bomb attack in Maiduguri leaving one extremist dead.
(AFP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Nigeria a bomb exploded in a busy neighborhood in Maiduguri. A witness said at least eight people were killed. Amnesty International said the Nigerian Joint Military Task Force responded by shooting and killing at least 23 people, apparently at random.
(AP, 7/24/11)(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 26, Nigeria's central bank jacked up its main interest rate by 0.75 points to 8.75 percent, the fourth increase in six months in a move aimed at putting a lid on inflation.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 30, In southwest Nigeria two women and a male pilot died after a helicopter crashed in a hilly area outside Ife-Odan in Osun state.
(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Aug 4, In Nigeria a clash between security forces and suspected members of a radical Muslim sect left two dead in the volatile northeast. The clash came after six assailants from the Boko Haram sect detonated a bomb that blew up the median of a major Maiduguri road.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 4, A UN report was released that described oil destroying crops and seeping into drinking water supplies in Ogoniland, Nigeria, a region of the Niger Delta. In one case, the UN found one village where drinking water was polluted with benzene 900 times more than the international limit.
(AP, 8/5/11)
2011 Aug 5, Nigerian officials said the government has taken over management of three banks rescued under a major 2009 bailout amid concerns over their ability to recapitalize by a September 30 deadline.
(AFP, 8/6/11)
2011 Aug 8, In Nigeria gunmen killed five people and wounded four others in a nighttime attack on in Bisichi village, Plateau state, leaving the dead mutilated with machete wounds. Boko Haram attackers killed a senior prison official and a school teacher in Maiduguri.
(AP, 8/9/11)(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 9, In Nigeria a clash between soldiers and youths in the northeast over the arrest of suspected members of Boko Haram killed one person and wounded two. Attackers with machetes hacked at least two people to death and seriously wounded four others in a village near the deeply divided city of Jos.
(AP, 8/10/11)(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 11, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer began long-awaited compensation payments to Nigerian families over a 1996 drug trial blamed for the deaths of 11 children and disabilities in dozens of others. Only four families were paid in the initial disbursements, while some 200 children participated in the trial of meningitis drug Trovan.
(AFP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 12, In Nigeria cleric Liman Bana (65) died after sustaining gunshot wounds while walking home from conducting prayers at the main mosque in Ngala, a border town with Chad. Police blamed the attack on the Boko Haram group.
(AP, 8/14/11)
2011 Aug 14, In Nigeria attackers stabbed eight people to death in Jos, a central region beset by religious and ethnic tensions.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 15, Nigerian guards in Borno state killed the 25-year-old man who was driving a sedan loaded with seven gas cylinders and cans of gasoline and gunpowder into a police headquarters hosting a recruitment drive. In the north gunmen attacked a microfinance bank, carting away bags of cash and bombing a police station when making their escape. Gunmen attacked two separate police stations across northern Nigeria, killing four police officers and two civilians in one attack while bombing a station in another.
(AP, 8/15/11)(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 18, In Nigeria attackers shot dead Tafai Saifudeen (55), a Lebanese auto parts dealer, in front of his shop on Murtala Mohammed Way in the city of Kano.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, In Nigeria 3 policemen and a civilian were shot and killed at a residence in Maiduguri by suspected members of the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 21, In Nigeria three Christians died in an overnight attack on the village of Kwi in troubled Plateau state. At least 4 people died in floods in the northeast town of Kari. Some 1,800 people were displaced by the floods. Another house collapse in Kano killed six more people. Nigerian officers arrested Babagana Ismail Kwaljima and Babagan Mali, two men tied to Boko Haram. They were planning an attack that took place on August 26. A 3rd suspect, Mamman Nur, remained at large.
(AP, 8/21/11)(AP, 8/22/11)(SFC, 9/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 22, Royal Dutch shell said sabotage in Nigeria has led to six oil spills from one Shell pipeline since the start of the month, while damage to another line has caused a temporary production halt.
(AFP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 23, In northern Nigeria the flood-related death toll rose to 15 as a river in the town of Numan overflowed during a five-hour rainstorm.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 25, In Nigeria the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, blamed for attacks across the northeast, attacked two police stations and robbed two banks, killing 16 people in an assault highlighting the group's escalating willingness to shed blood.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Nigeria a suicide bomber in car laden with explosives rammed through two gates and blew up at the UN offices in Abuja shattering part of the 4-story concrete structure. 23 people were killed and 116 wounded. The radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack. Two of the injured died later bringing the death toll to 25.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AP, 8/27/11)(AP, 9/15/11)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Aug 26, The UN wildlife trade regulator said it was lifting its 2005 suspension on wildlife commerce with Nigeria, citing the country's improved efforts to combat illegal trade.
(AFP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 27, Seven heavily armed assailants boarded the Cameroonian ship Monica with 150 people on board off the coast of Nigeria and took its captain hostage. The others on board were released unharmed.
(AFP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 28, In northeast Nigeria gunmen stormed the home of Lawan Yaraye, chairman of Kukawa district in Borno state, and shot him dead.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 28, In Nigeria heavy rains that caused a dam to overflow in the southwest and led to houses being submerged killing 102 people and displaced thousands. Most of the victims were children who drowned in the city of Ibadan.
(AP, 8/28/11)(AP, 8/29/11)(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 29, In Nigeria religious rioting began in Jos leaving 4 people dead. Four days of fighting left at least 21 people dead in the city on the volatile dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and Muslim north.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Aug 30, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 35 people in northern Sokoto and Yobe states in recent days.
(AP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 30, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 35 people in northern Sokoto and Yobe states in recent days.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 2, A Nigerian army spokesman said soldiers have shot dead a suspected Islamist and wounded another in northeastern Adamawa state where 16 people were killed last week in attacks on police stations and banks. 3 people were killed when armed fighters clashed with security forces in the city of Biu.
(AFP, 9/2/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 3, In Nigeria unknown gunmen stormed a mainly Christian-dominated community overnight and hacked eight members of a family to death in Tatu.
(AP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 4, In Nigeria 3 people were killed near the city of Jos. Islamic cleric Mallam Dala was shot and killed after two men burst into his house. Attacks in two villages in central Nigeria, Targom-Babale and Dabwak, killed 11 people, including children.
(AFP, 9/4/11)(AP, 9/4/11)(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 5, Nigeria’s central bank said it plans to include the Chinese yuan as part of its foreign exchange reserves, a symbolic shift in Africa's largest oil producer and one of its biggest economies.
(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 6, Nigeria's secret police announced that they had arrested five suspected members of a radical Muslim sect accused of bombing an election office (April 8) and a church (July 10) near the oil-rich nation's capital. A bomb went off in Maiduguri disrupting a three-week lull in bombings in the violence-torn city.
(AP, 9/6/11)(AFP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 8, In Nigeria gunmen attacked Tsohon Foron village outside Jos, killing 12 people, including 7 children. Witnesses blamed the attack on regional Muslim Fulani herders.
(AP, 9/9/11)(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 9, In Nigeria 13 people are thought to have been killed in overnight attacks near Jos, a city beset by ethnic and religious slayings.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 10, In Nigeria four policemen on illegal duty at a burial ceremony started shooting, killing three people among the mourners. The officers were suspected of being drunk.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 10, Leaders of Ivory Coast and Liberia were joined by counterparts from West Africa for talks on security along the border between their two countries after a bloody post-poll crisis. Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf were joined by Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, John Atta Mills of Ghana and Nigerian summit host Goodluck Jonathan, under the aegis of regional bloc ECOWAS.
(AFP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 12, In northern Nigeria gunmen firing assault rifles bombed a police station and robbed a nearby bank, killing at least five people in Misau, Bauchi state. Members of Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sect shot, and killed four people at a beer parlor in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/12/11)(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect attacked an army patrol in Maiduguri, wounding four soldiers. The soldiers later arrested 15 people on suspicion of being sect members, with some of them carrying weapons and ammunition.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Nigeria Kindreck Dion Lee (34), one of Britain's most wanted drug and firearm suspects, was arrested in Lagos. He was wanted for his alleged involvement in bringing cocaine, cannabis, firearms and ammunition into the country from Amsterdam.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 14, In Nigeria members of the radical Muslim Boko Haram sect killed three people and wounded two others in a shooting in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 14, Armed pirates raided a tanker off the West African coast and kidnapped 23 sailors, 62 nautical miles from Benin's capital of Cotonou, as the Cyprus-flagged vessel tried to transfer its cargo of crude oil to a Norwegian-registered ship. Analysts believed many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 15, Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke with the family of late Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf for two hours in the northeast city of Maiduguri. Relatives said current attacks represented revenge against the government for Yusuf's death and the killing of two other leaders during the 2009 uprising. Relatives also said they have representatives in Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 17, In Nigeria Babakura Fugu, a relative of the slain leader of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, was shot dead, only two days after taking part in peace talks led by a former president.
(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 18, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot dead four people and injured several others in a raid on a Christian farming village in northern Nigerian Kaduna state.
(AFP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 19, It was reported that Nigeria-based Dangote Group, headed by Aliko Dangote, once dubbed Africa's richest man by Forbes, planned to build Africa’s largest fertilizer plant in Edo state to be operation in 2014.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, In Nigeria local authorities dismissed a 10-minute video of a Nigerian woman repeatedly asking her attackers to kill her as they take turns raping her at a university dormitory. The video had circulated for weeks around the campus of Abia State University before being posted on the Internet.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 23, In Nigeria a 40-foot container of explosive materials was intercepted at the port of Tin Can in Lagos. The container, which arrived a week ago, originated from China and was falsely declared to contain industrial spares and children's toys.
(AFP, 9/24/11)
2011 Sep 23, Nigerian officials said a fresh cholera outbreak in the north has killed at least six people, raising the overall toll in the country to more than over 200 in recent months.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 25, Nigeria’s NEXT newspaper, run by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, stopped publication after 2½ years of muckraking and sometimes controversial coverage of Africa's most populous nation. The newspaper's advertising dwindled in recent months, forcing it from publishing six days a week to only on Sunday.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 26, Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said it has shut in 25,000 barrels per day of crude in a southern Nigerian oil field due to spills caused by sabotage and theft.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Nigeria Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima said security forces have arrested a top commander of a radical Muslim sect who is accused of orchestrating attacks in the country's northeast that have left police, clerics and others dead. Police on patrol found the corpses of 12 persons, suspected murdered, with their hands tied at the back, in the Niger Delta region. 10 people were killed after an out-of-control cement truck crashed into a taxi and bus stand in the northern town of Dukku, Gombe state.
(AP, 9/28/11)(AP, 9/29/11)(AFP, 9/30/11)
2011 Sep 29, A Nigerian joint security team including the military and intelligence agents rescued a Romanian engineer along with six Nigerian workers who had been kidnapped earlier in the week in the same state. A truck accident in Gombe state killed 19 people.
(AFP, 9/30/11)(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 1, In northeastern Nigeria attackers used explosives and gunfire to target an army patrol near a wedding, killing at least three civilians in Maiduguri. In a separate incident, a butcher and his assistant were shot dead by gunmen in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, In northern Nigeria some 150 attackers raided Lingyado village, Zamfara state, going house to house to shoot people who came out to greet them. Others were slashed and stabbed to death by machetes. 19 people were reported killed. State police chief soon arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the raid.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect shot dead three people at a market in the violence-torn northern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria a tanker truck collided with a 16-seat minibus along the Damaturu-Potiskum road in Yobe state. 11 people were killed.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 6, India-owned Airtel, one of the west African nation's biggest telecom firms, said that more than five million telephone subscribers in Nigeria have been cut off after protesters attacked an exchange. The protesters, members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the nation's central labor movement, were protesting against the alleged casualisation of workers in Airtel and the dismissal of 3,000 employees, charges denied by the company.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 8, Pirates off Nigeria boarded the MT Cape Bird, a chemical tanker believed to be a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, about 90 nautical miles from Lagos. 20 Eastern European sailors were onboard. The crew and vessel were freed on Oct 14.
(AFP, 10/10/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko haram radical sect set off a bomb near a mosque in Maiduguri. A soldier and one civilian died from their injuries. The military was accused of abuses following the attacks.
(AP, 10/10/11)(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 11, Nigeria's secret police said 3 additional suspects, including a banker, have been arrested over two car bombings on the Oct 1, 2010, Independence Day in Abuja, which killed at least 12 people.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 12, Police in Nigeria raided the Abuja office of The Nation newspaper. A day earlier detectives arrested five journalists over the publication of a purported letter from the nation's former president instructing its current leader to fire government officials. The letter hit a nerve in Nigerian politics, as it recommended replacing leaders from the Muslim north as opposed to the country's Christian south. 4 of the 5 journalists were released this evening.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Nigeria members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect attacked a bank in the northeast, killing one police officer and stealing an undisclosed sum of money in Damboa, Borno state.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Nigeria protesters marched to an army barracks to demand justice for the death of the cell phone market chairman known as Umar Quality.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 14, In northeastern Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect shot and killed a policeman in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Nigeria the bodies of community leader Ahmadu Ali Kazaure and Babangida Ibrahim Yusuf (23) were dropped off at a local mortuary in Jos. Soldiers had picked up the men hours earlier over the machete killing of a soldier.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Nigeria four people died after a blast rocked a police base in the town of Kwami just north of the state capital of Gombe. 3 suspected Boko Haram members entered the Maiduguri home of Borno state Rep. Modu Bintube and shot him in the chest and head with Kalashnikovs.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Nigeria's military said it had arrested 50 suspected oil thieves in the past three months and destroyed some 2,000 illicit refineries this year in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, A Nigerian tribal king filed a lawsuit in a US court in Detroit, Michigan, seeking $1 billion from Royal Dutch Shell to compensate for decades of pollution that sickened his people and damaged their lands. The suit was brought on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local government area, where the UN team found the most serious groundwater contamination and people drinking water laced with cancer-causing benzene at 900 times World Health Organization guidelines.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram sect members killed four people in three separate attacks in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, The US Export-Import Bank signed a deal with Nigeria aimed at providing $1.5 billion in financing for investments in the country's woefully inadequate electricity sector.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 20, Nigeria's military arrested 46 suspects and seized a vessel laden with stolen refined petroleum products in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 21, Nigerian ex-militant leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, head of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, called Moamer Kadhafi a "martyr" and vowed that his killing would be avenged. Asari claims to have lived in Libya and to have had links with Kadhafi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 22, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead Zakariyya Isa, a reporter with the state-run Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), in the northern city of Maiduguri. The radical Boko Haram sect soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/22/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, In northern Nigeria gunmen shot dead a policeman at his home in an apparent targeted killing in Damaturu, Yobe state.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said a court has jailed 7 Nigerians and 2 Ghanaians for dealing in illegal petroleum products.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Nigeria hackers calling themselves NaijaCyberHacktivists hit the website of the top anti-corruption agency over a government official suggesting tighter Internet control.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Nigeria's military seized a ship laden with 5,000 tons of stolen oil amid rising cases of crude theft in one of the world's main oil producing regions.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria seized the MT Halifax oil tanker with over 20 crew.
(AFP, 11/3/11)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 3, In central Nigeria an attack took place on a church in Tabak, a village near Zonkwa, Kaduna state, leaving 2 people dead and 12 others were injured. Residents angered by the attack rioted into the next day.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Nigeria an attack started with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast. Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, leaving at least two people dead there. Another bombing alongside a road in Maiduguri killed four people. Suicide bombers driving a black SUV detonated outside a military base. At least 150 people died over the next 24 hours in the wave of bombings and shootings.
(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being members of Boko Haram shot dead a police officer at his home as he returned from Eid morning prayers in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 7, In central Nigeria 16 people were killed after two buses crashed head-on into each other on a highway in Kogi state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Nigeria it was reported that that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital, following Boko Haram attacks that killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Nigeria organizers said secret police in Nigeria have detained Wale Ajani, who was helping organize a planned hunger strike over the possible removal of fuel subsidies. In the northeast suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect killed two civilians in a police station blast in Mainok.
(AP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Shell said a pipeline fire in southern Nigeria has caused a cut in oil production in the country, with a spill also reported in connection with the incident.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 12, Nigeria evacuated from Mali 104 of its citizens, mostly women, either made to work as "sexual slaves" or suspected of involvement in human trafficking.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 12, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe vowed to help Nigeria in its fight against extremist groups as the country faces an intensifying Islamist insurgency. Nigeria is France's biggest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell reported a fresh spill from a key delivery pipeline in southern Nigeria, but said it has contained the leak.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 15, Nigerian airport officials fined British Airways $135 million and Virgin Atlantic $100 million amid a dispute over ticket prices. The airlines were given 14 days to respond and were ordered to compensate passengers. In 2012 a panel "cancelled the fines because at the time of the offence between 2004 and 2006, there was no law to make them culpable."
(AFP, 11/17/11)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2011 Nov 17, In Nigeria 3 hostages, two of them Americans, were kidnapped off the coast when gunmen attacked the MV C-Endeavour working with oil giant Chevron. The hostages were released on Dec 1.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Nov 18, Nigeria established its first sovereign wealth fund hoping to curb the plunder of oil revenues.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.56)
2011 Nov 18, In northeast Nigeria two soldiers and a child were killed after members of a radical Muslim sect ambushed them in Maiduguri. Two officers were killed after gunmen blew up a police station in central Nigeria and attacked a bank branch in Kabba.
(AP, 11/19/11)(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 18, The European Commission said an extra 10 million euros ($13.5 million) in humanitarian funding will go on addressing "major shortfalls" in food in the Sahel region. The crisis is affecting 7 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Nigeria at least seven people died in a clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the city of Jos.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 22, Nigerian authorities arrested and arraigned Sen. Mohammed Ali Ndume of the ruling People's Democratic Party for allegedly being the sponsor of Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, one of several spokesmen for Boko Haram. The senator belonged to a committee looking at possible peace talks with Boko Haram. A day earlier Konduga also implicated a former Nigerian ambassador, now dead, as well as a former governor in Nigeria's northeast in Boko Haram's creation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, Cameroon and Nigeria appealed for international funds to help mark the last 250 km (155 miles) of their disputed border that remains undecided.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Nigeria's president unexpectedly fired Farida Waziri, the female head of the lead anti-corruption agency, removing an official accused of being controlled by the political elite in this graft-prone nation. The president appointed agency deputy Ibrahim Lamurde as the commission's acting chairman.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Nigeria Muslim and Christian groups said 12 more people are dead after an apparent reprisal clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the city of Jos.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 26, In northeast Nigeria at least four people died in an apparent attack that saw churches and businesses burned to the ground in the city of Geidam, Yobe state.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (78), the secessionist leader during Nigeria's civil war in the late 1960s and a pivotal figure in the country's history, died in Britain. Ojukwu's 1967 declaration of independence for Biafra came largely in response to the killing of large numbers of Igbos in the country's north.
(AFP, 11/26/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
2011 Nov 29, Nigeria's Senate voted to criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection, the latest legislation targeting a minority already facing discrimination in Africa's most populous nation. The bill must be passed by Nigeria's House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) visited Kalaba community, Bayelsa state, and observed five spill points on the pipeline which was spewing oil into the environment. The pipeline was operated by Agip, the local subsidiary of Italian oil group Eni.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Nigeria suspected Muslim sect members shot and killed two people during a wedding ceremony in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 4, In northern Nigeria gunmen from a radical Muslim sect raided Azari town, Bauchi state, bombing police stations and robbing banks in an attack that killed at least six people.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Nigerian court convicted a man accused of being one of several spokesmen for the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, responsible for hundreds of killings this year. Ali Sanda Umar Konduga was sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nigeria a powerful explosion rocked the northern city of Kaduna, killing 7 people, wounding many others. A Red Cross report said two men on a motorbike had stopped in front of an auto parts shop in Kaduna just before the explosion went off. The police's anti-bomb squad had concluded that the blast was accidental.
(AFP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central Nigeria 3 bomb attacks, blamed on the feared Boko Haram radical sect, killed one person and wounded 11 others in Jos.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a powerful bomb blast targeting soldiers followed by gunfire rocked the troubled city of Maiduguri, with at least 10 people killed. The blast occurred ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan's presentation of his 2012 budget before parliament in Abuja.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a boat capsized carrying as many as 55 people going from Eagle Island to Mgbuodohia in Rivers state. At least 30 people died. 14 others were feared dead.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, In northern Nigeria assailants shot dead three officers after attacking a boarding school near the city of Kano. Gunmen attacked people gathered outside a shop in the city of Maiduguri. The drive-by assailants were carrying Kalashnikov rifles under their flowing robes and left 5 people dead. Authorities blamed the radical Boko Haram Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Nigeria a gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Kano, resulting in a shootout which left one policeman dead and another seriously wounded.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, In Nigeria an explosion at a house allegedly used to make home-made bombs in the northeastern city of Maiduguri killed three suspected Islamist sect members. Police shot rifles and fired tear gas at protesters who were demonstrating against toll roads in Lagos.
(AFP, 12/17/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in 2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed five people in a pre-dawn attack in Kagoro town, Kaduna state, the epicentre of post-election violence earlier this year.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, Shell, the major oil producer in Nigeria, said an oil spill a day earlier likely occurred as workers tried to offload oil onto a waiting tanker. Shell estimated the Bonga spill likely was less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons. The oil slick affected 115 miles (185 km) of ocean along Nigeria's coast.
(AP, 12/22/11)(AFP, 7/17/12)
2011 Dec 22, In Nigeria unrest broke out in the city of Damaturu and two other northeastern cities, Maiduguri and Potiskum, leaving at least six people dead.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, In Nigeria a fresh round of explosions and gunfire hit the city of Damaturu as authorities battled suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram, a day after unrest killed six people.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 24, Nigerian police and a local rights group said the death toll from 2 days of attacks in the north attributed to the Islamist Boko Haram sect could reach 100.
(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Nigeria an explosion, claimed by Muslim extremists, ripped through a Catholic church during Mass killing at least 35 people at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near the capital, Abuja. The toll soon rose to 44 as more people died of their injuries. In Jos a second explosion struck near a Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church. Gunmen later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one police officer. 2 explosions struck the northeastern city of Damaturu. The bomber targeted a senior military commander and killed three officers in the attack.
(AP, 12/25/11)(AFP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 27, In southern Nigeria 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 and a teacher in Delta state. Gunmen in a late night attack shot dead a three-year-old girl and her parents near the volatile central city of Jos. The attackers were suspected to be Fulani tribesmen, a mostly Muslim group which has been blamed for previous raids on the village.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 30, In Nigeria gunmen killed two civilians in Maiduguri, a town plagued by attacks from a radical Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the nation, after a recent slew of deadly attacks blamed on a radical Muslim sect killed dozens of people.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 In Nigeria the Ikeja shopping mall opened in Lagos.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.60)
2011 In Nigeria the average annual income of $718 per person in the northernmost 19 states was half the figure of the remaining 17 states. With some 160 million people Nigeria was the world’s 7th most populous country. The UN estimated Nigeria’s population could grow to around 400 million by 2050.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.52)(Econ, 5/14/11, p.77)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2012 Jan 1, Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, announced immediate ends to subsidies on petrol, a policy that had held pump prices at 65 naira per liter ($0.40, 0.30 euros).
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 2, In Nigeria prices at many stations more than doubled to 140 naira or more per liter in a country where most of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. The country's main labor unions threatened mass action.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 3, Nigerian police fired tear gas and detained protesters while crowds blocked petrol stations amid rising anger over a controversial measure that has led to skyrocketing fuel prices. A top trade union accused police of shooting dead a protester. Two suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead the head of the Shehuri neighborhood in Maiduguri. Suspected sect members also killed the leader of a neighborhood in Damaturu during a simultaneous attack. A girl was killed in the crossfire after suspected sect members attacked a police station in the northern state of Jigawa. Sect members also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least 8 people.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 5, In Nigeria the two suspected Boko Haram members were killed after resisting arrest in the northeastern city of Maiduguri. Police fired tear gas and beat demonstrators who staged a protest in Kano against soaring fuel prices. Residents said an attack at Good Will Hotel in Mubi killed five people, all of them Igbos. Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a church on the outskirts of the city of Gombe, killing six people, including the pastor's wife.
(AP, 1/5/12)(AFP, 1/5/12)(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, In northern Nigeria gunmen fired on Christian mourners, killing at least 20 people. The attack occurred in Mubi in Adamawa state as Igbo traders held a meeting before opening up their shops for business. Boko Haram members attacked a beauty salon and fought government forces as part of its continuing sectarian battle against Nigeria's weak central government. At least eight worshippers died in an attack on the Apostolic Church in Yola, Adamawa state. At a nearby beauty salon, at least three others were killed in a similar attack. At least two people were killed In the town of Potiskum, Yobe state, as gunmen set two banks ablaze and started a gunfight with police.
(AFP, 1/6/12)(AP, 1/6/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 7, Nigeria’s Pres. Goodluck Jonathan said he has ordered travel by political office holders be cut "to the barest minimum." He also said he has cut political office holders' salaries in the executive branch by 25 percent for 2012. In the northeast suspected gunmen of a radical Muslim sect, killed three people on an attack on a tea shop in Biu, Borno state. Boko Haram gunmen also shot and killed two Christian students who attend the University of Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/7/12)(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a military vehicle in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The attack killed three civilians and wounded six civilians and one soldier.
(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 9, Nigerian police and protesters clashed and people were shot dead as tens of thousands demonstrated nationwide over fuel price hikes and a general strike shut down the country. Suspected members of Boko Haram killed two Christians in separate attacks in Maiduguri despite an increased security presence in the area. Boko Haram gunmen killed a secret police officer in Biu. 6 people were killed in Benin as a crowd split off to attack a mosque and terrorize people in neighborhoods that are mainly Hausa.
(AFP, 1/9/12)(AP, 1/9/12)(AP, 1/10/12)(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 10, In Nigeria Imam Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect challenged the authority of Nigeria's president in an online video, promising more attacks in a nation increasingly overcome by unrest and divided by religion. Gunmen killed eight people, including five police officers, in a pub in Potiskum town in the northern state of Yobe before speeding off on a motorcycle. Gunmen also killed three people in an attack on a Christian village in Bauchi state. In the south a mob burnt part of the central mosque complex in the city of Benin. Local media reported that three others were killed in southwestern Ogun and Osun states, one by a police officer.
(AFP, 1/10/12)(AP, 1/11/12)(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Nigeria tens of thousands defied an order to end a three-day-old strike as unions threatened to halt output in Africa's top crude producer and a mob rampage left a police officer dead. Boko Haram gunmen attacked a bus in Yobe state carrying Christian Igbo traders on the outskirts of the city of Potiskum, killing four people. Two police officers were killed when a mob rampaged in the central city of Minna. A police station in the northeastern city of Yola was attacked by unknown gunmen, killing one officer.
(AFP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 12, In Nigeria a national strike entered its fourth day with oil workers threatening to halt production.
(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 13, A top Nigerian labor leader announced a two-day suspension of protests at the weekend as a national strike over fuel prices shut down the country for a fifth day running. In the northeast gunmen attacked two pubs, killing four people amid a wave of such violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/13/12)(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, Nigeria's government and union leaders ended talks without a deal to end a week-old strike that has shut down the country.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 16, Nigerian unions ended a week-old nationwide strike after President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to lower petrol prices, while security forces shot into the air and fired tear gas to disperse protesters. An unidentified gunmen shot dead three Chadian builders and stole their mobile phones in the northeastern city of Damaturu. 2 people were killed when gunmen invaded their homes in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/16/12)(AFP, 1/17/12)(AP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 17, Nigerian soldiers arrested six Islamists described as high-ranking members of the Boko Haram sect during a raid in Maiduguri. Troops shot dead four suspected members of the sect and injured five others in the same city and defused five bombs. Boko Haram gunmen shot dead 2 soldiers who were distributing food to soldiers on duty. Police acknowledged that Kabiru Sokoto, the suspected mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing, has escaped custody after being arrested in the country's capital.
(AP, 1/17/12)(AFP, 1/18/12)(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 19, Nigerian police fired tear gas in Lagos at hundreds of protestors as more than 200 defied police warnings and marched towards a park in the economic capital that has become the epicenter of mass mobilization against the removal of fuel subsidies.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Nigeria an explosion ripped through a zonal police headquarters in Kano, the largest city in the Muslim north. Bomb attacks targeting security forces and gun battles killed at least 150 civilians, 29 police officers, three secret police officers, two immigration officers and one customs official, bringing the death toll in Kano to 185 dead. A local television journalist was among those shot dead as he covered the unrest.
(AP, 1/20/12)(AFP, 1/21/12)(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 22, In northern Nigeria 11 people were killed overnight in an attack in Bauchi state.
(AP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 24, Nigerian security forces killed a man and his pregnant wife in an assault on a neighborhood in Kano. Suspected members of Boko Haram surrounded a police station in Kano, ordered civilians to get off the street, began chanting "God is great" and threw homemade bombs into the station while spraying it with assault rifles.
(AP, 1/24/12)(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Mauritania representatives from Sahel states (Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Algeria) and Nigeria vowed to help each other fight terrorism from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Islamist sect Boko Haram, which are said to have ties.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 26, In Nigeria a police source said some 200 people, mostly Chadian "mercenaries," have been arrested following last week's attacks in the northern main city of Kano. Gunmen killed 15 village traders returning from a market at night and set their bodies ablaze in northern Zamfara state.
(AFP, 1/26/12)(AFP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 27, Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least one officer after opening fire on a police station in the city of Kano. Police in southeastern Enugu state arrested 25 armed men believed to have come from the violence-plagued predominantly Muslim north while traveling on a bus headed to the mainly Christian south. The men were found with 19 home-made guns and some machetes during a search at a highway police checkpoint.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 29, In Nigeria gunmen stormed police station near a bus station in Kano, leaving two civilians dead. In the northern city of Potsikum, attackers traveling on a bicycle shot dead a guard outside a church.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2012 Jan 30, In Nigeria a Court of Appeals ruled that Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, the right-hand man for the feared military dictator Sani Abacha, should be hanged. He was accused of orchestrating the 1996 machine-gun killing of the wife of Moshood Abiola, a flamboyant businessman widely believed to be have won an annulled 1993 presidential election. Gunmen on motorcycles attacked a police station in Kano but were repelled by police. Boko Haram gunmen attacked an air force barracks, a police station and an army checkpoint, about 90 miles (150 km) north of Maiduguri, killing 5 people.
(AP, 1/30/12)(AFP, 1/30/12)(AP, 1/31/12)
2012 Jan 31, NUPENG, a Nigerian oil workers' union, launched a strike over a dispute with Shell, sparking fears of petrol shortages. The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, the smaller of Nigeria's two oil industry unions, represents blue-collar workers, including tanker drivers.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 1, In Nigeria several security sources said that a suspect believed to be the person who goes by the alias Abul Qaqa had been arrested, but authorities have not officially confirmed his detention or his identity.
(AFP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 5, In Nigeria gunmen reportedly shot dead a secret police officer in front of his house in the northeastern city of Damaturu. Soldiers guarding Jos, at the heart of ethnic and religious clashes, detained and later threw out journalists working for a French television station trying to cover the ongoing unrest there.
(AFP, 2/5/12)(AP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 6, In Nigeria three forged police ID cards, 11 police rifles and boots were allegedly recovered in an army raid on a Boko Haram hideout in which 8 suspected sect members died.
(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 7, In Nigeria explosions rocked an army barracks, a bridge and an air base in the northern city of Kaduna amid a wave of attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. One suicide bomber was reported killed.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Nigeria officers from the State Security Service and soldiers raided a home in Mutum Biyu, Taraba state, where Kabiru Sokoto, alleged mastermind of a radical Islamist sect's Christmas Day church bombing, was hiding. He had escaped a day after his arrest in January. They found Sokoto hiding behind a rack of drying laundry. Two explosions went off outside a customs building in Maiduguri, killing four bombers and wounding two soldiers.
(AP, 2/10/12)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 13, Suspected Nigerian pirates fired on a cargo ship around 110 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria killing the captain and chief engineer. The French navy came to the aid of the cargo ship.
(AFP, 2/13/12)(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 14, In Nigeria a bomb disposal officer was killed trying to defuse a bomb just minutes after another blast in Kaduna previously hit by a feared Islamist sect. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for another series of bomb attacks targeting two major military bases and a highway overpass that wounded an unknown number of people in Kaduna.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 15, In Nigeria attackers stormed a federal prison with heavy gunfire and explosives, killing one guard and freeing 119 inmates in Koton-Karifi, Kogi state.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot and killed two police officers in Minna, Niger state. 32 people were killed in a head-on crash between two buses in Bauchi state.
(AP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 17, Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara was named the new head of West Africa's regional bloc, outgoing chief Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria announced before the close of the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja.
(AFP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 18, In northeast Nigeria gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric and a local politician in separate attacks.
(AP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 19, In Nigeria a bomb planted in an abandoned car exploded outside a church in the middle of a worship service in Suleja near Abuja, wounding five people amid a continuing wave of violence by a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, In Nigeria some 30 people were killed when suspected Islamists opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/20/12)(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, A Shell oil official said oil companies in Nigeria are battling against a rising theft that is costing them an estimated 150,000 barrels of crude each day.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, Nigeria said it has renewed oil licenses which will let US energy giant ExxonMobil operate 3 big fields that produce about 500,000 barrels of crude a day for 20 years.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Nigeria gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead 2 policemen watching over a highway in Lapai, Niger state.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 23, In Nigeria gunmen on four motorcycles shot dead 4 policemen on foot patrol in Kano. 15 suspects were arrested.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 24, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram sect gunned down five worshippers inside a mosque as evening prayers ended in Kano. Gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram Islamists killed a dozen people when they razed a police station after failing to storm a jail in Gombe city.
(AFP, 2/25/12)
2012 Feb 25, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed two police officers in separate attacks in Kaduna and Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/26/12)
2012 Feb 26, In Nigeria a suicide bomber detonated an explosives laden car outside a packed church during Sunday service in Jos, killing three people and injuring dozens. Gunmen shot four people dead and wounded six in a rural area of the central state of Kaduna.
(AFP, 2/26/12)(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 27, Nigerian immigration services said they have repatriated around 11,000 foreigners mainly from Niger and Chad over the past six months to curb a growing Islamist insurgency. Gunmen in the north killed three policemen when they hurled explosives and opened fire on a police station in Jama'are, Bauchi state.
(AFP, 2/27/12)(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 27, James Ibori (49), former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state, pleaded guilty in a British court to charges of money-laundering, conspiring to defraud and obtaining a money transfer by fraud.
(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 28, In Nigeria assailants attacked Gamboru Primary School just after dawn and then, just over 3 miles (5 km) away, razed a newly renovated, secular coeducational school to the ground in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 28, Armed pirates opened fire on a cargo ship in an attack off the Nigerian coast, kidnapping the captain and chief engineer and robbing the crew before escaping. The assault targeted a Dutch-owned, Curacao-flagged, refrigerated cargo ship anchored near the coast.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, Heavily armed gunmen fired on an oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria. The Panamanian-flagged, Nigerian-owned vessel thwarted an attempted boarding by taking evasive action.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb, In Nigeria a private security company signed a $103 million deal with the government to patrol the West African nation's waterways against pirates. Former militant leader Government Ekpumopolo, aka Government Tompolo, endorsed hiring Global West Vessel Specialist Agency Ltd. to protect the waterways.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 1, In Nigeria gunmen shot and killed the four policemen as they were patrolling waterways in Bayelsa. The armed militant group MEND soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 2, In northern Nigeria gunmen shot dead a soldier in the city of Kano.
(AFP, 3/3/12)
2012 Mar 3, In Nigeria a bombing by suspected Boko Haram extremists killed three people at a political rally.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Mar 4, In Nigeria motorcyclist Mustapha Sani (25) was shot in the head and chest by soldiers at a checkpoint outside a bus terminus. An irate mob lit bonfires and marched through Kano to protest the alleged shooting. Residents have complained of harassment and extortion by security personnel at checkpoints that dot the city following the January 20 coordinated Boko Haram bomb and gun attacks that killed 185 people.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Mar 5, Nigerian troops in the northern city of Maiduguri shot dead three suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram sect as they allegedly tried to burn down a school.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, In Nigeria unknown gunmen shot dead Adamu Amadu, a senior customs officer in charge of Yobe and Borno states, both recently been rocked by Islamist attacks. Islamists attacked a prison, police station and local government office, wounding at least three police officers in Konduga, Borno state.
(AFP, 3/6/12)(AFP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 7, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked a police station and two banks, killing at least four policemen, amid a wave of violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. A raid was conducted in the northern city of Zaria leading to the arrest of Abu Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian, and five others.
(AFP, 3/8/12)(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 8, In Nigeria a British-Nigerian operation involving 100 troops, military trucks and a helicopter attempted to rescue a pair of British and Italian hostages. At least two hostage-takers were killed in the operation in Sokoto. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara (48) and his British colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot by their captors. Italy’s PM Monti was only informed by Britain’s PM Cameron once the operation was under way. The two hostages were kidnapped by heavily armed men who stormed their apartment in Kebbi state in May 2011. Nigerian authorities detained five Islamist militants suspected of involvement in the kidnapping.
(AFP, 3/9/12)(AP, 3/9/12)Reuters, 3/10/12)
2012 Mar 8, South Africa apologized for barring 125 Nigerians from the country and unveiled new immigration procedures aimed at ending a diplomatic row between the continent's two powerhouses. Immigration officials at Johannesburg's main airport on March 2 refused entry to Nigerians, on the pretext that their yellow fever vaccination cards might be fake.
(AFP, 3/8/12)
2012 Mar 9, In Nigeria Abu Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian, died following bullet wounds sustained during a raid in Zaria 2 days earlier.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 11, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up outside St Finbar’s Catholic church in Jos, killing 7 attending mass. 4 suicide bombers, including two that drove the car and two on a motorcycle that escorted the car, were also reported killed. Soldiers opened fire to disperse a crowd of onlookers killing at least 3 more people. Gunmen later in the day shot dead three Christians in Jos.
(AFP, 3/11/12)(AFP, 3/12/12)
2012 Mar 12, In northern Nigeria attackers shot dead a policeman, a soldier and three bystanders at a checkpoint in the town of Mubi.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, In northern Nigeria suspected sect members shot dead two policemen in Kano. Soldiers killed one of the assailants during the attack.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 14, In central Nigeria a police helicopter crashed and burst into flames in Jos, killing four policemen on board, including a senior officer.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen raided a mainly Christian village in Kaduna State, killing 10 people, including a pastor and injuring four others.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Nigeria respected cleric Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, who was mediating in peace talks between the government and the Boko Haram Islamist sect, announced he was quitting the talks, accusing the government of insincerity.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria a spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram ruled out further talks with the government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending scores of deadly attacks. Abul Qaqa said the government could not be trusted.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led initiative, launched a campaign aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 21, Nigerian troops ambushed and killed 9 gunmen who had attacked a police station and a bank in the north of the country. 2 gunmen who were taken alive in Tudun Wada.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, In Britain a group of 35 Nigerian villages sued Royal Dutch Shell PLC claiming that the company’s slow response to two spills in 2008 left their delta region soaked in crude oil.
(SFC, 3/24/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 24, In Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect set off a suicide car bomb during a military raid on their hideout in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 25, In Nigeria 3 suspected members of Boko Haram were killed overnight in the northern city of Maiduguri in a shootout with soldiers deployed to crush the Islamist sect. About 20 gunmen had attacked a police station with rifles and explosives.
(AFP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 28, In northeastern Nigeria suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram bombed a police station and freed more than a dozen prisoners, while three of the attackers were killed in Damagun in Yobe state. Two gunmen shot dead a police inspector in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, In Nigeria suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram used bombs and gunfire to attack a police station and rob a bank in northeastern town of Askira Uba, with four people feared dead.
(AFP, 3/30/12)
2012 Mar 31, Nigerian troops clashed with suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram in a raid on an alleged hideout, leaving 11 dead, including a soldier and policeman in the Okene district of Kogi state. Suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram attacked three police stations in Yobe state, burning two of them.
(AFP, 3/31/12)(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 1, In northern Nigeria a petrol tanker crashed then later exploded and caught fire, killing at least 12 people who had rushed to the scene to scoop fuel from the damaged vehicle.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 1, Nigerian Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, donated 500,000 dollars to victims of last month's munitions blasts in Brazzaville, Congo, which killed at least 282 people.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 2, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead a secret police officer at a barber's shop in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 2, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a $12-million grant to a project aimed at boosting yam production and doubling the income of west African farmers of the crop. The initial focus is on 200,000 smallholder farm families in Ghana and Nigeria.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 3, In Nigeria a gas leak occurred during the drilling of a new well in Rivers state, forcing Total to shut down the Obite gas plant. A snubbing intervention started on May 9.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 Apr 4, In northeast Nigeria suspected members of a radical Islamist sect opened fire on a crowded market in Maiduguri, killing at least 7 people in an area protected by federal troops.
(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, Nigerian authorities said they have recovered a cache of arms, including explosives and rocket launchers, in two separate raids in the restive northern city of Gombe and arrested six suspects.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 7, In Nigeria 22 people were killed and 31 others were injured in Benue state when their St Robert's Catholic Church caved in on them during Easter vigil in Adamgbe.
(AFP, 4/8/12)
2012 Apr 8, In central Nigeria a car bomb blast outside a church in Kaduna on Easter Sunday killed at least 39 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks. Islamists shot dead a seven-year-old girl during a failed attempt to kill her policeman father hours after group members killed three in a separate raid.
(AFP, 4/8/12)(AP, 4/9/12)(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 8, In Nigeria a bombing on an electoral commission office killed 16 people. Boko Haram extremists were suspected.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Apr 9, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen killed a policeman, a civilian and a local politician in coordinated attacks in Dikwa, Borno state. Three Boko Haram terrorists were reportedly killed as others escaped with bullet wounds. In the northeastern city of Potiskum, gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing the policeman's 6-year-old daughter.
(AFP, 4/9/12)(AP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 13, Nigeria's Pres. Goodluck Jonathan signed on a $31 billion budget for 2012 in Africa's largest crude producer amid concern it has not done enough to guard against a possible future slide in oil prices.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 13, In Nigeria The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked oil installations belonging to Italian firm ENI.
(AFP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 14, Nigeria's militant group MEND threatened to attack South Africa's investments, including telecoms firm MTN, in the Niger Delta, because of the terror trial of its leader, Henry Okah, in Johannesburg.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 16, Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American physician and head of Dartmouth College, NH, was appointed to head the World Bank. Challenger and Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Kim, but called for changes to the US-dominated selection process.
(AFP, 4/16/12)(Econ, 4/21/12, p.87)
2012 Apr 17, Nigerian troops killed one suspected member of the Islamist Boko Haram sect and arrested 13 others in dawn raids on two hideouts in Maiduguri city.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 17, In London James Ibori, former Nigerian state governor (1997-2007), was sentenced to 13 years in prison over a fraud involving $250 million of state funds.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 18, In northern Nigeria a customs officer was shot dead at Gamboru market in Maiduguri, while a water vendor was also killed in another area of the city on the same day.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 19, In northern Nigeria 5 people were killed by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram, in a bakery in Maiduguri. A policeman was killed outside his house in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 21, In northern Nigeria 5 suspected Islamist militants were killed when bombs they were assembling exploded during a shootout with government troops.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 24, Nigerian lawmakers called for a probe into an alleged $6.8 billion lost since 2009 through a graft-ridden fuel subsidy program.
(AFP, 4/24/12)
2012 Apr 24, In Nigeria gunmen killed five people, including a police officer and a politician, at a bar in Damaturu, Yobe state, in an area previously hit by a bomb blast blamed on Islamists. 5 people, including two children, were killed in Gwa-Rim village by suspected Fulani herdsmen. In Jos a blast killed one person and wounded nine soccer fans.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 26, In Nigeria a suicide attack at the Abuja bureau of ThisDay newspaper and a car bombing at another of its offices killed at least 9 people in the first such strikes against the country's media. 5 people were killed in Abuja and 4 in Kaduna.
(AFP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 27, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to the Boko Haram Islamist sect fatally shot a police inspector outside his home Yobe state. A car in which Edo state Gov. Oshiomhole normally rides was struck by an oncoming vehicle. 3 journalists were killed in the suspicious accident.
(AFP, 4/27/12)(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Apr 29, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked church services on the Bayero University campus in Kano, using small explosives to draw out and gun down panicking worshippers in an assault that killed around 20 people. On May 18 police arrested Augustine Effiong (25), aka Abubakar Garba, who confessed to have participated in a series of attacks including the attack and killings in Bayero University Kano (BUK).
(AP, 4/29/12)(AFP, 4/30/12)(AFP, 5/21/12)
2012 Apr 30, In Nigeria a suicide attack on a senior police official's convoy in the eastern state of Taraba killed 11 people, including one policeman.
(AFP, 4/30/12)
2012 May 1, Nigerian troops killed one suspected Boko Haram militant during a pre-dawn raid in Kano over weekend attacks against church services that left around 20 people dead.
(AFP, 5/1/12)
2012 May 2, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen started shooting in a Potiskum market, trying to steal cattle. Witnesses said three people at the market were killed, as a fourth man suspected to be part of the group of robbers was set afire while still alive and died of his burns.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 3, In northeastern Nigeria at least 34 people were killed after a failed cattle raid in a market In Potiskum, Yobe state, sparked a retaliatory attack by robbers angry one of their colleagues had been burned alive by herders. Olaitan Oyerinde, a popular labor activist and principal secretary to Edo State Gov. Adams Oshiomhole, was murdered in cold blood by unknown gunmen in Benin city.
(AFP, 5/3/12)(http://tinyurl.com/6sjbk73)
2012 May 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 2 warders and freed all inmates from a local jail in Kumshe town, Borno state. 23 Boko Haram suspects were arrested during an attack on a police station in Banki. In the eastern state of Taraba, gunmen disguised in military uniforms shot dead five residents near Babban Mutum town.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Shell announced a significant cut in its Nigerian oil production due to pipeline damage caused by theft, and warned that it might not meet contractual obligations as a result.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 5, In Nigeria 3 people were shot dead while four others, including two soldiers, were wounded when suspected Islamists opened fire at a wedding in Maiduguri. 2 of the suspected Islamists were arrested. Gunmen shot dead a resident in Kano.
(AFP, 5/5/12)(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 6, In northern Nigerian soldiers killed four suspected members of Boko Haram Islamist sect in a raid on their hideout in Kano. About a dozen suspected Islamists were arrested in the raid.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, In northern Nigeria gunmen in Kaduna state shot dead a Lebanese man and his Nigerian driver and abducted another Lebanese national. Crowds of protesters took to the streets of Potiskum over a deadly market attack last week that left 34 dead.
(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 7, Nigeria's military arrested 21 Ghanaians and five Nigerians for alleged oil theft as they operated two vessels in the country's main crude-producing region. Oil giant Shell said two new leaks had occurred on one of its pipelines in southern Nigeria after similar incidents in recent days blamed on crude theft.
(AFP, 5/8/12)(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 9, In northeast Nigeria at least two people were killed in an attack on a market in Maiduguri. The military blamed the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 11, Nigerian troops arrested a suspected leading Boko Haram militant in a raid in Kano hours after Maiduguri, where the Islamist group is based, was rocked by blasts and gunfire.
(AFP, 5/11/12)
2012 May 12, In Nigeria gunmen stormed Mafa police station in Borno state killing 2 policemen and one civilian.
(AFP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 13, In Nigeria a joint task force raided a suspected Boko Haram base in London Ciki, Maiduguri, killing two Islamists. Two locally made pistols were recovered and five suspects were arrested. Gunmen opened fire on card players in the northern city of Kano, killing three people including a prison warden. Around 500 attackers, believed to be nomadic Fulanis, stormed five villages in Lamurde district of Adamawa state. At least six people were killed in what was thought to be reprisals in a communal dispute.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 17, In Nigeria an explosion caused by dynamite on a bus in the oil hub city of Port Harcourt killed the driver and wounded two others. Rivers state Gov. Rotimi Amaechi said it appeared the alleged robbers were using the bus for transportation and the explosion happened accidentally.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 23, In Nigeria 3 police officers were shot dead by suspected Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 May 25, In northeastern Nigeria two people were killed when gunmen in a car opened fire at Potiskum's timber market.
(AFP, 5/26/12)
2012 May 26, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen killed a Muslim cleric and a retired prison guard in Potiskum, amid a wave of such killings blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. Gunmen shot dead three card players in the northern city of Kano, also rocked by deadly attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram
(AFP, 5/26/12)(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 28, In Nigeria an employee of the Italian building and civil engineering firm Borini Prono was abducted in Kwara State.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May 31, In Nigeria an operation to free German engineer Edgar Fritz Raupach, abducted last January, took place in Kano. 5 people, including a woman and Raupach, were killed in the operation. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had released a statement in March claiming they had Raupach and demanded that German officials release Filiz Gelowicz, a German woman convicted last year of supporting a foreign terrorist network.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, Nigerian police in Lagos used tear gas to try to disperse a crowd of several hundred university students angry at the president's decision to change the name of their school. On May 29 President Goodluck Jonathan said the University of Lagos, known as UNILAG, would be renamed Moshood Abiola University in honor of a political prisoner who died in jail over a decade ago.
(AP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, In Ghana a Nigerian Allied Air cargo plane overshot an airport runway in Accra and crashed into a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people. The 4 crew members of the plane survived.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 3, In Nigeria a suicide bomber attacked a church in northeastern Bauchi state, causing the building to collapse on the worshippers inside killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more. The next day Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/3/12)(AFP, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 3, In Nigeria a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 smashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos' Murtala Muhammed Int’l. Airport killing all 153 aboard, the country’s worst air disaster in nearly two decades. At least 6 more people perished on the ground. A probe into the crash traced the cause to the loss of two engines and non-functionality of the throttles on final descent from Abuja to Lagos.
(AP, 6/4/12)(AFP, 6/5/12)(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Jun 5, Nigerian soldiers killed at least 16 militants after gunfire and blasts rocked Maiduguri, where Islamists were believed to be hiding. In the northern city of Kano gunmen shot dead a former deputy Nigerian police chief, his driver and a bodyguard.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 8, In Nigeria a suicide blast outside police headquarters in Maiduguri killed 8 people and wounded others. Hours earlier a suspected bomber died when an explosive went off prematurely in another part of the city. Gunmen also shot dead a police constable outside his house in Boriya district on the outskirts of Potiskum. A nearby drug vendor, also hit and injured by the attackers' bullet, died later.
(AP, 6/8/12)(AFP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 9, In northern Nigeria 2 gunmen in Kano shot dead an official of the secret police, Aminu Isa, and fled. Isa's friend was shot in both legs and later died in the hospital.
(AFP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 10, In central Nigeria a suicide bomber drove his car at a church in Jos, killing at least 3 people. Gunmen opened fire on another church in the northeast killing at least one person and wounding dozens in Biu.
(AFP, 6/10/12)
2012 Jun 11, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated one of sub-Sahara Africa's biggest cement factories, with a capacity to produce 5.25 million metric tons a year. Dangote Cement's held ambitions of ranking among the top eight cement-producing companies in the world by the year 2015. Armed robbers in north Nigeria killed 27 people while attacking villages preparing for a local market day.
(AFP, 6/11/12)(AP, 6/11/12)
2012 Jun 12, Nigeria's stock exchange board announced that exchange regulator Arunma Oteh has been suspended from her post, weeks after she publicly clashed with politicians over corruption allegations.
(AFP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 15, Nigerian troops shot dead four suspected Boko Haram Islamists during a dawn raid on one of the group's presumed hideouts in the northern city of Kano.
(AFP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 17, In Nigeria bomb blasts damaged five churches in four cities in northern Kaduna state, injuring dozens of worshippers and leading to an immediate curfew. Suicide blasts on 3 churches carried out by Boko Haram Islamists and subsequent rioting killed at least 52 people.
(AFP, 6/17/12)(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 18, In northeastern Nigeria gunfire broke out in Damaturu and caused casualties, but that the streets were too dangerous for rescue workers to move around.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 19, Nigerian authorities slapped a round-the-clock curfew on Damaturu as fresh gunfire rocked the restive northeastern city. A radical Islamist sect unleashed multiple attacks in Damaturu, killing at least 25 people as fears swelled about the government's inability to corral rising sectarian violence. Habibu Bama, a suspect in the 2011 Christmas Day bombings that killed at least 44 people, was arrested in Damaturu, following a shootout with the military joint task force. Bama died soon after sustaining injuries from the gun battle.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(AP, 6/19/12)(AP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 19, Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man according to Forbes magazine, was reinstated as president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the position from which he was removed two years ago.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 20, In Nigeria new clashes between Christians and Muslims hit areas in and around the city of Kaduna, leaving at least five people dead. Days of violence left 106 people dead.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, Nigeria's Khalid al-Barnawi was one of 3 Nigerians labeled a "global terrorist" by the US government. He was alleged to be an Al Qaeda-linked militant with Boko Haram ties involved in kidnapping foreigners. Abubakar Adam Kambar was linked to Barnawi. Abubakar Shekau was widely believed to lead Boko Haram's main Islamist cell.
(AFP, 6/21/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 22, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan fired his national security adviser and defense minister, as fears mounted over spiraling unrest in the country's north. The new security adviser will be Sambo Dasuki, a retired colonel, prominent northerner and cousin to the Sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria's highest Muslim spiritual figure.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 24, In Nigeria attackers with guns and explosives raided a jail in Damaturu, leaving four prison guards dead and freeing 40 inmates. One of the inmates was re-arrested and another was killed. In Bauchi a home-made explosive device planted in an unfinished building next to a group of pubs went off injuring 9 people.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(AFP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, In Nigeria gunmen attacked five police posts and a prison across three cities, sparking responses from security forces, with the heaviest fighting concentrated in Kano. 3 policemen were shot dead in Taraba state when gunmen attacked a regional police headquarters in the town of Wukari. The clashes left at least 27 people dead.
(AFP, 6/27/12)(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria militants armed with guns and explosives attacked a police station in Adamawa state's town of Gulak. The building was destroyed by the subsequent blaze.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, In northeastern Nigeria security forces killed suspected Boko Haram sect members during a military raid on their hideout in Damaturu.
(AP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jun 30, Nigeria's military said it has arrested the leader of a gang responsible for a series of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region. Seifa Gbereke (25), known locally as "General Cairo," was also suspected of stealing crude from pipelines.
(AFP, 6/30/12)
2012 Jul 1, Nigerian hunters killed a hippopotamus in the town of Shelleng on the bank of the Benue river. The hippo had killed two fishermen a day earlier.
(AP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 2, Nigeria's Trade and Investment Ministry said Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US-based Vulcan Petroleum Resources Ltd. to build six oil refineries, in a project worth 4.5 billion dollars.
(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 2, In Nigeria attackers killed nine construction workers in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the base of the Islamist Boko Haram sect.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 7, In Nigeria assailants launched "sophisticated attacks" on several villages near Jos. At least 80 people were killed and more than 300 displaced people from the attacks. Similar raids have been blamed on Muslim herdsmen in the past.
(AP, 7/8/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Nigeria a federal lawmaker and a state lawmaker were killed in an ambush on their way to a mass burial for victims near Jos. At least 20 others were killed when gunmen stormed the funeral of those killed a day earlier. Boko Haram later claimed that it was responsible for the attacks.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 9, A spokeswoman for Italian oil major Eni SpA said in a statement that repair work was ongoing on its Nembe-Obama pipeline and blamed sabotage for the spill from one of its pipelines in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta.
(AP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 10, In Nigeria a bombing of a church killed 3 people. Boko Haram extremists were suspected.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2012 Jul 12, In Nigeria a truck carrying fuel caught fire and exploded after it veered off the road into a ditch in the Niger Delta, killing over 100 who had rushed to the scene to scoop fuel.
(AP, 7/12/12)(AFP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 13, In north Nigeria a suicide bomber tried to assassinate Umar Garbai el-Kanemi, a key Islamic leader and Shehu of northeastern Borno state, outside his mosque after Friday prayers but missed his target and killed five others.
(AFP, 7/14/12)
2012 Jul 16, Nigeria fined Shell $5.0 billion over a December 2011 oil spill at the Bonga oilfield in the Gulf of Guinea. The next day Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said the fine was unwarranted as the company had acted quickly to contain the spill.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 17, In central Nigeria a ten-year-old boy was killed when an assailant fired a heavy weapon at an Islamic school in the city of Jos.
(AFP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 18, Nigeria lifted a state of emergency it imposed six months ago in four states following a wave of attacks blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jul 19, In northern Nigeria gunmen in two separate attacks shot dead at least five people, including a policeman.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 20, Nigeria's first lady was sworn into a senior government post in the oil-rich state of Bayelsa, an appointment tagged as scandalous by some opponents.
(AFP, 7/20/12)
2012 Jul 22, In northern Nigeria a bomb blast killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded 10 others, in Bauchi city's Tundunwadan Dan-iya area, an area repeatedly targeted by a radical Islamist group.
(AFP, 7/22/12)
2012 Jul 23, In central Nigeria heavy rainfall overnight forced a dam to overflow, causing flooding that left at least 35 people dead and destroyed or damaged some 200 homes.
(AFP, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 26, In southern Nigeria suspected sea pirates attacked a speed boat transporting workers for Italian firm Agip, leaving at least one person dead.
(AFP, 7/27/12)
2012 Jul 29, In northern Nigeria a gun battle near a mosque in the city of Kano and two other shootings left at least eight people dead in the latest violence to hit the area.
(AFP, 7/29/12)
2012 Jul 30, In Nigeria explosions, including a suicide blast, rocked two police stations in the northwestern city of Sokoto, the historic seat of Islam in the country. Nigeria's military killed two suspected Boko Haram Islamists who were trying to smuggle heavy weapons into the country during a shootout on the border with Chad.
(AFP, 7/30/12)(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 4, Off the coast of Nigeria gunmen attacked a barge belonging to oil services company Sea Trucks Group, kidnapping four foreigners and killing two Nigerian sailors. The 4 foreign oil workers were released on Aug 22.
(AFP, 8/4/12)(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 5, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber rammed his car into a military patrol in the city of Damaturu, killing at least 6 soldiers.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 6, In central Nigeria gunmen opened fire on an evangelical church during a service, killing at least 19 people in Okene city, Kogi state.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Nigeria assailants shot at troops on patrol, sparking an exchange of fire that left two soldiers and two of the gunmen dead in Okene city.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 12, In Nigeria a senior officer said troops killed 20 suspected Boko Haram Islamists in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, an account quickly denied by the militant group. Military commander Victor Ebhaleme said one soldier had been killed and two others injured in the raid. Suspected Islamists attacked a military patrol in the northeastern city of Damaturu.
(AFP, 8/12/12)
2012 Aug 14, Nigerian officials said flooding in central Plateau state caused by heavy rains has killed at least 33 people, with many others still missing, while also destroying homes, bridges and farmland.
(AFP, 8/14/12)(AP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 14, In northern Nigeria 3 people were killed in a bomb blast on a Kaduna road leading to a mosque where a cleric had condemned the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 15, Nigeria cancelled a centuries-old Eid festival known for its elaborate horse pageant, officially due to Kano’s Emir Ado Bayero’s health, but residents suspected worsening violence was to blame.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 18, In Nigeria an ocean surge crashed into waterfront shanties in Lagos, leaving at least one person dead and 15 missing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 19, In Nigeria two gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on troops at a military checkpoint in the northern city of Kano, injuring a soldier.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 20, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen in Damagun, Yobe state, blew up part of a primary school overnight then attacked a Catholic church and police station before officers fought them off.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 24, Nigerian military forces stormed the hideout of a militant gang operating on the waters of oil-producing Cross River State and rescued 28 oil workers working for a Chinese petroleum company. They had been abducted a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/26/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 27, In Nigeria 10 people were killed in floods in Adamawa state following the release of water from a dam in Cameroon.
(SFC, 8/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 28, Nigeria's Finance Ministry said Nigeria will launch a $1 billion sovereign wealth fund in the coming months to invest some of the nation's oil revenue.
(AP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 28, Nigerian soldiers shot dead a man in Maiduguri who was pushing a wheelbarrow that contained explosives. A witness said stray bullets from the shootout wounded a woman and killed a baby strapped to her back.
(AP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 30, It was reported that a leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of Nigeria's State Security Service remained easily accessible on the Internet for days and had details about the agency's director-general, including his mobile phone number, bank account particulars and contact information for his son.
(AP, 8/30/12)
2012 Aug 31, In northern Nigeria 2 speeding buses collided head-on and burst into flames killing at least 29 people and injuring 16 others in Yobe state.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Sep 4, Pirates attacked and seized the MT Abu Dhabi Star, an oil tanker off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria, kidnapping an unknown number of sailors who were trying to hide from their assailants.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 5, Nigeria's navy retook the MT Abu Dhabi Star oil tanker, hijacked a day earlier off Lagos, freeing 23 Indian sailors held hostage by pirates who fled as the navy arrived.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 6, In Nigeria an association of mobile phone companies said at least 24 towers have been attacked across the north, likely causing damage worth millions of dollars. At least nine masts were burned down in Maiduguri. Hours later security forces killed seven suspected Boko Haram sect members in Maiduguri.
(AP, 9/6/12)(AP, 9/7/12)
2012 Sep 7, In Nigeria more than 60 workers from Air Nigeria protested at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport's domestic wings, demanding four-months-worth of unpaid salaries from the company. The airline's owner, business tycoon Jimoh Ibrahim, fired nearly all of the company's 800 employees for "disloyalty" earlier this month.
(AP, 9/7/12)
2012 Sep 12, Nigeria’s Finance Ministry said China is offering it $1.1 billion in loans to help the West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for its capital city and communication system improvements.
(AP, 9/12/12)
2012 Sep 14, In central Nigeria soldiers opened fire to drive away young Muslims protesting a film critical of the Prophet Muhammad, as demonstrators elsewhere in the county's Muslim north burned a US flag.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Sep 16, In Nigeria Red Cross officials said they have found 25 corpses following a massive flood from the Benue River in Adamawa state.
(SFC, 9/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 19, Nigerian security forces fighting the Boko Haram Islamist sect in the northeast of the country killed two commanders from the group and arrested eight other members in two separate incidents.
(Reuters, 9/21/12)
2012 Sep 20, Nigeria's largest airline Arik Air Ltd. halted all its domestic flights indefinitely as its leaders alleged government corruption made it impossible for the carrier to fly. Domestic flights resumed on Sep 23.
(AP, 9/20/12)(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 23, In northern Nigeria a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside a Catholic church, killing himself and at least two other people. In the southeast 20 people died when a broken gasoline pipeline caught fire, burning alive those gathering the fuel in Abia state.
(Reuters, 9/23/12)(AP, 10/1/12)
2012 Sep 24, Saudi Arabian authorities began holding some 908 female Nigerian pilgrims heading to Mecca over a rule requiring them to travel with a husband or male companion.
(SFC, 9/27/12, p.A2)(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 25, In Nigeria government forces in Damaturu announced that they had killed 35 Boko Haram members in a single night-time raid with several arrested.
(Economist, 9/29/12, p.52)
2012 Sep 28, Saudi Arabia began expelling over a thousand Nigerian women on religious pilgrimage to the country because they had arrived without male guardians.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 29, In Nigeria three students were killed in an attack outside a university campus in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/2/12)
2012 Sep 30, In Nigeria Royal Dutch Shell PLC shut down a pipeline in the oil-rich southern delta after a fire and a suspected attempt to steal crude from one of its lines.
(AP, 9/30/12)
2012 Oct 2, In northeast Nigeria an overnight attack killed at least 25 people, including 22 students, outside the campus of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi in the town of Mubi.
(AP, 10/2/12)
2012 Oct 2, In Sudan 4 Nigerian peacekeepers were killed and 8 wounded in an ambush in West Darfur.
(SFC, 10/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 5, In northeastern Nigeria a bombing by suspected Boko Haram members killed an army lieutenant. This sparked a violent retaliation by soldiers.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 8, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers apparently attacked a neighborhood after a nearby bombing killed a lieutenant. Maiduguri General Hospital collected 32 bodies following violence.
(AP, 10/9/12)
2012 Oct 9, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed two police officers helping guard workers trying to give polio immunizations to local children in Kano. Police arrested several suspects in the killing.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 10, In northern Nigeria gunmen outside of Kano shot dead two officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, a federal traffic agency. The officials had been on a routine assignment checking vehicles. Officials said gunmen killed 14 people belonging to a Christian ethnic group in Plateau state, in the region in the Riyom local government area. The dead included three children and their mother. Near the local airport gunmen opened fire on a car killing two Christians.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 11, Nigerian farmers asked a Dutch court to rule that oil company Shell is liable for poisoning their fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines. Royal Dutch Shell PLC long argued that the case, which was launched in 2008, should be heard in Nigeria.
(AP, 10/11/12)
2012 Oct 14, In northern Nigeria gunmen attacked Dogon Dawa village in Kaduna state killing at least 30 people. The attacked appeared to be between Muslim farmers and Muslim nomadic cattlemen. In Benue state herdsmen burned a village of the Christian Tiv people. Police blamed the killings on land disputes between the two groups.
(SFC, 10/15/12, p.A2)(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 14, In Niger men in two Toyota pickup trucks pulled up to a guesthouse in the town of Dakoro and seized 6 aid workers, 5 from Nigeria and one from Chad. The abductors were believed to be elements of AQIM. 5 workers were freed on Nov 3. Their colleague Aime Soulembaye had died of wounds received during the attack.
(AP, 10/15/12)(AP, 11/3/12)
2012 Oct 15, In Nigeria at least 15 separate explosions punctuated by gunfire echoed across Maiduguri, a city long under siege by the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. At least 24 people were killed. A gunman suspected to belong to Boko Haram shot dead a police traffic warden in the city within view of a military checkpoint.
(AP, 10/15/12)(AP, 10/16/12)
2012 Oct 15, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a ship operated by a French oil and gas services company off the coast of the oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six Russian sailors and an Estonian in the assault. The kidnapped sailors were freed on Oct 31.
(AP, 10/17/12)(AP, 11/1/12)
2012 Oct 18, In Nigeria Shuaibu Muhammed Bama was found "in a serving senator's home" in Maiduguri. Bama was described as a commander who organized attacks in Bama, a town just southeast of Maiduguri in Borno state.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 19, In Nigeria gunmen killed a Chinese construction worker in Maiduguri. An overnight raid in the nearby city of Potiskum left five others dead and several schools razed.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 19, In southwest Nigeria a bus carrying women crashed and plunged off a bridge into a river, killing at least 12 people. 6 people remained missing.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 20, In Nigeria gunmen raided the Potiskum home of a former Nigeria Customs Service official and killed him and his son.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 23, Nigerian authorities intercepted a ship and found on board several guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. 15 Russian sailors were soon charged with illegally bringing weapons into the country. All charges against the sailors were dropped in 2013.
(Reuters, 10/8/13)
2012 Oct 28, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber rammed an SUV loaded with explosives into a Catholic church holding Mass, killing at least 7 people and wounding more than 100 others in Kaduna. The attack sparked reprisal killings in the city.
(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Oct 30, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected to belong to a violent robbery gang raided a remote village in Kabaru, Zamfara state, killing 20 people in an attack highlighting the growing insecurity in the nation.
(AP, 10/31/12)
2012 Nov 1, In Nigeria an alleged member of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram set conditions for peace talks with the government, asking that negotiations to end its fight be held in Saudi Arabia and that former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari be involved. In the northeast soldiers shot dead more than 40 people, likely civilians, during an operation in Maiduguri, a city long under attack by the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 11/1/12)(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Nov 2, In Nigeria retired Gen. Mamman Shuwa was shot dead at his home in Maiduguri by gunmen suspected to be the Islamist extremists. A guest in the house was also killed.
(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Nov 5, In Nigeria the managing director and editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Compass daily newspaper was shot during an attack in Osun state.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 5, Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said 363 people died over months of flooding across the West African nation and 2.1 million others were displaced.
(AP, 11/5/12)
2012 Nov 7, In northeast Nigeria gunmen shot dead two Chinese construction workers in Borno state, a region under assault by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 11, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it has shut down a pipeline in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta after finding leaks it blamed on oil thieves.
(AP, 11/11/12)
2012 Nov 14, Nigeria said it has terminated a $24 million electricity contract with Canada's state-owned Manitoba Hydro, in a setback for plans to privatize a moribund power sector that is holding back economic growth.
(AP, 11/14/12)
2012 Nov 18, In central Nigeria a Christian vigilante group killed a Muslim resident who insisted on going through their illegal checkpoint, triggering riots that have left at least four people dead in Ibi.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 19, In northern Nigeria two road accidents that took place an hour apart claimed 25 lives.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 19, French oil firm Total SA said it has sold a stake in an offshore oil field in Nigeria for $2.5 billion to Chinese state oil company Sinopec Corp. The cash deal required approval by Nigerian authorities.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Nigerian official says the government owes its state-run oil firm more than $8.1 billion in gasoline subsidy payments.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 22, The British government banned Ansaru, a Nigeria-based Islamist group, it said was aligned with al Qaeda. Ansaru's full name is Jama'atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan, which translates as "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa." A minister said the oulawed organisation was probably responsible for the killing of Chris McManus, a Briton, and Franco Lamolinara, an Italian.
(Reuters, 11/22/12)
2012 Nov 25, In northcentral Nigeria a blast hit a church in military barracks in Jaji town, Kaduna state. The death toll in a twin suicide bombing rose to at least 30.
(AP, 11/25/12)(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Nov 26, In Nigeria gunmen attacked a major police station near Abuja that held members of Boko Haram a radical Islamist sect, freeing some 30 prisoners. 25 were quickly recaptured. Two policemen were killed. Gunmen in army uniforms sprayed bullets from a van as they sped along the road leading to Plateau state's airport. 9 people died in the attack on a Christian village.
(AP, 11/26/12)(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Dec 2, In northeast Nigeria at least 10 people were killed in attacks likely carried out by a radical Islamist sect in Chibok village, Borno state.
(AP, 12/2/12)
2012 Dec 9, In Nigeria Kamene Okonjo (83), the mother of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped from her home in the southern delta. She was released on Dec 14.
(AP, 12/10/12)(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 9, In northeastern Nigeria a shootout began between security forces and members of a radical Islamist sect after suspected sect members bombed a local police station and attacked a bank branch. By the next day at least 15 people were killed in Potiskum.
(AP, 12/11/12)
2012 Dec 15, A Nigerian navy helicopter crashed in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The governor of Kaduna state, Patrick Yakowa, died in the crash, along with five other people including former national security adviser, General Andrew Azazi.
(AP, 12/15/12)
2012 Dec 17, In northwest Nigeria 27 people riding atop a truck carrying livestock were killed when it tipped over and crashed.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2012 Dec 17, Gunmen stormed the SP Brussels tanker ship off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, ransacking the vessel and kidnapping five Indian sailors in the latest attack targeting foreign workers in the volatile region. On Jan 26 the Indian sailors were reported freed. Separately gunmen abducted four South Koreans and a Nigerian working for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. at a construction site in the Brass area of Bayelsa state.
(AP, 12/19/12)(AP, 1/26/13)
2012 Dec 17, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion took place in Ije Ododo, in a swampy mangrove forest in the western fringe of Lagos when locals tapped into the pipeline to steal the refined gasoline moving through it. Flames continued thru Dec 20.
(AP, 12/21/12)
2012 Dec 19, In northern Nigeria more than 30 assailants stormed a house, killing two people and kidnapping French engineer Francis Collomp in the town of Rimi, Katsina state. On Nov 17, 2013, it was reported that Collomp had escaped and was on his way to France.
(AP, 12/20/12)(Reuters, 11/17/13)
2012 Dec 22, In northern Nigeria twin suicide bombings targeted two major mobile phone operators, threatening communications in Kano. Authorities suspected the Boko Haram sect for the attacks.
(AP, 12/22/12)
2012 Dec 22, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid about $187,000 to free four South Korean workers and their local colleague abducted on Dec 17. Police learned of the kidnapping payment only after arresting one of three suspected kidnappers.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2012 Dec 23, Gunmen attacked a supply tug boat off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping 4 sailors, including 3 Italians. All 4 sailors were reported freed on Jan 9.
(AP, 12/24/12)(AP, 1/9/13)
2012 Dec 24, Nigerian security forces detained two journalists from a Hausa-language newspaper over articles they published regarding alleged military abuses during the country's fight against a radical Islamist sect.
(AP, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 26, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 28, In northeast Nigeria gunmen suspected to belong to the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect attacked the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats, killing at least 15. Boko Haram gunmen also attacked another village in Adamawa state on its border with neighboring Cameroon. At least 35 prisoners were released from a prison in the attack, though 11 were been recaptured. A civilian and a police officer were killed during the fighting. Authorities said at least seven people have been killed in recent days around Christian villages in the rural plateau around Jos.
(AP, 12/29/12)
2012 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala authored “Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons From Nigeria."
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.89)
2012 Noo Saro-Wiwa authored “Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria."
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.77)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 5, In northwest Nigeria suspected armed robbers raided three villages in Zamfara state, killing at least 7 people and wounding 7 more.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Nigeria a massive fire tore through a waterfront slum in Lagos, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 19, In northwest Nigeria gunmen attacked the convoy of a religious leader in Kano, killing at least 3 guards.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Nigeria 18 people were killed in an attack on a local market in Dambao, Borno state. The violence started after the local market banned a group of hunters from selling "bush meat" from slaughtered monkeys and other creatures.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 23, In southwest Nigeria a gasoline pipeline was attacked in Arepo, bursting into flames and starting a fire that continued to burn hours later. Officials blamed oil thieves. In the northeast suspected fighters from the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect beheaded three people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Nigeria John Yakubu Yusufu, a man who formerly helped oversee the country’s police pension program, pleaded guilty to stealing $145 million, but walked out of court a free man after agreeing to a plea bargain that saw him pay only a fraction of it back.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Feb 1, A Nigerian military official said 18 militants and one soldier have been killed during days of fighting in Sambisa Game Reserve, Borno state, pitting soldiers against suspected rebels with the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/1/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 1, Nigerian lawmaker Rep. Farouk Lawan, who led a probe into the nation's fuel subsidy program that saw billions of dollars lost through fraud, was charged, along with his aide Emenalo Boniface, with allegedly soliciting a $3 million bribe from someone targeted by the inquiry. The allegations stem from their investigation of Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd. and a powerful ally of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Nigeria 11 people were killed in fighting between nomadic cattle herders and farmers around the village of Ngandum, Adamawa state.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Pirates attacked an oil tanker anchored off Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, shooting one of the crew members. The Nigerian navy shot back at the attackers, driving them away. The wounded sailor died in transit to a hospital.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed in a shootout in the oil-rich southern delta involving a vessel operated by an Indian company.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 7, Pirates attacked the MV Esther C some 80 miles (130 km) off Nigeria's coast. On March 11 Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. of the United Kingdom said 3 captured sailors have been freed.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in Kano. Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris immediately ordered the arrest of three radio journalists for allegedly being responsible for the killings. Police claimed on-air comments about a vaccination campaign in the area sparked the attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 9, Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed 3 North Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians in Potiskum. They had lived in the state since 2005 as part of a medical program between Nigeria and the North Korean government.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 16, In rural northern Nigeria an Islamist group calling itself Ansaru attacked a camp for a construction company in Bauchi state, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. Ansaru is a acronym for “Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa."
(AP, 2/17/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 17, Gunmen attacked an oil vessel off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six foreigners. Three Ukrainians, two Indians and a Russian were taken from a vessel run by energy company Century Group.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Nigeria's secret police said they have broken up a terrorist group backed by "Iranian handlers" who wanted to assassinate a former military ruler and gather intelligence about locations frequented by Americans and Israelis. A suicide bombing in Maiduguri killed three civilians and injured soldiers.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Nigeria a suicide bombing hit a crowded market in the heart of Maiduguri and engulfed stalls in flames.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 23, In in northeastern Nigeria at least six people were killed in an attack in Ngalba, Yobe state. Local residents suspected the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Nigeria concrete and other structures in "a densely populated area" of Lagos were razed to the ground. On Aug 12 Amnesty International published satellite images and said 9,000 people have lost homes and livelihoods and thousands more were threatened in the slum destroyed by armed police and bulldozers.
(AP, 8/12/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Nigeria foreigners working for a construction company escaped a kidnapping attempt that killed 2 police officers in Taraba state.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Nigeria several bombs exploded in Maiduguri, which is hosting a meeting of opposition political parties.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, denied in a newly released video any peace talks with the government.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria fighters linked to the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram attacked a military base, killing at least 20 people in Monguno. A military spokesman said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Nigeria an attack by the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram killed eight people in Gwoza, Borno state.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said its Nigerian subsidiary lost some 150,000 barrels of oil a day over several days in late February after safety systems shut down its Nembe Creek Trunkline. Shell said the shutdowns came after thieves cut into the line.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 9, Ansaru, a breakaway Islamic extremist group in Nigeria, said it killed 7 foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria on Feb 16. Those kidnapped included three Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines — all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 12, Nigeria pardoned former Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former political benefactor of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan. He was convicted of stealing millions of dollars while serving as Bayelsa state governor (1999-2005).
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Nigeria a strike at Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., halted flights "temporarily."
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Nigeria's aviation ministry asked Dana Air to suspend all flights. A Dana Air crash on June 3 left more than 160 people dead, leading the carrier to lose its license. It resumed its operations two months ago. The suspension came days after another major airline halted its operations over a strike. The general suspension on Dana was lifted March 18, but one plane remained grounded.
(AP, 3/17/13)(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nigeria at least 41 people died in a suicide car bombing that struck a bus station in Kano. The explosion came hours after another attack blamed on Boko Haram killed a teacher and injured three students in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 21, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (82) died in Boston. His novels included “Things Fall Apart" (1958). “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Achebe's corpse arrived May 22 in his native Anambra state.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.90)(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Nigeria gunmen attacked the remote town of Ganye in the northeast freeing 120 inmates. The assailants also attacked a bank and a drinking spot killing 25 people.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Nigeria a British businessman was kidnapped in Victoria Island, a part of Lagos. Initial reports said the victim was an American. The British national was released on March 27.
(SFC, 3/25/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/26/13)(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 27, In central Nigeria an assault on a village in the Riyom local government area killed 28 people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 28, In central Nigeria an attack in the Bokkos local government area killed 18 civilians. The military killed six while trying to repel attackers in the assault.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 29, In central Nigeria attackers in the Barkin Ladi area raided a village called Bokkos and killed nine people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 31, Nigeria's military said soldiers have attacked a home in Kano believed to harbor Islamic extremists. The assault killed 14 people. At least 19 people were reported killed after gunmen, believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders, raided Ataka village in Kaduna state.
(AP, 3/31/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Apr 3, In central Nigeria 18 people were killed in a head-on collision between two buses near Gwagwalada, a town outside of Abuja.
(AP, 4/3/13)
2013 Apr 5, In southwest Nigeria at least 36 people were killed in a bus crash in which a gasoline tanker exploded in Edo state.
(AP, 4/6/13)
2013 Apr 6, In central Nigeria at least 11 people were killed in ongoing fighting between Christian and Muslim villagers in the region.
(AP, 4/7/13)
2013 Apr 9, Nigerian authorities arrested 251 suspected illegal immigrants at a busy market. Authorities were launching new immigration raids in the country as it faced threats from Islamic extremists.
(AP, 4/15/13)
2013 Apr 11, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists attacked a police station, killing four officers in a gun battle in Babangida, Yobe state.
(AP, 4/11/13)
2013 Apr 15, In central Nigeria leaders in two villages said at least 10 people were killed over the weekend in clashes between the Jukun people of Plateau state, a Muslim ethnic group, and the Tarok people, who are Christian.
(AP, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 16, Nigerian prosecutors filed criminal charges against journalists Tony Amokeodo and Chibuzo Ukaibe over a story they published on alleged plans by the nation's presidency to disrupt opposition parties. The charges are a sign of growing government pressure on the media.
(AP, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 17, Nigeria formed a panel that will create an amnesty program for Islamic extremists to try to quell a bloody guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings that's killed hundreds of people across its north.
(AP, 4/17/13)
2013 Apr 18, In Nigeria fighting erupted between security forces and Boko Haram extremists in the northeastern fishing town of Baga.
(Econ, 4/27/13, p.47)
2013 Apr 21, Nigerian officials said fighting between the military and Boko Haram Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in Baga, a fishing community in the nation's far northeast. An attack that began April 19 saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians. A day later the Red Cross said 187 people had been killed.
(AP, 4/21/13)(AP, 4/22/13)
2013 Apr 22, The Nigerian Communications Commission started a number exchange between the country's four main carriers, allowing customers to keep their number and switch carriers every 90 days for free.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 24, In northeastern Nigeria at least 7 people were killed in a shootout between soldiers and Islamic extremists in the fishing village of Gashua in Yobe state. Another attack killed four people in Bama.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 Apr 25, Pirates off of Nigeria attacked the German-operated “City of Xiamen" container ship. The ship’s 5 Pole and Russian crew members were released on May 11.
(http://gcaptain.com/nigerian-pirates-release-city-of-xiamen-crew/)
2013 Apr 29, A Nigerian military official said at least 17 people have been killed in fighting between Islamic extremists and security forces in Bama, Borno state.
(AP, 4/30/13)
2013 May 3, In Nigeria at least 39 people were killed in ethnic violence that pitted the Jukun people against the Hausa Fulani in the rural town of Wukari, Taraba state.
(AP, 5/4/13)
2013 May 6, In Nigeria two pilots were killed when their Alpha jet fighter went down 37 miles (60 km) west of Niamey.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 7, In Nigeria’s northeast coordinated attacks by Islamic extremists armed with heavy machine guns killed at least 42 people in Bama, Borno state. The military said two soldiers died in an attack on army barracks in Bama along with some 10 insurgents. Extremists took some women and children hostage in Bama. Fighters also raided a federal prison during their assault killing 14 guards and freeing 105 inmates. In central Nigeria an ethnic militia killed at least 30 police officers who launched a raid to try and arrest them in Alakio, Nasarawa state.
(AP, 5/7/13)(AP, 5/8/13)(AP, 5/9/13)(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 7, Scientists said Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is destroying entire crops of cassava and has spread out of East Africa into the heart of the continent. It is attacking plants as far south as Angola and now threatens to move west into Nigeria, the world's biggest producer of the potato-like root that helps feed 500 million Africans.
(AP, 5/7/13)
2013 May 10, In Nigeria workers barricaded the front of ThisDay newspapers in Lagos, hoping to force publisher Nduka Obaigbena into paying them as much as four months' worth of back salaries due to them. The crisis hit a man politically connected to the nation's ruling elite.
(AP, 5/10/13)
2013 May 13, A Nigerian federal judge ruled that Iranian Azim Aghajani and his accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, must serve a five-year prison sentence. The two men were arrested after authorities in Lagos' Apapa Port found a container full of 107 mm mortars, rifle rounds and other weapons in 2010.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 13, In Nigeria Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, in a newly released video, said his group has started kidnapping women and children as part of its bloody guerrilla campaign against the country's government.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 14, Nigeria's Pres. Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency allowing soldiers to arrest people at will and take over buildings suspected to house extremists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. An official in the Kaduna state said gunmen armed with assault rifles and suspected to be Hausa-Fulani cattle herders killed 11 people in a village there. In Benue state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed on Hausa-Fulani cattle herders there killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 5/14/13)(AP, 5/18/13)
2013 May 16, Soldiers in northeast Nigeria shelled suspected camps of Islamic extremists in the first military action of a new offensive against the insurgents, killing at least 21 people in the Sambisa Forest Reserve. In a firefight in the town of Daura near the Niger border, two government soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded while two members of Boko Haram were killed. Three other Boko Haram fighters died when their vehicle crashed while attempting to flee the scene.
(AP, 5/17/13)
2013 May 18, Nigeria's military declared a 24-hour curfew in several neighborhoods of Maiduguri as its campaign against Islamic extremists in the region continued.
(AP, 5/18/13)
2013 May 19, Nigeria's military said its offensive against insurgents in the country's restive northeast has killed at least 14 suspected Islamic extremists and three soldiers.
(AP, 5/19/13)
2013 May 24, Nigeria's military said it has rescued 3 women and 6 children taken hostage by Islamic extremists after a May 7 attack on a police barracks in Bama. A woman and 2 children remained missing.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 25, Gunmen boarded the fuel tanker MT Matrix I, some 40 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria's Bayelsa state, taking a number of the crew hostage.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 26, The Jascon 4, a tug boat working on behalf of Chevron Corp., went down off the coast of Nigeria's Delta state. 12 sailors were missing.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 30, Nigeria's House of Representatives voted to ban gay marriage and outlaw any groups actively supporting gay rights, endorsing a measure that also calls for 10-year prison sentences for any "public show" of affection by a same-sex couple.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 May 31, Nigeria's military and security forces said they've released 58 women and children previously held as suspected fighters in the Islamic insurgency now challenging the nation's government.
(AP, 6/1/13)
2013 Jun 7, In Nigeria vigilante Civilian JTF members found themselves a target of a suspected Boko Haram attack. Gunmen hid their assault rifles inside a coffin and opened fire on them in Maiduguri. At least 13 people were killed in that attack. The group started taking up arms after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe state.
(AP, 6/12/13)
2013 Jun 13, In Nigeria extremists sought out the Rev. Jacob Kwiza, a retired pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria. They found him picking mangoes in his father's garden in the Gwoza hills, about 150 km (90 miles) from Maiduguri. The fighters ordered Kwiza to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam on pain of death. When he repeatedly refused, they slit his throat.
(AP, 6/26/13)(http://allafrica.com/stories/201306170737.html)
2013 Jun 17, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram militants opened fire on students taking exams in Maiduguri. 9 students were killed. The attack came hours after extremists attacked the Government Secondary School, a boarding school for seniors in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing 7 high school seniors and 2 teachers. The military said 2 soldiers and 2 jihadists also were killed in what developed into a five-hour shootout.. Suspected extremists also gunned down a group of fisherman on a river bank in Alau, 20 km outside Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/18/13)(AP, 6/26/13)
2013 Jun 18, Nigerian officials warned that Islamic militants have driven 19,000 rice farmers from their land in the northeast, while a military crackdown prevented thousands more from working their fields, raising fears of imminent food shortages.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 20, Shell Nigeria said an explosion and fire caused by oil theft have forced it to shut down its Trans Niger Pipeline that carries 150,000 barrels of crude a day.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jun 30, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead two civilians overnight and then used explosives to free 175 inmates from a prison in the southern town of Akure.
(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jul 2, Nigerian police said they have recaptured 54 of 175 prisoners who escaped on June 30 from Olokuta prison in the southwest town of Akure after it was attacked by gunmen.
(Reuters, 7/2/13)
2013 Jul 3, In Nigeria Maj. Gen. Henry Ayoola said the military went on the offensive after 28 civilians were killed last week. He said soldiers killed more than 100 gunmen blamed for ethno-religious clashes started by cattle rustling in central Nigeria.
(AP, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, In Nigeria suspected Islamist gunmen doused a school dormitory and set it ablaze as students slept. 30 people were killed including 29 students and a teacher in the boarding school in Mamudo village, Yobe state.
(Reuters, 7/6/13)(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.A6)(AP, 9/29/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Nigeria gunmen fired on the premises of Nigerian-owned but Lebanese-run construction firm Setraco in Benin city, killing two soldiers, wounding a third and seizing a Lebanese construction manager. The manager was released on July 25.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 9, A Nigerian court sentenced 4 of 8 alleged Islamic extremists to life in prison for two bombings that killed 19 people last year. The eight had been found guilty of masterminding and carrying out an April 8, 2012, bombing on an electoral commission office that killed 16 people and a July 10, 2012, bombing of a church that killed three.
(AP, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 10, In China Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the signing of accords between their governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 11, In northwest Nigeria security forces engaged Islamic extremists in a five-hour gunbattle that killed one suspect in Sokoto city.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 14, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Nigeria for an African Union summit on HIV/AIDS as his hosts chose to ignore an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 16, In Nigeria a British national was kidnapped shortly after arriving at Lagos airport. On July 22 a police superintendent said police officers have "safely and effectively" rescued the kidnapped Briton as well as two Chinese businessmen.
(Reuters, 7/19/13)(AP, 7/22/13)
2013 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria mobile phone services returned in Yobe state, ending two months of signal blackout after a state of emergency was declared in areas struck by Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 27, Niger and Nigerian intelligence agents arrested a Nigerian terrorist leader in a border area. His identify or group was not revealed.
(AP, 8/1/13)
2013 Jul 28, In Nigeria vigilante leader Aliko Musa said that his group stormed villages over the weekend to hunt Boko Haram members. He said they retaliated with big fire power and that 5 vigilantes and 20 civilians.
(AP, 7/28/13)
2013 Jul 29, In Nigeria multiple explosions at a bar and entertainment area in a Christian quarter of the northern and mainly Muslim city of Kano killed at least 27 people.
(AP, 7/30/13)(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Jul 30, Nigerian police said they have arrested 42 suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram in Lagos and the neighboring southwest state of Ogun. Extremists killed 8 people in an attack targeting teachers and Muslim clerics in the northeast.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Jul, In Nigeria police in Lagos arrested a gang of 10 kidnappers.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)
2013 Aug 4, In northeast Nigeria at least 35 people were killed in two separate gun battles between security forces and Islamist sect Boko Haram in Borno state. 12 soldiers and 7 police officers were also killed in the attacks. Momodu Bama, 2nd in command of Boko Haram, was killed along with 17 other members of the sect during clashes in Bama.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)(AP, 8/10/13)(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 11, In northeastern Nigeria an attack on a mosque by suspected Islamic extremists killed 47 worshippers at Konduga town. Another 12 civilians died in a simultaneous attack outside Maiduguri.
(AP, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 12, Nigeria became the first African country to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty marking "resolute and unyielding" efforts to deny arms to terrorists, pirates and bandits.
(AP, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 14, The Nigerian military said its soldiers have killed two top commanders of the Islamist sect Boko Haram during a four-hour gun battle in northeast Adamawa state. Police said Mohammad Bama and Abubakar Zakariya Yau, arrested last week, died in a gun battle that erupted after they took army officers to show them their hideout in Mubi. Several other sect members were also killed.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 15, In Nigeria security forces repelled gunmen who attacked the police station and a military post in Damboa, 85 km (50 miles) from Borno state capital Maiduguri. Other militants gunned down villagers and firebombed about 20 homes.
(AP, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 19, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamist militants killed 44 people when they attacked Demba village in Borno state.
(Reuters, 8/23/13)
2013 Aug 20, In northern Nigeria suspected robbers in vehicles with sophisticated weapons targeted a police station and outgunned the officers there. At least 2 police officers were killed.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Aug 21, In northeast Nigeria Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked the Gwoza Police Station, killing 2 officers but losing 7 of its members.
(Reuters, 8/21/13)
2013 Aug 23, In Benin kidnappers snatched Mike Ozekhome, a Nigerian human rights lawyer. He was held and tortured for 20 days before being released During his abduction 4 policemen who tried to squash the kidnappers’ mission were killed in a gun battle.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)(http://tinyurl.com/o4zfhll)
2013 Aug 24, In Nigeria gunmen killed 4 policemen who attempted to prevent the abduction of a prominent lawyer on a road near Benin.
(AFP, 8/25/13)
2013 Aug 25, Nigerian Islamists killed 14 pro-government youth vigilantes in an attack on the northeastern town of Bama.
(Reuters, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 28, A Nigerian court granted a request for one of its citizens, Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi (32), to be extradited to the United States to face charges of assisting the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/28/13)
2013 Aug 30, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic sect members ambushed and killed at least 24 members of a youth vigilante group who were on a mission to find and fight the sect.
(AP, 8/31/13)
2013 Sep 5, In Nigeria gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists stormed the northeastern town of Gajiran, opening fire in a market and killing 15 people.
(AFP, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 6, In Nigeria Anglican Archbishop Ignatius Kattey and his wife were kidnapped in Port Harcourt. His wife was soon released.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.57)
2013 Sep 8, In northeast Nigeria an attack by suspected Islamic sect members on Benisheik, a town guarded by a vigilante group, killed at least 18 people and injured 17.
(AP, 9/8/13)
2013 Sep 10, Nigeria’s air force bombed two of Boko Haram's camps in a remote and sandy region of Borno state. Soldiers then pursued fleeing insurgents, killing 10 in a gunfight.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 11, A Nigerian spokesman said Pres. President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked nine ministers in his first major cabinet reshuffle since winning an election more than two years ago. Gunmen with explosives and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a police station in Ga’anda village, Adamawa state, killing two officers and injuring another.
(Reuters, 9/11/13)(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 17, In Nigeria extremists disguised in military fatigues attacked in about 20 pickup trucks and two light tanks firing anti-aircraft guns that overwhelmed soldiers armed only with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Borno state. Returning villagers the next day found the bodies of 143 civilians killed by the extremists in Benisheik. Two soldiers and three police officers also were killed.
(AP, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 18, Nigeria's military said it had killed 150 insurgents, including a commander, in an operation against Islamist group Boko Haram in which 16 of its own forces were also killed. Army spokesman Brigadier General Ibrahim Attahiru was quoted in local newspapers as denying a story on Nigeria's Premium Times website that Boko Haram had killed 40 soldiers in an ambush in the same area.
(Reuters, 9/18/13)
2013 Sep 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram insurgents killed at least 16 people in an attack on travelers plying a highway from Maiduguri to Bamboa.
(Reuters, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists opened fire on security agents conducting an operation near a residence for lawmakers in Abuja, starting a gunfight that caused deaths and injuries.
(AFP, 9/20/13)
2013 Sep 26, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic militants armed with automatic rifles and explosives killed a pastor and his son and torched a church. The attackers also killed the village head at Dorawa, Yobe state.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms. As many as 50 students were killed in the assault that began at about 1 am in rural Gujba, Yobe state.
(AP, 9/29/13)
2013 Sep 30, Nigerian fighter jets bombed camps belonging to suspected Islamist militants in the northeast in response to a massacre of students at an agricultural college.
(Reuters, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 3, In Nigeria a chartered airplane nosedived into the ground and burst into flames meters from tanks of aviation fuel, killing 11 people shortly after taking off from Lagos. The plane was carrying mourners and the body of former Ondo state Gov. Olusegun Agagu, who died on Sep 13. The next day Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority suspended all the operations of Lagos-based Associated Airline.
(AP, 10/3/13)(AP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 5, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants lured the faithful to a mosque then gunned them down. The gunmen killed at least 7 people before being attacked by soldiers guarding Damboa village. 15 attackers were reported killed.
(AP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 9, Nigeria's military raided a bomb factory where Islamic extremists were plotting attacks on the northern city of Kano. At the same time Abubakar Sheka, the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network, threatened in a video more assaults "soon" using heavy weapons he said were seized in battles against the Nigerian military.
(AP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 9, Shell Nigeria said new leaks have forced it to close the Trans-Niger Pipeline that carries 150,000 barrels of crude daily, 10 days after the pipeline was reopened following repairs for leaks.
(AP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 10, In Nigeria armed gunmen, suspected to be cattle rustlers, killed 10 members of one family before six of the gunmen were shot dead by security forces in central Plateau state.
(AFP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 11, In central Nigeria 17 people died and 10 others were injured when the buses in which they were travelling collided with a tanker lorry.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 15, Amnesty International said hundreds of people are dying in military detention as Nigeria's security forces crack down on an Islamic uprising in the northeast. More than 950 people died in military custody in the first six months of this year. The rights group said said some people are shot outright, some starve and others suffocate to death.
(AP, 10/15/13)
2013 Oct 17, The UN General Assembly elected five new members to the Security Council. The uncontested seats included Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 21, Nigerian troops killed 37 Boko Haram Islamist militants in combined air and ground strikes on one of their northeast bases.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 21, Nigerian officials said cholera has killed 50 people in the northwest in the past week.
(AFP, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 23, Pirates near the coast of Nigeria attacked a commercial ship, named C-Retriever, and kidnapped two US mariners.
(AP, 10/24/13)
2013 Oct 24, Nigeria's army reportedly killed suspected Boko Haram fighters in a raid on insurgent camps in restive Borno state. The attack continued for a 2nd day and bodies in military uniform were soon brought to the morgue in Damaturu. At least 95 militants, 23 soldiers and 8 police officers were killed.
(AP, 10/25/13)(AFP, 10/28/13)(AP, 10/29/13)
2013 Oct 31, In Nigeria dozens of Boko Haram gunmen riding on motorcycles and in pickup trucks stormed Bama town in Borno state, killing 27 people and razing some 300 homes.
(AFP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 1, Nigeria formally scrapped its inefficient and graft-ridden electricity firm and handed its assets to private investors in a bid expected to improve power supplies.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 2, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamic militants attacked a wedding convoy and killed more than 30 people including the groom.
(AP, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 2, In eastern Nigeria at least 24 people died during a stampede at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Uke, Anambra state.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 4, Nigeria's army shot dead 7 suspected Boko Haram fighters during a raid in a northeastern area where the Islamist rebels have killed dozens in the last week.
(AFP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 6, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan asked lawmakers to extend a state of emergency declared in the northeast in May for an additional six months, saying the Islamist insurgency had not yet been contained.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 7, Nigerian lawmakers approved a request by the country's president to prolong emergency rule in the restive northeast by a further six months to try to quell a bloody Islamist insurgency.
(AFP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 9, In central Nigeria gunmen attacked five farming villages in Benue State. Police the next day said Fulani cattle herdsmen killing six Tiv people and burned many houses. Local media said 36 people were killed in the mayhem. In the north shootouts killed 2 soldiers and 5 suspected Islamic extremist insurgents in Kano.
(AFP, 11/10/13)(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 10, Spanish police said they have busted a gang of 25 Nigerians who were engaged in human trafficking for sexual exploitation, Internet fraud and money laundering.
(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, The US State Department said it has designated two Nigerian militant groups, Boko Haram and Ansaru, as foreign terrorist organizations to help US and other law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute suspects associated with the two extremist networks.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 14, Nigerian forces reportedly killed 9 militants in the Damboa region of Borno state.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 15, A Nigerian court sentenced suspected Islamist Umaru Umaru Mustapha (34) to life imprisonment for the bombing of a complex housing several newspapers that killed four people in the April 2012 bombing in the northern city of Kaduna. Nigerian troops said they had killed 20 suspected members of Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in a gunfight in the country's northeast.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 21, In northeastern Nigeria militants screaming "God is great!" killed at least 12 civilians and set homes ablaze as they rampaged through Sandiya village in an area that has been attacked several times.
(AP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 26, Gunmen in central Nigeria's Plateau state killed 37 people in a pre-dawn raid. The area has been gripped by a decade-long sectarian conflict between Muslim herdsmen and Christian agriculturalists.
(AFP, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 27, In Nigeria Islamic police shouted "God is great" as an earthmover shattered 240,000 bottles of beer in a widening crackdown in the northern city of Kano. Alcohol was banned under Shariah law imposed here in 2001 but authorities had turned a blind eye to its consumption in hotels and the Sabon Gari Christian quarter.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 27, Five key governors said they have defected to Nigeria’s new coalition opposition in a blow to President Goodluck Jonathan’s governing party and its chances for re-election in 2015.
(AP, 11/27/13)
2013 Nov 28, Nigeria's government stepped in to stop a long-running strike by university lecturers, ordering an immediate end to the dispute and vowing to sack teachers who refused to cooperate. 17 people died in a an attack when gunmen in pick-up trucks torched more than 100 shops and vehicles in the Sabon Gari area of the Damboa district. 7 fishermen were ambushed and killed in another attack in Baga, a fishing community on Lake Chad.
(AFP, 11/28/13)(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 2, In northeastern Nigeria hundreds of Islamic militants in trucks and a stolen armored personnel carrier attacked an air force base on the outskirts of Maiduguri before dawn. 24 insurgents were reported killed along with 2 air force personnel. Authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew following the attack.
(AP, 12/2/13)(Reuters, 12/2/13)(SFC, 12/3/13, p.A3)
2013 Dec 3, Nigerian university lecturers vowed to press on with their five-month strike over pay and conditions, on the eve of a government ultimatum to go back to work or be sacked.
(AFP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 4, Nigerian police said that they raided a home and freed 16 pregnant girls and young women allegedly being forced to have babies to be sold.
(AFP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 7, The Italian foreign ministry said Marcello Rizzo (55) has been kidnapped in the Niger felta of Nigeria. Rizzo was said to have disappeared several days earlier.
(Reuters, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 13, Nigerian air raids in the northeast reportedly killed scores of fighters attending the burial of fellow insurgents.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 17, Greek authorities said an oil tanker came under armed attack overnight about 35 nautical miles south of Nigeria, and the ship's Ukrainian captain and Greek first engineer have been kidnapped.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 18, Nigeria's faction-ridden ruling party lost its majority in the House of Representatives as 37 legislators defected to a new opposition coalition, in a major blow to President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 20, In Nigeria a Federal High Court sentenced Kabiru Sokoto (30), the alleged mastermind of a 2011 Christmas Day bombing of a Catholic Church, to life in prison for "facilitating the commission of terrorist acts" in northern Sokoto state between 2007 and 2012, including last year's bombing of the police headquarters in Sokoto city.
(AP, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamist sect fighters, armed with anti-aircraft guns and grenade launchers, attacked a barracks in Bama in the volatile northeast and battled soldiers for several hours.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 23, Nigeria's military reportedly killed at least 50 Islamist rebels fleeing towards Cameroon in a battle in which 15 of its own soldiers and five civilians also died.
(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 28, In Nigeria few voters straggled to polls to elect local councils in northeastern Yobe state battling Islamic militants who say democracy in corruption-riddled Nigeria is an enemy of the people. The opposition All Progressives Congress swept every seat in the Yobe state elections. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead 8 people and injured five more in an attack on a wedding party in Tashan Alade village, Borno state. Nigerian government forces reportedly killed at least 56 Islamist Boko Haram fighters in a combined air and ground offensive in the northeast Alafa forest.
(AP, 12/28/13)(AP, 12/30/13)(AFP, 12/30/13)(Reuters, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists killed four people in the Christian Kwajffa village, Borno state.
(AP, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec, In Nigeria two private letters to Pres. Jonathan were leaked. One by central bank governor Lamido Sanusi accused the state oil company of failing to account for $50 billion in oil sales. The 2nd by former president Obasanjo slammed Pres. Jonathan’s poor performance and told him not to stand for re-election.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.78)
2013 Nigeria created the 7th Division to defend Maiduguri, but it was poorly equipped, disillusioned and dwindled due to desertion and losses.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.47)
2013 Nigeria’s population stood at about 170 million.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.55)
2014 Jan 6, In Nigeria gunmen shot and killed at least 30 people, burned down 40 homes and made off with scores of cattle from a mainly Christian village in Plateau state. Muslim Fulani herdsmen were blamed.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 6, In Nigeria a dozen men were formally charged by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission with belonging to a gay club and having received funding from the United States for an apparent membership drive. Four were convicted on March 6. Seven were granted bail on March 11. A Christian suspect awaited his case heard before a secular court.
(AFP, 3/28/14)
2014 Jan 7, In Nigeria gunmen shouting "God is great" fired into a mosque in Kwankwaso village, Kano state. 3 people were killed and 12 wounded.
(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 9, Nigeria's military reportedly killed as many as 38 Boko Haram fighters early today during counter-insurgency operations in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 10, Nigeria's military confirmed that it was to release 167 people who were detained as part of counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram militants in three northeast states.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 13, A spokesman said Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013 banning gay marriage and same-sex partnerships. The law also criminalizes homosexual associations, societies and meetings.
(AFP, 1/13/14)(SFC, 1/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 14, Local and international groups fighting AIDS warned that a new Nigerian law criminalizing same-sex marriage and gay organizations will jeopardize the fight against the deadly disease. Human rights activists reported that dozens of gay men were being arrested in northern Nigeria in an apparent response to the law.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, In northeaster Nigeria a car bomb exploded at a military post in a Maiduguri, causing pandemonium with blood-spattered bystanders running away and vehicles colliding as drivers rushed to flee. 19 people were killed.
(AP, 1/14/14)(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 15, Civilians from the Nigerian town of Banki fled across the border to Cameroon to escape heavy gunfire. Cameroonian forces responded to repel Boko Haram attackers who also tried to cross over. One woman in Cameroon was killed and five other shooting victims were taken to hospitals.
(AP, 1/16/14)
2014 Jan 16, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan replaced his entire military leadership without explanation as he struggles with an Islamist insurgency and political crisis within his ruling party.
(Reuters, 1/16/14)
2014 Jan 20, In Nigeria Boko Haram suspects tracked a man to his house in Wulgo, killed him and injured another man who was hospitalized.
(AP, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 21, In Nigeria suspected Islamist extremists attacked a farming settlement in northeast Borno state, killing 10 people and razing homes.
(AP, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 22, In northern Nigeria thousands of protesters threw stones into the Shariah court in Bauchi city, urging the speedy convictions and executions of 11 men arrested for belonging to gay organizations. Suspected Islamist extremists attacked another farming settlement in northeast Borno state, killing another 8 people and razing homes.
(AP, 1/22/14)(AP, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 26, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists used explosives to attack Kawuri village in the northeast, killing 52 people and razing more than 300 homes. Boko Haram gunmen fired on worshippers during a service at the Wada Chakawa village Roman Catholic church in neighboring Adamawa state. At least 26 people were killed.
(AP, 1/27/14)(AFP, 1/28/14)(SFC, 1/28/14, pA2)
2014 Jan 31, In Nigeria gunmen ransacked the mainly Christian village of Sabon Garin Yamdula in Adamawa state, killing a pastor before vigilante youths firing guns set them to flight and soldiers later deployed. A bus set off an improved explosive device on the highway through nearby Kuthra village, Borno state, killing 7 passengers.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 6, Nigeria's secret police said that it was holding Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, leader of the outlawed Niger Delta Volunteer Force, in the latest crackdown on potential trouble before elections next year.
(AFP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 11, In northeast Nigeria gunmen from Islamist sect Boko Haram killed 51 people in an attack on Konduga, Borno state.
(Reuters, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 12, Nigeria said it would open a probe into claims of state-sponsored killings dating back to the era of military rule, raising hopes that perpetrators will finally be brought to book.
(AFP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 13, Nigeria's Senate said it is ordering a forensic audit to track down billions of missing petrodollars after the Senate Committee heard that the amount of unaccounted petrodollars has grown to $20 billion. The World Bank has estimated that at least $400 billion has gone missing from government coffers since independence.
(AP, 2/14/14)(Econ, 2/15/14, p.43)
2014 Feb 13, In Nigeria a mob armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, screaming that they were going to "cleanse" their neighborhood of gay people, dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them in Gishiri, a shantytown with mud roads near central Abuja.
(AP, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Nigeria gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram Islamists reportedly killed as many as 63 people, mostly Christians, in Izghe village, Borno state.
(AFP, 2/16/14)(SFC, 2/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Feb 17, Niger security officials said they have arrested about 20 Boko Haram Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria who were suspected of planning attacks in Niger's south east border town of Diffa.
(Reuters, 2/17/14)
2014 Feb 19, In northeast Nigeria an attack on Bama town by suspected Islamic extremists left 115 people dead.
(AP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 23, Nigeria’s military said it has sealed its northern border with Cameroon in an effort to shut out Islamist militants using its neighbor as a launch pad for attacks.
(Reuters, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 25, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen from the Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school early today, killing 59 people, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground in Buni Yadi, Yobe state.
(AFP, 2/25/14)(Reuters, 2/26/14)
2014 Feb 26, Nigerian soldiers abandoned checkpoints and fled into the bush, leaving five northeastern villages and a town at the mercy of Islamic extremists who killed at least 33 people and firebombed a theological college in overnight attacks that lasted hours.
(AP, 2/27/14)(SFC, 2/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 27, French Pres. Francois Hollande arrived in Abuja and said France stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nigeria in its battle against Boko Haram. He arrived as a guest of honor for celebrations to mark 100 years since Nigeria's unification.
(AP, 2/27/14)
2014 Mar 1, In Nigeria twin car bombs at a bustling city marketplace in Maiduguri blasted buildings to rubble and tore apart bodies the same night an attack on the Mainok farming village razed every thatched-roof hut. At least 90 people were reported killed.
(AP, 3/2/14)
2014 Mar 2, In Nigeria 32 people were killed in an attack on the northern village of Mafa, after soldiers fled the area, outgunned by suspected Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 3/3/14)
2014 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants killed 3 policemen in Katsina. The police were killed while pursuing four gunmen on motorcycles who had attacked a checkpoint.
(SFC, 3/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 4, Nigeria said it has released fuel from its reserves to ease a crippling shortage that has caused long queues of vehicles at petrol stations across the country. Shell closed its Forcados export terminal following an under-sea pipeline leak. The major installation held capacity to handle 400,000 barrels of crude a day.
(AFP, 3/4/14)(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 6, In northern Nigeria four young men were convicted of gay sex and whipped publicly as punishment in an Islamic court in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/6/14)
2014 Mar 11, In northern Nigeria gunmen on motorbikes began attacking Marabar Kindo village in Katsina state. Fulani herders were blamed for the attacks on Hausa farmers that left over 100 dead.
(SFC, 3/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 12, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a forensic audit by international firms into some $20 billion allegedly missing from petroleum sales, following weeks of public outrage and demands by a Senate committee and the finance minister.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 13, In northern Nigeria attackers returned to Marabar Kindo village in Katsina state and gunned down another 7 villagers.
(SFC, 3/14/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 14, The Nigerian Navy said it has destroyed 260 illegal oil refineries and burned 100,000 tons of contraband fuel, but critics say this targeting of small-time criminals fails to confront the biggest culprits in oil thefts — the politically-connected criminal cartels who sell on the international market.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 14, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists attacked the Giwa military base in Maiduguri and freed dozens of insurgents from custody. A military counter attack left some 500 people dead.
(AFP, 3/14/14)(SFC, 3/15/14, p.A6)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.49)
2014 Mar 15, In central Nigeria some 40 assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed the villages of Angwan Gata, Chenshyi and Angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torching their homes on Kaduna state. The overnight attacks left at least 100 dead. Local residents, mostly Christians, blamed the bloodshed on Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Nigeria at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured in Abuja after thousands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a government recruitment drive at the national stadium.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AFP, 2/23/16)
2014 Mar 20, In northeast Nigeria an explosion at Ngurosoye village market near hideouts of Islamic extremists killed 29 people. Three more died of their wounds over the next few days.
(AP, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 21, Nigerian police raided a home near Lagos where eight pregnant girls, most under age 20, were staying with plans to sell each of their newborns for nearly two thousand dollars.
(AFP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 22, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants detonated a bomb late today in a crowded northeastern marketplace killing at least 20 people in Bama, Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions in Maiduguri killed 11 people, including 5 policemen who were believed to have been targeted.
(AFP, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 25, In central Nigeria police recovered 7 bodies following an attack on Agena village, Benue state, in renewed violence between herdsmen and farmers.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 28, Nigeria’s military said they have arrested two Britons and 10 local citizens on charges of trying to bribe a military officer to facilitate oil theft. Security sources have said the sheer scale of oil theft would not be possible without systematic collusion by various security agencies.
(Reuters, 3/28/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Nigeria 21 detainees, reportedly suspected Boko Haram insurgents, were killed during an attempted jailbreak after one inmate reportedly overpowered a guard and seized his weapon.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 31, A Nigerian court ruled that lawmakers who defected to the main opposition coalition in December must vacate their seats. This was a victory for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of what will be a closely fought election in February 2015.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Mar, Lagos, Nigeria, (population 21 million) disgorged about 10,000 metric tons of waste per day. Municipal government were reckoned to collect 40% of this. Only 13% of recyclable material was being salvaged.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.42)
2014 Apr 1, A Nigerian Shariah court freed two men accused of gay sex and belonging to a homosexual club, saying the prosecution failed to prove its case. The two were among 12 detained in northern Bauchi state in January.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 3, Nigerian troops reportedly killed 32 Fulani tribesmen in the Keana local government area central Nasarawa state. Defense officials denied the charge.
(AFP, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 3, Nigeria’s Nollywood was reported to knock out some 2,000 titles a year, making it the third-largest earner in the movie world, after Bollywood and Hollywood. The $250-million industry employed more than a million people.
(AP, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 5, In northern Nigeria gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen stormed a meeting in Yar Galadima, Zamfara state. The clashes between suspected Fulani cattle rustlers mounted on motorbikes and local youth vigilantes left 72 people dead.
(AFP, 4/6/14)(Reuters, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 5, In Nigeria Umar Sani (35) hosted a small wedding celebration at his home in the small Kano village of Unguwar Yansoro. Wasila Tasi'u was 13 when she married Umar Sani. Prosecutors later claimed that Tasi'u prepared food and laced it with rat poison before serving it to her guests. Four people, including Sani, died within hours of eating the meal. On June 9, 2015, a judge ordered Wasila Tasi'u to be released from juvenile detention.
(AFP, 5/20/15)(AP, 6/10/15)
2014 Apr 10, Nigeria police said child bride Wasila Tasi'u (13), forced into marriage last week, killed the groom, Umaru Sani (35), and three of his friends with a poisoned meal on April 5 at the wedding party in the village of Unguwar Yansoro village. On May 20, 2015, prosecutors withdrew murder charges against the girl.
(AP, 4/10/14)(AFP, 5/20/15)
2014 Apr 11, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed 19 people, including 6 college teachers, over the last 24 hours in three separate attacks in the troubled northeastern Borno state.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 14, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a bus station during the morning rush hour in Abuja, killing at least 72 people and wounding 164 in a bombing that marked the bloodiest terrorist attack ever in the capital. Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped more than 100 girls from a secondary school in northeastern Borno state.
(AP, 4/14/14)(AP, 4/15/14)(SFC, 4/15/14, p.A4)(AFP, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 15, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped 129 girls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School in northeastern Borno state. 20 soon escaped, but 109 remained missing. A military spokesman the next day said all but 8 of the girls were freed, but the school principal said the girls were still missing. The number of kidnapped girls was later raised to over 270.
(AFP, 4/15/14)(AP, 4/17/14)(SFC, 4/18/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 Apr 16, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic militants struck for a fourth time in three days, killing 18 people in Wala, Gwoza district.
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 19, Nigerian officials said another 14 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast have escaped, leaving 85 missing.
(AFP, 4/19/14)
2014 Apr 21, In Nigeria parents of kidnapped girls told the governor of Borno state that officials would not listen to them when they drew up their list of names of missing children and that the total reached 234.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 26, In central Nigeria violence erupted when a militia from the Eggon tribe attacked the Gwandara village of Egan following a dispute over farmland. At least 34 people were left dead with homes and barns torched.
(AFP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr 30, In Nigeria a civil society group reported that scores of girls and young women kidnapped from a school are being forced to marry their Islamic extremist abductors.
(AP, 4/30/14)
2014 May 1, In Nigeria a car bomb in Abuja killed at least 19 people with 66 wounded.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)
2014 May 1, Nigerian police said the number of kidnapped schoolgirls missing has risen to 276, up by more than 30 from a previous estimate. The actual number abducted by Islamic extremists on April 14 was more than 300. The number of girls and young women who have escaped also rose to 53.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 4, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered top security chiefs and officials to secure the safe release of 223 schoolgirls abducted three weeks ago by suspected Islamists.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls from a village late today near one of their strongholds. After leaving Warabe the gunmen stormed the Wala village, five km. (three miles) away, and abducted three more girls.
(Reuters, 5/6/14)(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 5, In Nigeria Islamic militants attacked the northeastern border town of on Gamboru Ngala. At least 50 bodies were recovered from the debris of burned shops as the market reopened on May 7. Reports of 300 people killed were soon reduced to 100.
(AP, 5/7/14)(AP, 5/8/14)(SFC, 5/8/14, p.A6)(SFC, 5/9/14, p.A3)
2014 May 7, Nigerian police offered a $300,000 reward for information leading to the rescue of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 7, In Nigeria the World Economic Forum on Africa kicked off in Abuja.
(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 9, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, British experts arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 12, Boko Haram released a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 13, In Nigeria vigilante villagers of Kalabalge, Borno state, after learning about an impending attack by militants, ambushed two trucks with gunmen. At least 10 militants were reported detained, and scores killed. At least 12 soldiers were killed in an ambush after they were commanded to travel rather than spend the night in Chibok, the village from which some 270 schoolgirls were kidnapped on April 15.
(AP, 5/14/14)(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 May 16, Suspected Boko Haram rebels from Nigeria attacked a Chinese work site near Waza in northern Cameroon and at least 10 people were believed to have been kidnapped.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.43)
2014 May 17, France and five African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria) declared war on the Boko Haram extremist Islamic sect. West African leaders met in Paris to improve cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram and other militant groups.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(SSFC, 5/18/14, p.A5)
2014 May 20, Nigeria's parliament approved a six-month extension to a state of emergency in three northeast states hit by Islamist militant violence. Two bomb blasts by Boko Haram in the city of Jos killed at least 118 people. Most victims were women and children vendors. Hours later assaults by Boko Haram in three villages killed 48 people.
(AFP, 5/20/14)(AP, 5/21/14)(SFC, 5/22/14, p.A3)
2014 May 20, UN diplomats said Nigeria has formally asked the UN Security Council al Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 5/20/14)
2014 May 22, In Nigeria many schools closed around the country to protest the abductions of schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the government's failure to rescue them and the killings of scores of teachers by the Islamic extremists. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in Borno state, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground.
(AP, 5/22/14)(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 24, In Nigeria a car bomb killed at least 3 people in Jos.
(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 25, The leader of Nigeria's Muslims called for followers of the faith to unite against Boko Haram extremists, pledging the government full support to ensure their defeat. The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, also said the government should address issues of inequality towards Muslims.
(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suspected Boko Haram attack on a military base and police station left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 5/28/14)
2014 Jun 1, In Nigeria a bombing at a football match killed at least 40 people in Mubi, Adamawa state.
(AFP, 6/2/14)
2014 Jun 3, Nigerian media said ten generals and five other senior military officers have been found guilty in courts-martial of providing arms and information to Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 3, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram militants dressed as soldiers slaughtered at least 200 civilians in three villages and the military failed to intervene even though it was warned that an attack was imminent. The killings occurred in Danjara, Agapalwa, and Antagara, Borno state.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, In Nigeria suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants kidnapped up to 30 women from nomadic settlements in the northeast, close to where the group abducted more than 200 schoolgirls. The kidnappers demanded cattle in exchange for the women.
(Reuters, 6/10/14)
2014 Jun 6, Nigeria’s military searched trucks carrying newspapers after receiving intelligence "indicating movement of materials with grave security implications across the country using the channel of newsprint related consignments."
(AP, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 7, Nigerian soldiers continued for a 2nd day to confiscate copies from newspapers including Leadership, ThisDay, Daily Trust, Sun, Pilot, Newswatch, and The Mirror.
(AP, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 8, In Nigeria Lamido Sanusi (52), a former central bank governor, was appointed as the new emir of Kano, a key religious and traditional post for the country’s Muslims.
(SFC, 6/13/14, p.A3)
2014 Jun 11, Nigerian soldiers in Adamawa state, at the heart of an Islamist revolt, shut down all venues preparing to screen live World Cup matches, saying they wanted to protect fans from militant attacks.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 15, In Nigeria at least 4 people were killed and houses torched in ethnic clashes between rival groups in eastern Taraba state. Media reported that more than 25 people were feared dead after the clash. At least 15 people were killed when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed a market in the farming community of Daku, Borno state.
(Reuters, 6/16/14)(AFP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, In Nigeria at least 14 people were killed and 26 wounded in a bomb blast as soccer fans were viewing the Brazil-Mexico match in Damaturu, Yobe state. A “terror kingpin" was reported captured among 486 suspects in a convoy of 33 buses in Enugu state.
(AP, 6/18/14)(SFC, 6/19/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 21, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants stormed Koronginim village, Borno state, killing several people and torching houses close to where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped two months ago.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, In northern Nigeria suspected Islamist militants kidnapped as many as 91 villagers, most of them women and young girls, in Borno state. 63 girls and women managed to escape on July 4.
(Reuters, 6/24/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jun 23, In northern Nigeria an explosion tore through Kano State School of Hygiene, killing at least 8 people. It was not immediately clear if Islamist militants were behind the blast.
(Reuters, 6/23/14)(Reuters, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 24, In Nigeria extremists overran a military checkpoint in the northeast and killed at least 21 soldiers.
(AP, 6/26/14)
2014 Jun 25, In Nigeria an explosion at a mall in Abuja left 22 people dead. Soldiers shot and killed one suspect as he tried to escape, and police detained a second suspect. The government said two explosions at a fuel depot in Lagos, which left 2 people dead, were caused by gas canisters. Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for both attacks.
(AP, 6/26/14)(AFP, 7/13/14)
2014 Jun 27, In Nigeria police acting on a tip-off defused a bomb consisting of 13 cylinders of explosives next to the Jumat Praying Ground in Kano. Insurgents killed 7 soldiers in the village of Goniri, Yobe state.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)(Reuters, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 28, In northeastern Nigeria an explosion overnight in a brothel in the city of Bauchi killed 11 people and wounded 28.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)
2014 Jun 29, In Nigeria suspected Islamist militants sprayed gunfire on worshippers in four churches in an attack on a village less than 5 km (3 miles) from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls in April. At least 30 people were reported killed.
(Reuters, 6/29/14)(AFP, 6/30/14)(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 1, In Nigeria a car bomb exploded in a market in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram Islamic extremists, reducing stalls, goods and vehicles to piles of trash. At least 56 people were killed.
(AP, 7/1/14)(AFP, 7/1/14)(SFC, 7/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 1, The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project said it is suing Nigeria's president and attorney general for dropping corruption charges against Mohammad Abacha, the son of the former military dictator accused of helping to launder millions in stolen funds.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 3, In Nigeria Mubarak Bala (29), a chemical process engineer released from a mental ward to which his Muslim family committed him by force, said he is getting death threats for blaspheming against Islam and declaring himself an atheist.
(SFC, 7/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 4, Nigerian soldiers blocked roads, fired shots into the air and burned several buses in Lagos after a soldier was killed in a bus accident.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In Nigeria at least 50 alleged insurgents were killed during clashes with Nigerian soldiers as security forces repelled an attack on a military base in the northeastern state of Borno. 6 soldiers, including the commanding officer, died in the assault on the base and a nearby police station in the town of Damboa. 63 girls and women abducted by Islamic extremists in Borno state on June 22 managed to escape.
(AP, 7/6/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 12, In Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists bombed a major bridge on a northeastern highway, further limiting access to base camps in the Sambisa Forest where scores of kidnapped girls are believed to be held captive.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, In northeastern Nigeria at least 26 people were killed when suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants stormed Dille village, Borno state, and a government warplane opened fire to repel the attackers. Cannon fire from the government jet killed at least 6 civilians, 4 women and 2 children.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 16, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sought parliamentary approval to borrow up to $1 billion (730 million euros) in foreign loan to fight an insurgency by Boko Haram militants which has claimed thousands of lives in the past five years.
(AFP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 16, In Nigeria a German worker at a technical skills training center was taken at gunpoint from his car in Gombi town of Adamawa state as he drove to work. On Jan 21, 2015, Cameroon announced the release of Nitsch Eberhard Robert following an operation by its military and allies.
(AP, 7/17/14)(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2014 Jul 19, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 46 villagers early today and set homes ablaze in Damboa. The town had been under siege for two weeks since Boko Haram dislodged soldiers from a new tank battalion camp on its outskirts.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(AP, 7/19/14)(Reuters, 7/21/14)
2014 Jul 23, In Nigeria a bomb targeting an Imam in the center of Kaduna killed 32 of his followers. A 2nd bomb blast in Kaduna killed 50 in the crowded Kawo market. Boko Haram attackers entered the village of Garubula, in Biu district, late today and dragged victims out of their homes before shooting 12 of them.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)(AFP, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 23, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria pledged to mobilize a joint force to tackle the growing regional threat posed by Boko Haram Islamist militants operating mainly in Nigeria.
(Reuters, 7/24/14)
2014 Jul 25, Nigerian security forces say they have arrested Michael Ogun (44), a suspected internet fraudster, accused of stealing nearly $6 million from people who thought were paying fees to apply for government jobs.
(AP, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 25, Nigeria said that Ebola caused the death of a Liberian national who died in quarantine in Lagos, confirmation that the worst-ever outbreak of the virus has reached Africa's most populous country. Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian national who moved from Minnesota to Liberia to work for the country's ministry of finance, died in what health officials determined to be the first probable case of the Ebola virus in Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/25/14)(Yahoo News, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 26, In Cameroon Boko Haram, Nigeria's Islamist militant group, carried out two cross-border attacks overnight, killing at least 4 soldiers at the village of Bargaram and prompting the Cameroonian army to send reinforcements to the area.
(Reuters, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Nigeria a bomb attack on a Catholic church in the northern city of Kano killed 5 people and wounded eight. In a separate incident, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded two of the officers.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Cameroon Boko Haram militants from Nigeria kidnapped the wife of Cameroon's vice prime minister and killed at least 3 people in a cross-border attack involving more than 200 assailants in the northern town of Kolofata.
(Reuters, 7/27/14)
2014 Jul 28, In Nigeria two separate blasts by female suicide bombers killed 3 people and injured 13 in Kano.
(AFP, 7/28/14)(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Potiskum, Yobe state, killing at least 6 people and injuring several others.
(AFP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 30, In Nigeria a female suicide bomber killed 6 people at a college campus in Kano city, the fourth time Boko Haram Islamists were suspected of using a female attacker in as many days.
(AFP, 7/30/14)
2014 Aug 4, Nigerian authorities said that a doctor in Lagos who treated a Liberian victim of Ebola has contracted the virus, the second confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa's largest city.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 5, Amnesty International released footage it obtained that appeared to show Nigerian soldiers slitting the throats of Boko Haram suspects and dumping their bodies in a mass grave. Amnesty said the killings occurred shortly after Boko Haram’s attack on a detention center in Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, on March 14.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, Nigeria confirmed five new cases of Ebola in Lagos and a second death from the virus. Authorities said a nurse who treated Ebola victim Patrick Sawyer is now dead and five others are sick with one of the world's most virulent diseases, as the death toll rose to at least 932 people in four West African countries.
(AFP, 8/6/14)(AP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, In northern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked Gwoza town. The raid left dozens dead and sent others fleeing to a mountain near the Cameroonian border.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 7, The US Justice Department said it has taken control of more than $480 million looted by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his associates after a court ruling. The money stolen during Abacha's 1993-1998 de facto presidency and stashed in banks around the world will be returned to the Nigerian government.
(Reuters, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 8, Nigeria's president declared the containment of the Ebola virus a national emergency as officials confirmed two new cases of Ebola, bringing the total number of infections in Africa's most populous country to nine, including 2 deaths.
(AP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 9, In northern Nigeria hundreds of people who escaped a Boko Haram attack on Gwoza and fled to a nearby mountain said they were without any food.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 10, In Nigeria Boko Haram abducted some 100 people in Doron Baga in the Kukawa area near the border with Chad. The terrorists were stopped as they crossed the Chad border by Chadian soldiers who killed most of them and set free most of the captives.
(AP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 11, Nigeria confirmed a new case of Ebola in Lagos, bringing the total number of people in the country with the virus to 10.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 11, In Nigeria about 300 women and 500 children gathered at the gates of a military base in the Borno state capital, claiming that their spouses were ill-equipped to take on the Islamist militants. The military wives had staged a similar protest in Maiduguri on Aug 9.
(AFP, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 14, The UN health agency said the death toll from the worst outbreak of Ebola in four decades had now climbed to 1,069 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The WHO said the scale of the Ebola epidemic has been vastly underestimated and that "extraordinary measures" were needed to contain the killer disease.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 10, In Nigeria Boko Haram abducted some 100 young men and several women in Doron Baga in the Kukawa area near the border with Chad. 28 older men were reported killed. The terrorists were stopped as they crossed the Chad border by Chadian soldiers who killed most of them and set free 65 men and 22 women. More than 30 were still suspected to be held by the extremists.
(AP, 8/15/14)(Reuters, 8/15/14)(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 17, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 10 people as they stormed the villages of Durwa and Maforo in the Marte district where people had fled to escape repeated attacks by the insurgents.
(AFP, 8/18/14)
2014 Aug 19, Air France said some of its flight crews were refusing to board planes bound for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria over fears of the Ebola outbreak.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 20, In Nigeria mutineers said dozens of soldiers have refused to deploy for an offensive against Boko Haram Islamists until they receive better weapons. Islamists attacked a training academy just outside the town of Gwoza. 35 police officers deployed to the academy were missing following the Boko Haram attack.
(AFP, 8/20/14)(AFP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 20, Nigeria’s health ministry said a senior doctor who treated the country’s first Ebola patient has died, taking the death toll in Africa's most populous country to five.
(AFP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 22, Nigeria confirmed two new cases of Ebola. 213 people were under surveillance. A Nigerian a doctor died in Port Harcourt after treating a patient who had contact with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer. This brought to six the number of people who have died from the haemorrhagic fever in Nigeria. 15 people have been confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 8/22/14)(AP, 8/26/14)(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 24, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, said in a video that he has created an Islamic caliphate in Gwoza, Borno state, seized by the insurgents earlier this month.
(AFP, 8/24/14)
2014 Aug 24, Nigeria’s striking public sector doctors said they would suspend a nearly two-month strike to help combat the Ebola outbreak.
(AFP, 8/24/14)
2014 Aug 25, In northeast Nigeria a Boko Haram attack on a border town forced thousands of people to flee to Cameroon, in a fresh assault indicating the militants' growing ability to strike at will. Some 480 Nigerian soldiers also fled across the border, where they gave up their weapons to Cameroonian authorities before returning to Nigeria.
(AFP, 8/25/14)(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 27, Cameroon's army attacked the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, shelling one of their camps across the border and reportedly killing "many" fighters.
(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 27, In central Nigeria clashes broke out in Nasawrawa state, a week after some Eggon villagers accused Fulanis of stealing cattle. Fighting between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers from the Eggon ethnic group left at least 60 people dead, mostly from machete cuts.
(Reuters, 8/28/14)
2014 Sep 1, Nigeria confirmed a third case of Ebola disease in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, bringing the country's total confirmed infections to 16 with some 200 under surveillance.
(Reuters, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 1, In northeastern Nigeria Islamists launched an attack on the town of Bama, 70 km (45 miles) from Maiduguri. Several Nigerian troops were killed at the Bama armory by a fighter jet targeting the insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Nigeria announced that a seventh person had died from Ebola and another person was confirmed as having the virus.
(AFP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 6, Nigerian soldiers fought off rebels advancing on Maiduguri, Borno state, headquarters of the military campaign against the insurgency and the birthplace of Boko Haram. The nearby towns of Duhu, Shuwa, Kirshinga and others fell in assaults over the last 24 hours. Army soldiers fled when hundreds of insurgents in stolen military armored personnel carriers, trucks and motorcycles attacked Gulak, an administrative headquarters of Adamawa state.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 8, A Nigerian official said the military has recaptured the town of Bama in northeast Borno state from Boko Haram and blocked the Islamist militants' advance towards the state capital Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 9/8/14)
2014 Sep 11, In Nigeria two pilots and an Alpha jet went missing after it left the northeastern town of Yola on a bombing mission against Boko Haram. On Oct 3 a new Boko Haram video showed the beheading of a man identified as the pilot of the missing Nigerian Air Force jet and burnt out parts of a plane.
(AP, 10/3/14)
2014 Sep 12, Nigerian soldiers reportedly killed some 200 militants in Konduga town. The dead included a Boko Haram commander named Amir. Insurgents attacked a market outside Maiduguri. At least 4 people were killed.
(AFP, 9/13/14)(SSFC, 9/14/14, p.A5)
2014 Sep 12, In Nigeria a multistory building serving as a shopping mall and guesthouse at the sprawling campus of televangelist T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations, collapsed on the outskirts of Lagos. Four days later one woman was saved from the rubble. The final death toll was 115 people killed. 74 of the dead were from South Africa.
(AFP, 9/14/14)(AP, 9/16/14)(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Sep 16, In Nigeria 12 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny after shots were fired at their commanding officer in the restive northeast city of Maiduguri on May 14.
(AFP, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep 17, In Nigeria gunmen stormed a government teacher training college in the northern city of Kano, firing repeatedly on fleeing students and setting off an explosion. At least 15 students were killed and 34 others wounded when police fought a battle with suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers in Kano.
(Reuters, 9/17/14)(AFP, 9/17/14)(SFC, 9/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 18, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen stormed a crowded market in northeastern Borno state, killing several people and carting away food.
(AFP, 9/20/14)
2014 Sep 18, Amnesty Int’l. charged Nigeria’s police and military with the routine torture of men, women and children. Detainees have been reportedly denied access to family and lawyers and have suffered beatings, shootings, rape, electric shocks as well as teeth and nails pulled by pliers.
(SFC, 9/19/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 19, A Nigerian watchdog group demanded an international investigation into the Nigerian government for flying $9.3 million in cash to South Africa to buy weapons. South African customs officials last week seized the money in $100 bills in three suitcases that arrived on a private jet from Nigeria at Johannesburg's Lanseria airport. The plane was leased by Ayo Oritsejafor, leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria and a close friend of Pres. Jonathan.
(AP, 9/19/14)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.58)
2014 Sep 19, In Nigeria Islamsit Boko Haram fighters stormed the northeastern town of Mainok, sparking a gun battle that killed at least 36 people and continued into the next day.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Nigeria a woman (20), one of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted last April by Islamist Boko Haram rebels in Chibok, was reportedly "dropped off by suspected Boko Haram militants" at Mubi in Adamawa state.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Oct 13, In northern Nigeria 9 teenage girls died and three were listed missing after a passenger boat capsized on a river in Kano state.
(AFP, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 15, Nigeria's former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari declared he would run for president, criticizing President Goodluck Jonathan's administration for corruption and failing to tackle the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
(Reuters, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 17, Nigeria's official news agency said the government and Boko Haram Islamic extremists have agreed to an immediate cease-fire. Suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked the village of Abadam late at night, killing at least one person and ransacking homes.
(AP, 10/17/14)(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram attacked the village of Dzur leaving at least 8 people dead. Boko Haram insurgents abducted 80 girls and women in Adamawa state. Older women in the group were released the following day. The extremists kept about 40 younger women and girls.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 20, Nigeria was declared free of Ebola by the World Health Organization.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 22, In northern Nigeria a bomb blast at a bus station in an area previously targeted by Boko Haram killed 5 people in Azare, Bauchi state.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, A multinational force including troops from Nigeria and Niger wrested back control of a town held by Boko Haram on the western shores of Lake Chad. More than 20 insurgents were reported killed in fierce fighting at Abadam.
(AP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 24, In southwest Nigeria gunmen killed one German national and abducted another after opening fire on two vehicles near the town of Sagamu, Ogun state. The man who died was a subcontractor, while the hostage was a staff member of the Julius Berger construction firm.
(AFP, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 24, In Nigeria gunmen on a speedboat in the oil-producing south killed 4 policemen and kidnapped six Nigerian employees of the Agip energy firm in the Nembe Creek area of Bayelsa state.
(AFP, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed several people in a village in Kukawa, Borno state. Police initially intercepted and engaged the insurgents on the outskirts of the town but were forced to retreat because of the gunmen's superior firepower.
(AFP, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Nigeria a car bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop in the northeast city of Gombe. At least 10 people were killed and several wounded near the end of the morning rush hour. Vigilantes in the Borno town of Biu said they and troops had decapitated 41 Boko Haram fighters who were planning a raid in the village of Sabon Gari.
(AP, 10/31/14)(AFP, 11/6/14)
2014 Oct 31, In a new video Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremists, said that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off. He also denied there is a cease-fire with the Nigerian government.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 3, In northeast Nigeria a suicide bomber killed himself and 32 people in a procession of Shi'ite Muslims marking the ritual of Ashoura in Potiskum, Yobe state. In central Kogi state gunmen using explosives blew their way into a prison overnight in the city of Lokoja, killing one person and freeing 145 inmates.
(Reuters, 11/3/14)(SFC, 11/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters stole dynamite and pick-up trucks from a French-owned cement works after robbing a bank, in a raid to fund and pursue their campaign of violence in the northeast.
(AFP, 11/5/14)
2014 Nov 5, Nigerian troops rounded up 17 people, including an imam, from the Dogo Tebo area of Potiskum in Yobe state as they left a mosque after morning prayers. The bodies of all but the imam were found hours later in the morgue at the Potiskum General Hospital.
(AFP, 11/6/14)
2014 Nov 7, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb concealed in a black plastic bag killed at least 7 people outside a commercial bank in Bauchi state. The governor of Adamawa state said Boko Haram has taken over at least five municipalities and called for more troops to halt further Islamist gains.
(AP, 11/7/14)(AFP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 10, In Nigeria a suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern town of Potiskum.
(Reuters, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 12, In Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a teacher training college in Kontagora, killing at least one other person in the second such attack on an educational institution this week.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 13, In Nigeria 3 servicemen were killed in a military helicopter crash in the restive northeast. The aircraft involved was a ground attack helicopter on an armed patrol in Adamawa state. Islamic extremists seized Chibok, forcing thousands of residents to flee from the northeast town from which the insurgents kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in April.
(AFP, 11/14/14)(AP, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 14, Nigerian officials said about 200 vigilantes and hunters armed with home-made guns, spears, clubs, bows and arrows, and machetes had taken back Mubi, Adamawa state, from Boko Haram rebels. Officials said the retreating fighters had invaded Hong, 50 km (30 miles) south on the way towards Yola, and Gombi, to the northwest of Mubi.
(AFP, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 15, The Nigerian army regained control of Chibok, the northeastern town where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Islamic extremists more than six months ago.
(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants reportedly killed about 45 people in the Azaya Kura village in Borno state as they carted away food and livestock.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 20, Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark suspended legislative proceedings after police fired tear gas to prevent the House of Representatives from convening. The speaker of the House recently changed allegiance from the president's party to the main opposition party. Police then withdrew his security clearance, triggering today’s standoff.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 22, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram insurgents entered Doron Baga, Borno state, and fired from motorcycles killing some 60 people.
(Reuters, 11/23/14)(SFC, 11/24/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 24, In Nigeria insurgents attacked Damassak town. Some 16,000 people fled Damassak in Niger, to a makeshift emergency camp at Gagamari village.
(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Nov 25, In Nigeria 2 teenage female suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 44 people.
(AP, 11/25/14)(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 26, The Central Bank of Nigeria said it has devalued the naira, setting the new official exchange rate at 168 to the dollar from its previous rate of 155 due to falling oil prices.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, In northeast Nigeria a roadside bomb tore through a bus station near a busy junction, killing 40 people including five soldiers at the Marabi-Mubi junction.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, In Nigeria at least 102 people were killed and over 150 wounded in a series of bomb blasts at the central mosque in Kano.
(AP, 11/28/14)(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Dec 1, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Islamic extremists struck two state capitals, with twin blasts at a crowded market and the destruction of a police base leaving at least 77 people dead. The suspected Boko Haram insurgent attack on the Yobe state capital killed at least 39 people, including 33 policemen and 6 soldiers. 20 militants also died in their raid on Damaturu. A separate bomb attack in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/1/14)(Reuters, 12/2/14)(AP, 12/2/14)
2014 Dec 6, In central Nigeria gunmen freed over 200 prisoners in Tunga, Niger state.
(SFC, 12/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 10, In Nigeria a blast ripped through a busy textile market in the north city of Kano. 4 people were killed when two female suicide bombers attacked the Kantin Kwari textile market.
(AFP, 12/10/14)(Reuters, 12/10/14)
2014 Dec 11, In central Nigeria twin explosions killed about 120 people in downtown Jos. Extremists attacked Gajigana, a border town between Niger and Nigeria, and 11 people were killed. Major buildings were burned down but Boko Haram did not succeed in capturing the town.
(SFC, 12/12/14, p.A9)(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 14, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists killed 35 people and kidnapped at least 185 in an attack on Gumburi, 20 km from Chibok, the town where nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped earlier this year.
(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 17, Cameroon army troops reportedly killed 116 Nigerian fighters from the Islamist Boko Haram group at its northern army base in Amchide on the border with Nigeria.
(AFP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 18, In northeast Nigeria fleeing villagers reported that extremists were rounding up elderly people and killing them in two schools in Gwoza.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Nigeria a new video from the home-grown Boko Haram extremists showed gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in a dorm, and a leader saying they are being killed because they are "infidels" or non-believers.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 21, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen stormed Geidam, Yobe state, setting fire to several buildings and forcing residents to flee to the bush.
(AFP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 21, In Nigeria pirates hijacked a military gunboat and 3 soldiers were missing after the ambush in the southern oil-rich state of Bayelsa.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 22, In northeastern Nigeria a bombing at a bus station killed at least 20 people at the Dukku motor park on the outskirts of Gombe city. An explosion at the main market in Bauchi city killed 7 people and injured 25 others.
(AFP, 12/22/14)(AFP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 28, In northern Cameroon some 1,000 suspected Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria attacked five towns over the weekend and briefly occupied a military camp today before being removed by the air force.
(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec 29, In northeast Nigeria suspected Islamist militants opened fire in a remote town, killing at least 15 people. The attack targeted Kautikari, near the Cameroon border.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)
2014 Dec 29, Cameroon's government launched its first ever air strikes against Nigerian Islamic extremists to dislodge about 1,000 fighters who had seized a Cameroonian military base.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 31, In northeastern Nigeria a woman suicide bomber was killed as she tried to enter a military barracks in Bolari. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped 40 boys and young men in a remote village in northeastern Borno state.
(AFP, 12/31/14)(AP, 1/2/15)
2014 Dec, A Nigerian court banned a new autobiography of former Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo on the grounds of libel. The book flailed current Pres. Goodluck Jonathan and his entourage.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.48)
2014 In Nigeria Ipob was founded by Nnamdi Kanu. It sought independence for Igbo-speaking parts of south-eastern Nigeria. In 2017 it was proscribed as a terrorist group.
(BBC, 11/3/20)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 2, Nigerian Islamist militants overran an army base in the remote northeastern town of Baga. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed, while others drowned in Lake Chad. The death toll was later said to have killed as many as 2,000 civilians. Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A4)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A4)(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Jan 7, It was announced that Royal Dutch Shell will pay more than $80 million to people in Bodo, a Nigerian fishing community "devastated" by two serious oil spills in 2008. The clean-up could take years.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 10, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria, including one at a crowded market in Maiduguri, by a girl suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old. 19 people were killed.
(AFP, 1/10/15) (Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighters from the Islamist group Boko Haram launched an attack on a military base in the northwest Cameroonian city of Kolofata.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cameroonian soldiers killed at least 143 Boko Haram fighters when the Islamist militant group attacked a military base along the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The UN said that the latest wave of Boko Haram's "vicious, ruthless attacks" in northeastern Nigeria has sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by Islamist rebels on the northeastern town of Biu, killing several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Danish government said it is allocating 12.5 million kroner ($2 million) to help the victims of the Boko Haram extremist group in Nigeria.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 16, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 11 near a marketplace in Gombe.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 17, Chad sent troops, about 400 military vehicles including tanks and armored vehicles, and several attack helicopters to Cameroon and Nigeria to aid in the fight against the Islamist militants. It was reported that Cameroon, Chad and Niger have launched a regional bid to combat the Boko Haram Islamists. In Chad tens of thousands marched in the capital to show support for the fight against Boko Haram chanting in French and Arabic: "Kick the forces of evil out of our territory."
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed 4 people and wounded dozens in an attack on a bus station in Potiskum.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northern Cameroon Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria kidnapped at least 60 people during an attack on Mabass village. A number of people were killed. Some of the hostages escaped and 30 were freed following a gun fight between Boko Haram and the Cameroon military.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 21, Nigeria confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters killed 15 people in Kambari village and set the hamlet to blaze. Kambari is near Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on Borno state capital Maiduguri. The assault killed over 200 combatants, mostly insurgents. In Adamawa state insurgents continued scorched-earth attacks on six villages.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 26, Nigerian troops backed by air strikes fought to recapture the northeastern town of Monguno from Boko Haram insurgents who had seized it a day earlier. At least 15 soldiers were killed along with more than over 25 civilians.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 29, Chad sent a warplane dropping bombs and ground troops to drive Islamic extremists from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists. Boko Haram fighters made a second attack in a week on Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, African Union leaders opened a two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The 54-member bloc called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 31, Chadian aircraft bombed the Nigerian town of Gambaru in a raid targeting extremist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Chadian aircraft struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gambaru for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Nigeria’s military repelled a Boko Haram assault on Maiduguri. Two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint. A suicide bomb attack targeting a political meeting killed 7 people in Potiskum city.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 2, In northeastern Nigerian a car bomb went off near a stadium in Gombe, a few minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left a party rally there. A female suicide bomber was the only fatality.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 3, Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern Nigerian towns of Gambaru and Ngala in a bid to break the Islamist insurgents' grip on the town bordering Cameroon. More than 200 extremists and 9 Chadian troops were reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 4, Cameroon's army killed at least 50 Boko Haram insurgents and lost six of its own soldiers in clashes with the Nigerian Islamist group in the border town of Fotokol. Boko Haram fighters went on a rampage in Fotokol, massacring civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 6, Forces from Chad and Niger repelled Islamic extremists from Nigeria as they attacked Bosso town inside Niger, marking the second foreign country attacked by Boko Haram this week. 109 Boko Haram fighters were killed by soldiers responding to attacks in fighting in the towns of Bosso and Diffa near the border with Nigeria. 4 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.
(AP, 2/6/15)(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Nigeria’s election body chairman Attahiru Jega announced that the presidential and parliamentary polls would be postponed from February 14 to March 28, while gubernatorial and state assembly elections would be held on April 11.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigerian authorities came in for heavy criticism over the decision to postpone national elections in the face of relentless Boko Haram violence.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted about 30 people including eight Cameroonian girls and killed 7 hostages in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Niger Boko Haram fighters waged a new attack on Diffa, a southeastern border town, where a blast killed at least 5 people and injured at least 10. Aid workers said the assailants had come from Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/8/15)(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, In northeast Nigeria scores of militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a police station in the town of Kanamma in Yobe state. Several police officers were reported killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 9, Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighboring Niger overnight.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 11, Chadian soldiers killed 13 fighters from Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a battle in the Nigerian town of Gambaru. One Chadian soldier was reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Niger two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the frontier town of Diffa, following days of cross-border attacks by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 12, In northeastern Nigeria at least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on Akida and Mbuta villages near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Nigeria’s human rights commission (NHRC) said political violence in the 50-day run-up to elections has killed 58 people, with rising "hate speech" between rival camps threatening to spark further unrest.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Suspected Boko Haram militants staged their first attack in Chad, hitting the third country outside Nigeria base in recent days.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 14, Nigeria's military repelled an attack on the northeastern town of Gombe by Boko Haram Islamic extremists who, as they retreated, warned residents not to participate in the country's elections in March.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Niger said it has arrested several dozen people suspected of having links to Nigeria's Boko Haram, since the start of cross-border attacks by the Islamist group on Feb 6.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded bus station in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing 13 people and wounding 30.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigeria said its troops backed by air strikes have recaptured the northeastern towns of Monguno and Marte from Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country, wounding several soldiers.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Potiskum, killing two people and wounding 12. Near the town of Biu 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack by 3 men on a motorized tricycle at a checkpoint.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, The United States military said it will provide communications equipment and intelligence to help African nations in the fight against Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 18, Nigeria claimed to have killed more than 300 Boko Haram militants in a counter-offensive, as Chad pushed into rebel-held areas. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the Tamsu-Shehuri village on where they killed more than 12 people.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, Nigerian warplanes bombarded training camps and caches of weapons and vehicles belonging to the Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeasterly Sambisa forest. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen hit the village of Ladi-Shehuri, where they killed and burned a man in his car. Soldiers from Konduga responded and killed about a dozen of the attackers.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants fleeing an army offensive killed at least 30 people in attacks near the village of Chibok, close to where the rebels abducted more than 200 schoolgirls last year. The rebels were fleeing a land and air offensive to clear them out of the Sambisa forest when they raided the smaller villages of Gatamarwa, Makalama and Layhawul.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, Nigerian forces backed by air strikes seized the northeastern border town of Baga from Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria a girl suicide bomber, who appeared no more than 10 years old, blew herself up and killed 4 others in an attack on a market in Potiskum.
(AFP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In central Nigeria masked gunmen kidnapped Rev. Phyllis Sortor, an American woman doing missionary work for the Free Methodist Church, with ransom the suspected motive for the attack. Sorter was released on March 6.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked bus stations outside Potiskum and in Kano, killing at least 34 people.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Biu, while a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosives. At least 18 people, including 3 women, were reported killed. Two blasts targeting a bus park in the central city of Jos killed at least 17 people.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria a crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze. A second suspect, also a teenage girl, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 2, Nigerian troops repelled an attack by Boko Haram on Konduga, killing more than 70 insurgents. In the northeast Chadian forces regained control of Dikwa, a town occupied by the militants for weeks, but not before the defeated Islamic extremists killed hundreds of civilians.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Nigeria at least 68 men and boys were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants at dawn in Njaba, a remote village of northeast Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, The African Union endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against Boko Haram, believed to have not more than 6,000 fighters.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 7, Nigeria-based Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, after repeated indications that it was seeking a formal tie-up and a series of Nigerian military successes against the rebels.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Nigeria three bombings in Maiduguri killed 58 people and wounded 139 others.
(AFP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 8, The armies of Chad and Niger launched a major ground and air strike against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 10 Chadian soldiers died in fighting to free two towns in northern Nigeria previously held by Boko Haram. A Niger military source said about 300 Boko Haram militants had been killed. About 30 Nigerien and Chadian soldiers were wounded in clashes over Malam Fatouri and Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Nigeria a suspected female suicide bomber killed at least 34 people at a crowded market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 11, Nigeria said that 36 towns had been retaken from Boko Haram since the start of a four-nation military offensive, voicing hope that the operation could lead to the group's total defeat.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said that a pledge by Nigeria-based Boko Haram has been accepted and that now “no one can stand in its path." The agreement mirrors the steps taken by other Sunni jihadist groups in Libya and Egypt.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Nigeria's military said that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In central Nigeria gunmen abducted three Chinese workers after a shootout that left a police officer dead at a quarry outside Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state. The workers were freed the next day through a joint operation by the police and other security agents.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, Cameroonian troops began attacking Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists near the Nigerian village of Ndaba, killing several of the militants over the next 24 hours and destroying some of their equipment.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 14, Nigerian soldiers detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in Maiduguri. Two men suspected of planting the explosives were arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Troops from Chad and Niger seized Damasak in northeastern Nigeria in the latest defeat for the militants. Soldiers from Niger and Chad soon discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many of them beheaded, dumped near a bridge outside Damasak. It was later reported that Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 400 women and children from Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 18, In northeast Nigeria Islamists returned to the border town of Gamboru, killing 8 people. 3 more were killed there the next day.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Nigeria multiple witnesses said dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their "husbands" before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the killing of women began 10 days before Bama was liberated.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northeast Nigeria Chadian troops returned to the border town of Gamboru, after Boko Haram took advantage of a lack of military presence to kill 11 people on March 18-19.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, Nigeria's military announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen beheaded 23 people and set fire to homes in Buratai, on the eve of general elections. Elsewhere in the restive northeast, suspected Islamist militants killed at least 7 people in separate attacks in the Gombe state.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, Nigeria held elections. Polling in the country's presidential and parliamentary election was suspended in some places because of glitches with new voter ID card readers. Boko Haram extremists killed at least 41 people, including a legislator, and scared hundreds of people from polling stations in three northeastern states. Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari (72) was declared the winner on March 31.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.12)
2015 Mar 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked polling stations and destroyed election material in in Kirfi and Alkaleri towns.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Nigeria some 2,000 women protesting against the conduct of elections in Rivers state were teargassed as they tried to register their complaints with electoral officials.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria 8 suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed during fighting in Gombe and Bauchi states.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Niger militants tried to attack the town of Bosso, just over the border with Nigeria. Troops from Niger and Chad intervened, killing 47 militants and destroying several of their vehicles and mortars.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Nigeria the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, Nigerian election winner Muhammadu Buhari congratulated outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for peacefully relinquishing power.
(Reuters, 4/1/15)
2015 Apr 1, In northeastern Nigeria 9 Chadian soldiers were killed and 16 wounded after being ambushed by Boko Haram fighters between Malam Fatori and the border town of Bosso in Niger.
(AFP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 1, Amnesty Int’l. released its latest annual report on the death penalty. It said Egypt and Nigeria had accounted for over 1,000 of the 2,466 death sentences in 55 countries reported last year.
(SFC, 4/3/15, p.A3)( http://tinyurl.com/k4kowoz)
2015 Apr 2, In northeastern Nigeria an explosion near the Bauchi motor park, a bus station in Gombe, left 10 people dead.
(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Apr 3, In Nigeria gunmen stormed two communities in the southern oil state of Rivers, killing at least 9 people and injuring two others. Militants of the Urhobo minority ethnic group blew up a natural gas pipeline in Delta state.
(AFP, 4/4/15)(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, In Nigeria at least four people were killed when suspected Boko Haram fighters raided a local market in a village near the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on villagers and torched a number of buildings in a new attack in Kwajaffa, Borno state.
(AFP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 9, The UN launched an appeal for $174 million to give "life-saving aid" to the almost 200,000 Nigerians who have fled the country due to attacks by Boko Haram.
(AFP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 15, In Nigeria election results posted late today identified Buruji Kashamu (56) as a senator-elect in southwest Ogun state. In 1988 he was indicted in America for allegedly smuggling heroin, in a court case that was the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black." He returned home in 2003 from Britain despite a US extradition order to become a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan's party. Kashamu has said Chicago prosecutors really want the dead brother he closely resembles.
(AP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 15, In Nigeria a mysterious disease broke out in Ode-Irele town and soon left 18 people dead. The disease, whose symptoms include headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, killed the victims within 24 hours of their falling ill. On April 20 Nigerian health authorities said that ethanol poisoning from a local gin may have been responsible for the sudden deaths. By April 27 the toll reached 23.
(AFP, 4/18/15)(AFP, 4/20/15)(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 17, Nigeria air traffic controllers suspended a strike that had grounded all domestic flights, but warned that a more damaging work stoppage would be launched next week if their demands were not met.
(AFP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 18, In Nigeria at least 23 villagers died in clashes over the last 24 hours between two mainly fishing and farming communities in central Nigeria's Benue state.
(AFP, 4/19/15)
2015 Apr 23, In Nigeria a civilian vigilante said Boko Haram fighters have amassed in the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold. Government soldiers were forced to retreat because of the extensive use of landmines in the area, one of which exploded killing a soldier and 3 vigilantes. Over 2,000 Boko Haram fighters appeared from various directions and engaged the soldiers in Kirenowa town and adjoining communities in Marte, Borno state. They fought with soldiers over the night and the fighting continued into the next day, forcing hundreds of soldiers to flee.
(AFP, 4/23/15)(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 24, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters disguised as soldiers intercepted a group of people trying to return to their homes to collect abandoned food supplies in Bultaram village, Yobe state. 21 men were shot dead.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 25, In northeaster Nigeria over a hundred victims were buried in 20 mass graves after hundreds of people were found dead in the Damasak.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen were reported to have shot dead 21 people in who were trying to return home to recover abandoned food supplies at Bultaram village, Yobe state.
(AFP, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 28, Nigeria’s military carried out a mass rescue of 200 girls and 93 women from the Sambisa Forest stronghold of Boko Haram. 160 civilians were also rescued. An additional 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the Sambisa Forest bringing the total to 677 females. Several women were crushed mistakenly by a military armored car. 3 women were killed by a landmine as they walked to freedom.
(AP, 4/29/15)(AFP, 4/30/15)(AP, 5/2/15)(SFC, 5/4/15, p.A2)
2015 May 2, Nigerian troops over the last 24 hours raided communities suspected of harboring militiamen in central Plateau state. Local media said at least 30 people died when soldiers stormed into Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata areas.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 4, Niger said it was planning a military operation to remove Boko Haram extremists. Soldiers arrived at the fishing village of Lelewa on Lake Chad and ordered some 3,000 Nigerian fisherman and refugees to return to Nigeria. A dozen people were later reported to have died on the 3-day trek.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A4)
2015 May 6, Nigerian troops rescued 25 more children and women from Boko Haram early today as the soldiers destroyed seven more of the extremists' camps in the northeastern Sambisa Forest stronghold.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 8, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked a business school with gunfire and two bomb blasts before being overcome by security forces in Potiskum.
(AP, 5/8/15)
2015 May 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram fighters launched an attack on Maiduguri, but were repelled by government troops after intense clashes. At least 12 people were killed. Boko Haram fighters raided Bale and killed 25 people. At least 30 people were killed by Boko Haram in Kayamla village and surrounding settlements.
(AFP, 5/14/15)(Reuters, 5/15/15)(AFP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram insurgents launched a quick strike on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, In northeastern Nigeria a girl aged about 12 carried out a suicide attack at a bus station, killing 7 people and injuring 31 in Damaturu. The deputy governor in neighboring Borno state said Marte, located on a strategic trading route between Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon and Chad, had fallen to Islamists.
(AFP, 5/16/15)
2015 May 17, Nigeria's military claimed it had overrun 10 Boko Haram camps in the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 20, Nigeria’s army said 579 officers and troops faced charges for alleged offenses related to the campaign against Boko Haram.
(SFC, 5/21/15, p.A2)
2015 May 22, Nigeria's military reportedly killed of scores of Boko Haram insurgents and rescued 20 more hostages during an operation in the Sambisa forest. Boko Haram fighters hacked to death 10 people in the remote Pambula-Kwamda village.
(AFP, 5/23/15)(AFP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 23, Nigerian airlines grounded flights and radio stations were silenced as a months-long fuel shortage worsened, aggravated by a strike disrupting fuel deliveries in Africa's biggest oil producer.
(AP, 5/23/15)
2015 May 25, Nigeria’s defense spokesman Chris Olukolade said troops had thwarted an attack on Mafa, 50 km (30 miles) east of Maiduguri. About 30 Boko Haram fighters were reported killed and "many others" wounded.
(AFP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 25, Nigerian fuel marketers agreed to resume distribution after weeks of disruption led to chronic fuel shortages, bringing phone companies, banks and airlines to a standstill days before the inauguration of the country's new president.
(Reuters, 5/25/15)
2015 May 28, Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Andreu said he has agreed to hear a lawsuit against Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram and its leader Abubakar Shekau for crimes against humanity and terrorism.
(AFP, 5/28/15)
2015 May 29, Nigeria held inauguration ceremonies for President Muhammadu Buhari (72). He pledged to take personal charge of the fight against Boko Haram Islamic extremists and said he will root out human rights violations by the military.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, In northeastern Nigeria rocket-propelled grenades exploded into several home, killing at least 29 people in Maiduguri before dawn as Boko Haram unleashed a new kind of violence in the birthplace of the extremist group.
(AP, 5/30/15)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 May 31, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off in the Gamboru market in Maiduguri, killing one person. A runaway oil tanker truck exploded late today in a crowded bus station in southern Anambra state, igniting 12 buses and burning 69 people to death.
(AP, 5/31/15) (AP, 6/1/15)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency said it has arrested six senior officials from the country's central bank and 16 from commercial banks over alleged currency fraud. The former governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako (72), turned himself in for questioning at the country's anti-graft agency following claims of money laundering.
(AFP, 6/1/15)(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 1, In southeast Nigeria armed robbers shot and hacked to death Denis Dagnan (62) a French tourist camping with his wife in the bush. His wife Lavaud Liana Dagnan (53) was unharmed.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 2, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram attacked Maiduguri with deafening explosions from the west and a suicide bombing near the center killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 6/2/15)(AFP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Nigeria an explosion on the Baga Road in Maiduguri killed 18 people.
(AFP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 3, Amnesty International said more than 8,000 people have died while being held prisoner by Nigeria's armed forces in the campaign against Islamist group Boko Haram, many of them deliberately killed. Amnesty Int’l. issued a 133-page report "Stars on their Shoulders. Blood on their Hands: War crimes Committed by the Nigerian Military" and named six serving or retired army officers whom it said should be probed to establish whether they were responsible for murder, torture and disappearances.
(Reuters, 6/3/15)(AP, 6/15/17)
2015 Jun 4, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber struck in the main market in the city of Yola, killing 35 people. 10 more people died by the next day bringing the death toll to 45. A suicide bomber exploded a car at a checkpoint outside a military barracks and killed 8 soldiers in Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 6/5/15)(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb blast hit a cattle market in Borno state late today, with as many as 16 people dead.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, In Nigeria Bukola Saraki, a former governor of Kwara state, was elected as head of the Senate and the third most powerful figure in the country. 3 women wearing explosive vests blew up near Maiduguri in an apparent failed suicide bombing attack on the city.
(AP, 6/9/15)(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 11, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 37 people in overnight raids on five villages around Maiduguri, Borno state.
(Reuters, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 12, Nigerian health officials said dozens of people were dying of poisoning from possibly adulterated home-brewed alcohol, days after they banned ogogoro (a home-made gin). About 70 people died since May 31 in Rivers State.
(AP, 6/12/15)(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 15, In Nigeria two suspected Boko Haram bomb attacks in the northeastern city of Potiskum killed 10 people.
(Reuters, 6/15/15)
2015 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria at least 13 people were killed and 53 others injured when an explosive device detonated late today. The device was picked up by one vigilante as they traveled back to the town of Monguno, Borno state, from a military operation against Islamists in Marte.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 17, Chad warplanes bombed Boko Haram positions in neighboring Nigeria to avenge twin suicide bombings in the capital this week blamed on the jihadists. The government also announced it was banning the burqa nationwide in a security clampdown.
(AFP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 22, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari slammed the state of the country's finances, claiming his predecessor had left Africa's biggest economy deep in debt and the treasury "virtually empty". A girl thought to be aged about 17 killed at least 20 at a bus station near a fish market in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/23/15)(AFP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 23, In northeastern Nigeria about 40 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants who torched houses and shot people as they fled late last night and into today in Debiro Biu and Debiro Hawul villages in Borno state. A girl thought to be aged just 12 detonated explosives she was carrying at a market in Wagir, Yobe state, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.
(Reuters, 6/24/15)(AFP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 29, In Nigeria two suicide bombers blew themselves up prematurely in a village outside Maiduguri just an hour before the arrival of Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo.
(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jun 30, In Nigeria extremists invaded the village of Musaram and killed 48 men.
(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 1, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants gunned down 97 people including some women and children in Kukawa, Borno state.
(AFP, 7/3/15)(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 2, In Nigeria 6 children drowned in Lagos when the boat ferrying them to school capsized after colliding with a bigger vessel on the city's lagoon.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 2, In northeastern Nigeria a young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she blew herself up in a mosque in a Borno village.
(AFP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 3, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram militants killed 11 men in Miringa village, dragging them from their homes and shooting them for escaping forced conscription by their group. At Malari village, just outside Maiduguri, an explosion from a teenage girl at the market killed at least 10 people. Minutes later a woman in a taxi blew up at a military checkpoint and killed a soldier and two passengers.
(AFP, 7/3/15)(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 5, In Nigeria more than 60 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 7/6/15)(SFC, 7/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 6, In Nigeria a young girl thought to be aged just 13 blew herself up near a major mosque in the city of Kano as worshippers gathered for prayers but caused no deaths or injuries.
(AFP, 7/6/15)
2015 Jul 7, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari approved a bailout of more than $2 billion for states to resolve a crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid for months. Eighteen of Nigeria’s 35 states had unpaid workers.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 7, In northern Nigeria at least 25 people were killed when a bomb blast ripped through a packed government office in Zaria.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 9, Nigeria said its troops have arrested the mastermind of bombings in the central cities of Jos and Zaria this week that killed at least 69 people.
(Reuters, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Nigeria an accidental explosion on an oil pipeline operated by Italian energy giant Eni left 12 people dead and three injured in the southern Niger delta region.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 10, Nigeria's head of state's spokesman Garba Shehu said Pres. Muhammadu Buhari will take only half of the salary paid to former head of state Goodluck Jonathan. In the northeast at least 10 people were killed when a large commando of Boko Haram Islamic extremists attacked Ngamdu village, Borno state, and took over a major highway in the region. Later reports said four villages were attacked and some 43 people killed. Boko Haram gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire residents returning to Gamboru killing 5 men and 3 women.
(AFP, 7/10/15)(AP, 7/11/15)(AFP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 10, In northeastern Nigeria commercial flights resumed into Maiduguri, nearly 18 months after the airport was shut in the wake of a daring Boko Haram raid.
(AFP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, In northeastern Nigeria an attempted bomb attack at Maiduguri’s largest bus station failed when an explosives-ladden tuk-tuk was prevented from entering the site early today. The tuk-tuk exploded, killing the driver and 3 of its occupants.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 11, In southern Niger suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in Diffa late today, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari sacked his army, navy, air force and defense chiefs, a widely anticipated move as the former general has made crushing Islamist militant group Boko Haram his top priority. A suicide bomber hit a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 7/13/15)(AFP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 14, In northeastern Nigeria at least 30 people were killed in three attacks by Boko Haram Islamists. Boko Haram insurgents raided Ngamdu, the border town of Damasak and attacked Warsala in Borno state.
(AFP, 7/15/15)(Reuters, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 14, Nigeria's Ministry of Information announced that it had "successfully jammed the signals" of Radio Biafra, because it is unlicensed. The station dedicated to creating a breakaway state for the Igbo people remained on the airwaves.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Nigeria two bombs killed at least 49 people buying goods for the holiday at the market of Gombe town.
(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria 3 young female suicide bombers killed at least 13 people in Damaturu as worshippers gathered to mark the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Army spokesman Sani Usman gave a toll of 9 dead and 18 wounded.
(Reuters, 7/17/15)(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 20, In northern Nigeria at least 2 people were killed by a car suicide bomb at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damaturu, capital of Yobe state.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, Barack Obama welcomed Nigeria's freshly elected Pres. Muhammadu Buhari to the White House, lending a personal endorsement after the country's first ever democratic transition.
(AFP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said markets and farms in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana have been hit with the deadly H5N1 virus over the past six months.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 22, In Nigeria bomb blasts blamed on Boko Haram killed 37 people at bus stations in Gombe. President Muhammadu Buhari warned that the US refusal to sell his country strategic weapons is "aiding and abetting" the Islamic extremist group.
(AP, 7/23/15)(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram militants attacked the villages of Kopa, Maikadiri and Yaffa in southern Borno state. At least 21 people were killed in Maikadiri and 4 more in Yaffa.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 25, In central Nigeria 8 people were killed and some 100 treated in hospital after inhaling chlorine gas following an explosion at a water treatment plant in Jos.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In northeastern Nigeria a blast set off by a female suicide bomber tore through a crowded market in the city of Damaturu, killing at least 15 people.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists slit the throats of 10 men in villages near Baga on the shores of the Lake Chad. This included 4 fishermen in Bundaram, 2 in Fishdam and 4 in Kwatar Mali.
(AFP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 29, In northeastern Nigeria at least 10 people were killed when Boko Haram Islamist gunmen raided a village in Yobe state in a revenge attack against local vigilantes.
(AFP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, Nigeria's Pres. Muhammadu Buhari headed home after meeting with his Cameroon counterpart for two days of talks focused around the threat posed by Boko Haram.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 31, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber struck the crowded market city of Maiduguri killing 6 people.
(Reuters, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Benin's Pres. Thomas Boni Yayi vowed to contribute 800 troops to a regional force intended to combat the Boko Haram group during a visit from Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari that coincided with Benin's independence anniversary.
(AP, 8/2/15)
2015 Aug 2, Nigeria's military besieged Boko Haram positions in the Islamist militant group's heartland in Borno state after setting free 178 hostages, mainly women and children. 13 bodies were recovered following an assault on Malari village about 20 km from Maiduguri.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Cameroon said it has expelled more than 3,000 Nigerians as part of the fight against Nigeria's Islamic extremists who have launched attacks across borders. At least 6 people were killed and about 50 others were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants in an overnight raid on Tchakarmari village near the northern border.
(AP, 8/4/15)(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AFP, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Nigeria suspected pirates traveling by speedboat killed 4 soldiers and a policeman and stole weapons in a raid late today on a military base in the oil-rich southern delta region.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 11, In northeastern Nigeria a blast at a market in Borno state killed at least 50 people and injured another 51.
(Reuters, 8/11/15)(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In Nigeria a helicopter, owned by Bristow Group of Houston, Texas, crashed as it traveled from an oil rig into a lagoon in Lagos, killing 6 people.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 12, Chad’s Pres. Idriss Deby said Boko Haram has a new commander named Mahamat Daoud, said to have replaced Abubakar Shekau, and that Daoud is willing to negotiate with Nigeria’s new government.
(SFC, 8/13/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari swore in a new set of military chiefs, ordering them to end Boko Haram's bloody six-year Islamist insurgency within three months.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 16, Nigeria's ruling party called on the country's people to support efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover billions of dollars lost to government corruption and punish the perpetrators in the graft-plagued nation.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 16, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram, denied he had been killed or ousted as chief of the jihadist group in an audio recording released today and attributed to him by security experts.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Aug 22, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram fighters ambushed a convoy carrying the head of the Nigerian army, sparking a firefight in which 10 militants and a soldier were killed in Faljari village.
(AFP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 25, In northeastern Nigeria a young female bomber killed 6 people and wounded dozens outside a bus station in the heartland of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in Damaturu. In the northeast Boko Haram extremists killed 24 people in an attack on Marfunudi.
(AFP, 8/25/15)(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 27, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram extremists attacked the fishing village of Kafa, killing 4 people.
(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 28, Nigeria's domestic intelligence agency warned travelers to be ready for an attack on the capital's airport after announcing it had smashed a spy network run by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. The Department of State Services (DSS) said in a statement that it had arrested a 14-year-old at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja who admitted he had been ordered to spy on security procedures.
(AFP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 28, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback reportedly killed 68 people in an attack on Baanu village in Borno state. A government official put the death toll at 56.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed 4 people in Karnuwa village, Borno state.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 29, A Nigerian Air Force plane crashed into a house in the northern city of Kaduna, killing all 7 people on board.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 30, Nigeria's secret police said it had arrested notable Boko Haram suspects, including a key commander, linked with several suicide attacks across the country. The Department of State Services (DSS) said that Usman Shuiabu, also known as Money, and other frontline members of the hardline Islamist group were picked up in Lagos, Kano, Plateau, Enugu and Gombe states between July and August.
(AFP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 30, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed 7 people in Hambagda village, Borno state, and injured five others.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 2, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed at least 5 villagers in a raid in Mainari village, Borno state, before being repelled by government troops. The Nigerian army said it has reinstated some 3,000 soldiers who were dismissed for alleged indiscipline in the battle against Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast.
(Reuters, 9/3/15)(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 8, Nigeria's military said it has banned the use of horses in the northeastern state of Borno to stop deadly raids by Boko Haram gunmen.
(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In northeastern Nigeria a bomb went off in an internally displaced persons camp on the outskirts of the Adamawa state capital Yola, killing at least 7 people.
(AFP, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In Nigeria a one story, mud-brick school building collapsed, killing 4 students and injuring 24 at the Abu Naima Islamic School.
(AP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 17, Nigerian troops rescued 23 men, 33 women and 34 children from Boko Haram Islamists in the villages of Dissa and Balazala, which lie in the vicinity of the town of Gwoza in Borno state.
(AFP, 9/18/15)
2015 Sep 17, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said cholera has killed 16 people in three camps in Nigeria housing over one million people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency.
(Reuters, 9/17/15)
2015 Sep 20, In northeastern Nigeria at least 54 people were killed and 90 wounded in a multiple bomb attack in Maiduguri, Borno state. A suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at a mosque in Ajilari and some insurgents also threw IEDs at a viewing center. More than 20 people were killed in a bomb attack in the garrison town of Monguno.
(Reuters, 9/21/15)(AFP, 9/23/15)
2015 Sep 25, Nigeria's military said more than 200 members of Boko Haram surrendered as troops regained control of the northeastern town of Banki, from where attacks had been launched into Cameroon.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Oct 1, In northeastern Nigeria 4 suicide bombers killed at least 10 people in Maiduguri late today. The army blamed Islamic extremists for the attack and for trying to poison water sources. In a separate incident five people were killed earlier in the day by suspected Boko Haram militants in Kirchinga.
(AP, 10/2/15)
2015 Oct 2, In Nigeria multiple bombs detonated in two satellite towns of Abuja, killing at least 18 people.
(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 2, Nigeria's former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London. She was minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck Jonathan The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its International Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on suspicion of bribery and corruption offences.
(AP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 6, Nigeria reported the arrest of Atlantic Energy chairman Olajide Omokore on corruption and money laundering charges, as part of a widening graft investigation in Africa's biggest petroleum producer that has also netted former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
(Reuters, 10/6/15)
2015 Oct 7, In northeastern Nigeria at least 40 people were killed in two separate suicide bomb attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Damaturu, Yobe state and in Gubio town, Borno state. An overnight attack at a military camp in Yobe state was repulsed with at least 100 insurgents reported killed.
(AFP, 10/7/15)(SFC, 10/8/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 10, A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a bombing mission against Boko Haram crashed in a windstorm in the country's northeast, killing the pilot.
(AP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 13, In northeastern Nigeria three bombs exploded within minutes in Maiduguri killing at least 7 people.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 13, Amnesty Int’l. opened an office in Nigeria promising to investigate allegations of abuses from oil pollution and forced evictions to charges of military killings of civilians in the fight against Boko Haram extremists.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 16, In Nigeria 4 women suicide bombers blew themselves up when challenged by soldiers as they tried to enter Maiduguri, killing at least 18 people and themselves. The attack came just hours after two bombs exploded near a mosque, killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 17, Nigeria said Brig. Gen. Enitan Ransome Kuti has been dismissed from the army and jailed for losing a major battle in which Boko Haram Islamic extremists killed hundreds of civilians at the Jan. 2 battle for Baga.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 19, Gunmen kidnapped two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors off southern Nigeria. The ship, flagged in the Comoro Islands, was attacked near Port Harcourt.
(http://tinyurl.com/oo7rmo9)
2015 Oct 23, In northeastern Nigeria 42 people were killed and 11 wounded in bomb attacks at mosques in Maiduguri, Borno state, and in Yola, Adamawa state.
(Reuters, 10/23/15)(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 24, A Nigerian court nullified the election of the governor of the oil-rich Rivers state on the grounds of irregularities and ordered a fresh vote within 90 days. Governor Nyesom Wike, of former president Goodluck Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been declared winner of the election.
(AFP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 24, In northeastern Nigeria 4 women suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one other person and wounding 10, when civilian guards prevented them from entering the city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 26, MTN Nigeria said it has been fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered cellphone subscribers. The $5.2 billion is at least two average years' profit for MTN Nigeria, by far the MTN Group's most lucrative subsidiary.
(AP, 10/2615)
2015 Oct 27, Nigerian troops freed 338 people, almost all of them women and children, held by Boko Haram Islamists near the group's Sambisa forest stronghold. Troops killed 30 suspected jihadists and seized a cache of arms and ammunition in the area.
(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 27, Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC started auctioning annual crude grades on live television and vowed to cut contract holders by a third as part of a drive to boost transparency at an institution hit by corruption.
(Reuters, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 30, In Nigeria seven were jailed for 10 years after being arrested with nearly 1,500 tons of contraband petrol. They were among the crew of the MT Good Success, which was stopped by a navy patrol boat off the coast of Lagos in February last year.
(AFP, 10/31/15)
2015 Oct 31, It was reported that Nigeria's army has begun posting a photographic collage of 100 wanted Boko Haram militants that features the shadowy leader whom they claim to have killed on at least three occasions.
(AP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 1, Nigerian troops drove Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned northeastern primary school in a shootout that killed 4 militants.
(AP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 3, South African-based MTN Group said that the Nigerian Communications Commission is extending its operating license to 2021 at a cost of $94.2 million even as the company faces a multibillion-dollar fine there. Last week, the commission fined MTN $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect millions of unregistered cellphone subscribers.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 9, Sifiso Dabengwa, the CEO of South Africa-based MTN Group, Africa's biggest telecommunications company, resigned because of a $5.2 billion fine meted out to MTN Group's Nigerian subsidiary.
(AP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 10, In Nigeria police in Port Harcourt fired shots and teargas to disperse hundreds of pro-Biafra supporters as they marched for the release of a key activist.
(AFP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 17, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the country's former national security adviser, accusing him of stealing around $2 billion received for phantom arms contracts.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 17, In Nigeria a blast struck a market in the northeastern city of Yola, killing 32 people and wounding 80 others.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 18, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the former National Security Advisor, accusing him of stealing funds through phantom arms contracts and hampering the fight against the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Nov 18, In Nigeria two suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram attackers drove off with an army T-72 tank and
dozens of new camouflage uniforms. 107 soldiers were missing in the attack.
(http://tinyurl.com/p32bwn5)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 27, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up among crowds at a Shia Muslim procession outside the north city of Kano, killing at least 21 people.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, Pirates attacked the Cyprus-registered Szafir, a Polish-owned cargo vessel, off the Nigerian coast and kidnapped its captain and four crew. The five Polish seamen were reported freed on Dec 8.
(Reuters, 11/27/15)(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Nov 29, In Nigeria Boko Haram destroyed a military base as soldiers fled. Self-defense fighters prevented the insurgents from retaking Gulak town. Extremists kidnapped dozens of girls and set ablaze hundreds of buildings in Bam, Borno state.
(AP, 11/30/15)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 30, Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria and killed about 150 people near the Banki border post according to refugees who walked for days to Adamawa’s Fufore transit center. Cameroon’s government denied the charges.
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 1, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Bashir Yuguda, the former minister of state for finance, has been arrested along with some other people in connection with a $2 billion arms deal that is currently being investigated.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 4, In Nigeria at least 3 people were killed and six others injured in suicide attacks in northeastern Borno state blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 4, South Africa-based MTN announced that its fine by Nigeria's communications agency had been reduced to 674 billion naira ($3.4 billion). Spokesman Tony Ojobo said there was a typo and the actual amount is 780 billion naira ($3.9 billion).
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 5, Nigeria's intelligence agency said it has arrested nine alleged Boko Haram extremists plotting attacks on Abuja, the capital, over the festive season. All nine were detained in the past month and had infiltrated the capital in central Nigeria from the country's northeast.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 12, In northern Nigeria soldiers besieging the home of Ibraheem Zakzaky, the leader of a Shiite movement accused of trying to assassinate Nigeria's army chief, shot and killed at least 20 people in Zaria.
(AP, 12/13/15)(AP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 13, In northern Nigeria Zeenah Ibrahim, the wife of Shiite movement leader Ibraheem Zakzaky, was shot and killed hours after she called The Associated Press to report that soldiers were besieging her home in Zaria. On Aug 1, 2016, a commission of inquiry said that 348 people were killed in Zaria in three days of clashes, December 12-14, between Nigerian troops and Zakzaky’s Iranian-inspired Islamic Movement.
(AP, 12/14/15)(AFP, 1/15/16)(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A2)
2015 Dec 14, Nigerian prosecutors charged former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki (60) with corruption. He pleaded innocent to embezzling $2.1 billion meant to purchase arms to fight Boko Haram, and said some of the money was diverted on the order of former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan to try to get himself re-elected.
(AFP, 12/14/15)(AP, 12/14/15)(SFC, 12/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 15, Nigerian police opened fire on unarmed Shiite Muslim protesters in the northern city of Kaduna, leaving 3 dead. Activists accused soldiers of having killed hundreds of Shiites in "a massacre" in a nearby town in recent days.
(AP, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 17, In Nigeria insurgents killed 14 people, some of whom were decapitated, when they raided Kamuya village.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 18, A Dutch appeals court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell may be held liable for oil spills at its subsidiary in Nigeria, potentially opening the way for other compensation claims against multinationals in the Niger Delta and elsewhere.
(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Nigeria said its military has commuted the death sentences handed to 66 soldiers for mutiny over claims they refused to fight Boko Haram Islamists. Instead, each soldier will serve a 10-year prison term.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen launched a dawn raid on Buratai, Borno state, the hometown of the army chief, triggering a fierce gunbattle with troops.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In Nigeria 3 young suicide bombers set off explosions that killed six others and injured at least 24 people in Benisheikh, northeastern Borno state. A military spokesman said troops have killed 12 Boko Haram fighters and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from the hardline Islamist group whose six-year insurgency has claimed thousands of lives.
(AP, 12/21/15)(AFP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 20, Cameroonian troops killed at least 70 residents while chasing Islamic insurgents in the Gwoza area of Borno state in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 23, Human Rights Watch said Nigerian soldiers fired on unarmed Islamic Shiite children with no provocation in Dec 12-14 raids in Zaria that killed hundreds of the minority group.
(AP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 24, In Nigeria blast at a gas plant engulfed the southeastern industrial city of Nnewi. 9 people were killed and three others remained in critical condition.
(AFP, 12/25/15)(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 25, In northeastern Nigeria at least 14 people were killed and several others injured by Boko Haram gunmen in an attack on Kimba village, Borno state.
(AFP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, In northeastern Nigeria an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed 21 people in Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck Maiduguri for the first time in months with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers. At least 50 people were killed and the death toll could go higher. Another twin suicide bombing killed at least 30 people in Madagali, a town 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/28/15)
2015 Mike Smith authored “Boko Haram: Inside Nigeria’s Unholy War."
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.85)
2015 The World Bank estimated Nigeria’s population to be about 182 million based on census figures from 2006.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.36)
2015 Tuberculosis claimed the lives of an estimated 1.8 million people around the world this year, 60% of whom lived in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.
(AFP, 3/23/17)
2015 The World Economic Forum (WEF) rated Nigeria 124th out of 140 countries on the quality of its institutions; 133rd for its infrastructure and last out of 140 on its primary education.
(Econ, 4/16/15, SR p.11)
2016 Jan 1, Nigeria unveiled a nine-meter tall statue of Jesus Christ carved from white marble in the village of Abajah, thought to be the biggest of its kind in Africa. It was commissioned by Obinna Onuoha, a local businessman who hired a Chinese company to carve it and placed it in the grounds of a 2000-capacity church that he built in 2012.
(AFP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 4, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen wearing soldiers' uniforms and female suicide bombers unleashed separate attacks on Izghe, a village 123 km (76 miles) southwest of Maiduguri. At least 18 people were killed.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 5, In Nigeria three female suicide bombers sneaked into Izghe and detonated bombs hidden under their garments, killing 7 other people and destroying three houses. A male suicide bomber also blew himself up, killing himself and 4 other people.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 6, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers arrested Duhu village teacher Habu Bello and two other men, Idrisa Dele and Umaru Hammankadi. The men's bodies were later found dumped, with bullet wounds.
(AP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 7, The United States donated 24 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to Nigeria's military, to enable the country's soldiers to combat Boko Haram Islamic insurgents who continued cutting a bloody path through the northeast.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 8, Nigeria’s Health Minister Isaac Adewole said 40 people have died in a suspected outbreak of Lassa fever in 10 states across the country.
(AFP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 14, A Nigerian court ordered the arrest of former Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo on theft and money laundering charges totaling more than $175 million.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 18, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed said state governors, ministers, business leaders, public officials and bankers allegedly stole $6.7 billion in public funds in seven years.
(AFP, 1/18/16)
2016 Jan 24, In Nigeria gunmen believed to be ethnic Fulani herders killed a policeman and 19 civilians and torched homes in northeastern Adamawa state in a spat over grazing rights.
(AFP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 25, It was reported that sales of rat poison have taken off in Nigeria following an outbreak of Lassa fever that has left at least 76 people dead and sparked fears of contagion across the country.
(AFP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 27, In Nigeria at least 13 people were killed when three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the northeastern town of Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April, 2014.
(AFP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Human Rights Watch said Nigeria's new government is violating rights on many fronts in its fight against Boko Haram's Islamic uprising and in bringing corrupt politicians to book.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, In northeastern Nigeria a child suicide bomber blew himself up in a market, killing at least 10 people in Gombi, Adamawa state.
(AFP, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 30, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists firebombed huts in Dalori village and two nearby camps husing 25,000 refugees. 3 female suicide bombers blew themselves up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing 86 people.
(AP, 1/31/16) (AP, 2/1/16)
2016 Jan – 2016 May, In Nigeria at least 149 detainees at the Giwa barracks in Borno state died during this period. Some 1200 people, including children, were reported to be incarcerated there.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.42)
2016 Feb 6, Nigerian health authorities released data that showed a growing Lassa fever outbreak has killed 101 people, as it battles to contain a flare-up of the virus.
(AFP, 2/6/16)
2016 Feb 13, In northeastern Nigeria gun and knife-toting assailants on bikes and in vans stormed the remote villages of Yakshari and Kachifa over the last 4 hours. At least 30 people were killed in the Boko Haram raids.
(AFP, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 14, Cameroon ended a four day operation during which its special forces reportedly killed 162 Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's northeastern town of Goshi, destroying bomb factories and weapons to retake the extremist stronghold.
(AP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 22, Nigeria's anti-graft agency arrested former interior minister Abba Moro, under then-president Goodluck Jonathan, over the death of at least 20 people in a stampede tragedy on March 15, 2014.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 23, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman before traveling on to Qatar. Analysts forecasted Nigeria’s eventual support for an output freeze to stabilise oil prices.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 27, The commander of Cameroonian forces said Cameroonian and Nigerian forces have freed several hundred hostages in a border town held by Boko Haram including young girls who were being trained as suicide bombers.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 29, Nigerian officials said Pres. Muhammadu Buhari is launching a probe after week-long clashes between Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers left "hundreds" dead. Up to 300 people were reported killed.
(AFP, 2/29/16)(Econ, 4/2/16, p.47)
2016 Feb 29, In Nigeria three girls who were abducted by armed men from their school in the eastern suburb of Ikorodu at the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School on the outskirts of Lagos.
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 4, In northeastern Nigeria the Borno state government said it has suspended trading in four cattle markets to prevent the sale of stolen livestock to raise funds for Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 7, A Nigerian court charged retired air chief marshal Alex Badeh with a string of corruption charges, in the latest case involving a high-ranking official.
(AFP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, In Nigeria a five-storey building under construction collapsed in an upmarket area of Lagos. At least 34 people were killed.
(AP, 3/9/16)(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 10, Nigeria’s governing All Progressives Congress charged that at least 32 of its members have been shot, clubbed and beheaded to death over the last two weeks in Rivers state, a stronghold of the opposition Democrats.
(SFC, 3/10/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 14, Nigerian drug agents said they arrested four Mexicans last week helping Nigerian criminals build a "super-lab" capable of producing billions of dollars' worth of methamphetamine. Four Nigerians were also arrested.
(AP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 16, In northeastern Nigeria an attack by two female suicide bombers killed 25 people and wounded 23 during dawn prayers on a mosque on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/16/16)(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 23, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen abducted 14 women and two girls in a remote area of Adamawa state.
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 24, Nigeria’s presidency said it has accused 300 firms and individuals, including army officers, of embezzling 48 billion naira ($241.45 million) through overpaid defense contracts or fraud, in a widening a crackdown on graft.
(Reuters, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 26, Cameroon authorities said a teenager who surrendered before carrying out a suicide bombing attack in the north has said she was one of the 276 girls abducted from a Nigerian boarding school by Islamic extremists nearly two years ago.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 27, In Nigeria 3 people were killed and several wounded when an oil pipeline belonging to Italy's ENI exploded during repair works in the southern Delta region. Workers had been repairing the pipeline when it caught fire.
(Reuters, 3/29/16)
2016 Apr 1, Nigeria's army reportedly arrested Khalid al-Barnawi (aka Usman Umar Abubakar), leader of the Islamist militant group Ansaru, in the city of Lokoja. Ansaru is a splinter faction of Boko Haram that has been accused of kidnapping and killing Westerners.
(Reuters, 4/4/16)(SFC, 4/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 5, In Nigeria angry motorists queued overnight at petrol stations across the country and lines of cars blocked traffic in the commercial capital Lagos as the worst fuel shortages for years hit Africa's top oil producer.
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 9, Nigerian secret police accused a Biafra separatist group of killing 55 people after discovering their bodies in shallow graves in a thick forest in the country's southeast. The Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria's domestic spy agency, said the graves were found in Umuanyi forest in Abia state, home to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement.
(AFP, 4/10/16)
2016 Apr 11, Nigeria’s Kaduna state government secretary Balarabe Lawal told a commission of inquiry that dozens of soldiers and state officials transported 347 bodies from a mortuary and an army base to a bush site where they were buried after the Dec. 12-14 military raids on Shiite compounds in northern Zaria town. The Shiites say those killed number closer to 1,000.
(AP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 20, In northeastern Nigeria two female suicide bombers killed at least 8 people in Banki at a camp for people displaced by the jihadist Boko Haram insurgency. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed at least 11 people overnight in Zango village, Yobo state.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)(AFP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 25, In Nigeria 20 young Fulani herdsmen descended from the hills and emerged from the palm tree forest, shooting AK-47 assault rifles in the air and waving machetes in the village of Nimbo. At least 10 people were thought to have been killed and scores injured.
(AFP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 4, In southern Nigeria militants used explosives to blow up the Okan platform, a collection facility for offshore oil and gas that feeds the Escravos terminal. This caused Chevron to lose 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of net crude oil production.
(AFP, 5/7/16)
2016 May 6, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it is suspending aid to Nigeria’s AIDS agency over evidence that $3.8 million was stolen by its workers and consultants.
(SFC, 5/7/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, In Nigeria 3 soldiers guarding an oil installation were shot and killed when they came under fierce attack. The Niger Avengers claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 11, In Nigeria Shell closed the terminal exporting the country’s benchmark Bonny Light crude oil as was evacuating workers as renewed militant attacks cut production.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, In northeastern Nigeria 7 people including 2 police officers were killed when a suicide bomber tried to attack government offices in Maiduguri.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 14, In Nigeria regional and Western powers gathered for talks on quelling the threat from Boko Haram as the UN warned of the militants' threat to African security and ties to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 16, The UN said more than nine million people in the Lake Chad region are in desperate need of food aid as the violent insurgency continues being waged there by Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have significantly weakened Boko Haram but have been unable to vanquish the Islamists entirely.
(AFP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 17, In Nigeria teenager Amina Ali Darsha, the first of more than 200 schoolgirls missing for over two years after they were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, was found carrying a baby near the Sambisa forest close to the border with Cameroon.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 20, In Nigeria former militants of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) called for a halt to a resurgence of attacks on oil and gas facilities in Nigeria's Niger Delta, saying it is an unnecessary distraction for President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 24, Nigeria’s agriculture commissioner Manzo Daniel said the Tuta absoluta moth, dubbed "tomato Ebola" by local farmers, has destroyed more than 80 percent of tomato farms in the northern state of Kaduna. Tomato prices have been steadily climbing for months, caused by unrest in northern and central states where the crop is grown and this has affected farmers' ability to plant and harvest.
(AFP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 26, In Nigeria a bomb attack forced US-based oil major Chevron to halt onshore activities at its 160,000-barrel a day Escravos export terminal. Participants in a stakeholders' meeting in Warri accused the government of a heavy-handed military response and warned such a campaign will not stop attacks that have cut oil production by more than 40 percent.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, In Nigeria militants attacked the Nembe pipeline in the Delta region, hours after the Niger Delta Avengers militant group claimed a strike on the facility.
(Reuters, 5/28/16)
2016 May 28, In Nigeria militants blew up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip in an increasingly fierce campaign that has chopped Nigeria's oil production in half.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to keep and "re-engineer" a controversial amnesty program for Niger delta militants designed to stem attacks that have slashed oil exports but set to be scrapped.
(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 29, In Nigeria at least 10 people were killed during protests by pro-Biafra campaigners. Activists wanting a separate state for the Igbo people in the southeast were commemorating the 49th anniversary of the declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967.
(AFP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 30, In Nigeria protests by pro-Biafra campaigners, wanting a separate state for the Igbo people in the southeast, commemorated the 49th anniversary of the 1967 declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra. Amnesty International later said at least 17 were killed and nearly 50 injured in Onitsha alone in violence linked to the commemoration.
(AFP, 6/10/16)
2016 May, In Nigeria annual inflation jumped to almost 16%.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.53)
2016 Jun 2, In Geneva OPEC oil ministers ended a meeting without reaching any kind of consensus on regulating the price and supply of crude, a result that triggered an immediate drop in energy markets. The OPEC oil cartel said that it has appointed Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary general.
(AP, 6/2/16)(AFP, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, In Niger 28 troops were killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists at Bosso on the border with Nigeria. The dead soldiers included 26 from Niger and 2 from Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/4/16)(AFP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 4, Nigeria announced that it has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets over the past year under Pres. Buhari’s anticorruption campaign.
(SSFC, 6/5/16, p.A4)
2016 Jun 8, In Nigeria the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group rejected a truce offer to end attacks on key oil infrastructure and claimed another strike. The Nigerian Navy said nine suspected militants blamed for previous attacks around the port city of Warri had been arrested.
(AFP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 8, Chad reportedly sent some 2,000 troops to neighboring Niger, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week. On June 18 Chadian troops were reported to be in Nigeria but not in Niger.
(AFP, 6/8/16)(Reuters, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 10, Nigeria fired dozens of senior officers accused of corruption and the theft of billions of dollars meant to buy arms to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 10, In Nigeria the Niger Delta Avengers militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a trunk line owned by Agip ENI.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 16, In northeast Nigeria Boko Haram militants opened fire at a funeral, killing 18 mourners including many women and children in the Madagali area of Adamawa state near the Sambisa forest.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 20, The Nigerian naira depreciated 30% as the government allowed the currency to float, with business welcoming the move as an overdue step towards reviving Africa's biggest economy. The central bank released the naira from its peg of 197-199 to the dollar.
(AFP, 6/20/16)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.62)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.35)
2016 Jun 21, Nigeria said it has agreed a one-month ceasefire with militants behind recent attacks on oil facilities in its southern Niger Delta, as efforts continue to end the unrest that has pushed crude output to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped a group of construction workers in an ambush that killed their driver. All seven were on assignment for Australian mining contractor Macmahon Holdings.
(SFC, 6/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 29, In Cameroon a young male suicide bomber belonging to Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram killed at least 11 people when he blew himself up close to a mosque near the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, Nigerian officials said authorities in Lagos have shut down dozens of churches, mosques and hotels in a bid cut noise pollution.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jun, Interpol and Nigeria's anti-fraud agency arrested a Nigerian, identified as Mike (40), accused of scamming $60 million from companies around the world through fraudulent emails after months of investigation. He was arrested along with a 38-year-old accomplice in Port Harcourt.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In Nigeria kidnappers seized Alfred Nelson-Williams, Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner, as he was on his way to Kaduna from Abuja. They demanded a $40 million ransom in the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century. The diplomat was freed on July 5 but it was not clear whether or not a ransom was paid.
(AFP, 7/2/16)(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A2)(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 4, Nigeria’s central bank dismissed the management of Skye Bank, the country’s eighth biggest lender by assets, amid concerns that it had failed to keep thick enough buffers of capital to absorb losses on bad debts..
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.57)
2016 Jul 4, In Nigeria suspected militants blew up a pipeline in the southern Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State. Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers said in a short statement on their website that they carried out the attacks.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, Twitter suspended the account of Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria in the last few months which pushed the country's crude production to 30-year lows.
(Reuters, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 7, The Niger Delta Avengers attacked more oil infrastructure in southern Nigeria, ignoring a call for unity from Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 11, Nigeria said gunmen believed to be nomadic Fulani herdsmen have killed scores of villagers in Benue State in a long-running conflict over grazing rights. Nigeria's Channels television put the number of dead at 81 in the past two weeks after attacks on farming villages in the Logo and Ukum areas of the state.
(AFP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 19, The IMF slashed its growth forecast for the Nigerian economy this year, saying a combination of plunging oil revenues and weakened investor confidence will push it into recession.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 28, In Nigeria Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy in Borno state. Three civilians including a UNICEF employee and contractor for the International Organization for Migration were wounded, along with two of the soldiers escorting the humanitarian workers. The UN in response suspended its missions outside Maiduguri, where it says a half million people are starving. A day later UNICEF said it was returning to full operations in the area.
(AP, 7/29/16)(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 29, Nigeria’s army said its troops backed by a regional force have recaptured the northeastern town of Damasak where Boko Haram killed more than 200 and abducted hundreds of children two years ago. The Chad-based MNJTF comprises troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Nigeria 5 Islamists were killed as troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicenter of the seven-year insurgency.
(AFP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, Nigeria said it has resumed the payment of allowances to former Niger delta rebels under an amnesty scheme, after low global crude prices plunged the oil-rich country into a financial crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, The Islamic State group's newspaper identified a new leader of the group's West Africa Province, popularly known as Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists, who promises not to attack mosques or markets used by Muslims. The Arabic-language newspaper al-Nabaa identified Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new "Wali," a title previously used to describe long-time leader Abubakar Shekau.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 6, Nigeria said 11 troops have been killed in clashes with gunrunners and bandits in the violence-wracked north central region. Soldiers and airmen, came under attack from gunmen during operations to confiscate illegal weapons from the villages of Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw in Niger State.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Nigeria a previously unknown group called Delta Greenland Justice Mandate said it had attacked a crude pipeline belonging to state oil firm NNPC and local firm Shoreline Natural Resources in Urhobo in Delta state.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, In Nigeria protesters continued to block the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the restive southern region for a third day. A youth and protest leader said militants blew up another crude pipeline in the Niger Delta.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 12, In Nigeria military helicopters rushed polio vaccines to dangerous parts of the northeast, where Boko Haram operates and two paralyzed toddlers were recently discovered.
(AP, 8/13/16)
2016 Aug 14, Nigerian militant group Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 19, Nigeria's air force reportedly killed a number of senior Boko Haram fighters and possibly their overall leader inside the Sambisa forest. Abubakar Shekau was believed to be fatally wounded.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 20, Nigeria’s Niger Delta Avengers' (NDA) said on its website late today that it would "observe a cessation of hostilities," although not without conditions.
(AFP, 8/21/16)
2016 Aug 22, In northern Nigeria a Muslim mob killed 8 people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy. A mob of Muslim students in the town of Talata Mafara were enraged over alleged derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed by their Christian schoolmate, who they attacked.
(AFP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug, In northeastern Nigeria an estimated that 240,000 children in Borno state were suffering from severe acute malnutrition according to UN estimates.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.41)
2016 Oct 7, It was reported that President Barack Obama has issued waivers that continue millions of dollars in US military assistance for troubled South Sudan and six other nations where child soldiers have been used, disappointing advocates who say his administration hasn't made curbing the use of children in combat a higher priority. Waivers also have been granted to Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Iraq and Myanmar.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Nov 5, In northern Nigeria one of some 270 schoolgirls abducted by jihadist group Boko Haram from their school in Chibok in 2014 was found by soldiers screening escapees from Boko Haram's base in the Sambisa forest. Maryam Ali A was discovered to be carrying a 10-month-old son, named Ali.
(AP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Nigeria armed bandits killed 36 gold miners at the informal mining site at Gidan Ardo in northwest Zamfara state. 20 miners were reported missing.
(AP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 8, In Nigeria a blast rocked a pipeline operated by the state-run oil firm NNPC that feeds the Forcados terminal in the southern Niger Delta energy hub. The explosion occurred while the pipeline was being repaired following an attack last week.
(Reuters, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 9, Nigerian militants said they have again blown up an oil pipeline carrying crude oil for export from Shell’s Forcados terminal. This was the third attack in eight days on the Trans Forcados pipeline network.
(SFC, 11/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 15, The UN warned that 75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger grips the country's ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of children have died of starvation in the Boko Haram ravaged northeast.
(AFP, 11/15/16)(SFC, 11/16/16, p.A5)
2016 Nov 18, In Nigeria five suicide bombers targeted a police checkpoint and a bus station near a transit camp in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing four of themselves and two civilian self-defense fighters. The fifth bomber was arrested.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 19, Nigerian troops gunned down a suicide bomber at a transit camp for refugees from Boko Haram in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 Nov 21, An attack by Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists against a Lake Chad army base manned by an anti-insurgent regional force left six Cameroonian soldiers dead.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, In northeastern Nigeria local leaders said Boko Haram fighters are overrunning villages near Chibok, forcing hundreds of people to flee as the insurgents loot and burn in the area where nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped in 2014.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 24, Amnesty International accused Nigeria's security forces of killing at least 150 pro-Biafra protesters and injuring hundreds since August 2015.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 28, In Nigeria a woman suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a checkpoint. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and the baby.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 2, A Nigerian court ruled that Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), should be released along with his wife after being held without charge for nearly a year by the country's security agency. Founders of the Nigerian sect were inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Shi'ite Iran.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, In central Nigeria a petrol tanker skidded off the road and exploded, killing at least 14 people in the transit town of Tegina, Niger state.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 9, In Nigeria two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the northeastern town of Madagali, killing 57 people and wounding 177.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In southeastern Nigeria at least 160 people were killed by the collapse of the Reigners Bible church in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials. The Akwa Ibom state government later said only 23 people died in the tragedy, an apparent attempt to cover up a death toll of more than 150 when metal girders and the corrugated iron roof crashed onto a crowded service.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/11/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 11, In Nigeria two girl suicide bombers died when they exploded in a crowded area near a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Nigeria African leaders at the 50th summit of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for a swift resolution of the political impasse in Gambia after disputed elections in which long-term president Yahya Jammeh is refusing to concede defeat.
(AFP, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 22, In Nigeria a faction of Boko Haram allied to the Islamic State group attacked an army barracks in northeastern Yobe state. President Muhammadu Buhari said troops defeated Boko Haram in its Sambisa Forest stronghold in Borno state.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Nigeria three convicted criminals on death row for about two decades were secretly executed in the first hangings in the country since 2013. The executions were said to breach a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 24, Nigeria’s Pres. Muhammadu Buhari declared that the Boko Haram extremist group has finally been crushed, driven from its last forest enclave with fighters on the run and no place to hide.
(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 25, In Nigeria two people were killed when part of a two-storey building in a police training college collapsed in Lagos.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 26, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle market in the restive city of Maiduguri. One of the bombers was killed, while the other was arrested.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 27, Nigerian minister Mohamed Bazoum said 31 young people from Diffa, who were enrolled a few years ago in Boko Haram, have decided to surrender.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Nigerian police said a plot to blow up a major bridge in Lagos has been foiled following the arrest of a 43-year-old man suspected of being part of a gang that planned to carry out the attack.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 29, In a video posted on YouTube, Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced: "I am here, well and alive" and that "the battle is just beginning." He urged his followers, in graphic terms, to continue the campaign.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Stephen Ellis, a British expert on African affairs, authored “This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organized Crime."
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.76)
2016 Dec 31, In northeastern Nigeria one person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged around 10 blew herself up in a New Year's Eve attack in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2016 Ngugi wa Thiong’o if Nigeria authored “Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening."
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.74)
2016 The Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) split from Nigeria's Boko Haram. In 2018 analysts estimated that ISWA has 3,000-5,000 fighters in the Lake Chad area and that its territory extended more than 100 miles into the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno and Yobe.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2017 Jan 3, Nigerian anti-drug officers said they found 9.15 kg (20 pounds) of cocaine worth $4.7 million "factory-packed" inside a new pair of shoes that arrived at Abuja airport on a flight from Brazil.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 5, Nigerian soldiers found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly three years ago wandering in the bush with her baby near the Islamic extremist group's forest stronghold. More than 200 of the girls remain missing.
(AP, 1/5/17)(SFC, 1/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 5, A Nigerian official said three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead. The girls were intercepted at Bakin Dutse village, some five km from Madagali.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 5, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said women in the Lake Chad basin, where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, have been forced to sell sex to survive due to an insurgency by Boko Haram fighters that has driven millions from their homes and left children to starve.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 8, In Nigeria five suicide bombers trying to infiltrate the northeastern city of Maiduguri and died in explosions that killed at least three civilians.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 13, In northeastern Nigeria three female suicide bombers killed at least six people and injured 14 in a crowded market in the town of Madagali. Gunmen kidnapped five students and two staff, including a Turkish national, from an international school in the southern state of Ogun.
(Reuters, 1/13/17)(Reuters, 1/14/17)(SFC, 1/14/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 16, In Nigeria three suicide bombers, including a child, exploded at dawn at the northeastern University of Maiduguri, killing a university professor and another child. The bombers also died.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 17, A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp, killing at least 76 refugees and wounding more than 100 in northeast Rann. Estimates later rose to as many as 236 people killed in the botched air strike.
(AP, 1/17/17)(Reuters, 1/18/17)(AFP, 1/21/17)
2017 Jan 26, Britain’s High Court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell cannot be sued in London over oil spills in Nigeria, in a setback to attempts to hold British multinationals liable at home for their subsidiaries' actions abroad. The court also said the claimants should be able to use Nigerian courts.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 26, German geologist Kay Holtzmann, contracted by the Dutch-British multinational Royal Dutch Shell's Nigeria subsidiary, wrote a letter to the Bodo Mediation Initiative saying the company "fiercely opposed" environmental testing and is concealing data showing thousands of Nigerians are exposed to health hazards from a stalled cleanup of the worst oil spills in the West African nation's history.
(AP, 3/24/17)
2017 Jan 27, In Nigeria armed jihadists from the Islamic State-supported Al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram launched a midnight attack on troops in the village of Kamuya. At least three Nigerian soldiers were killed. Boko Haram claimed it killed five soldiers.
(AFP, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 27, The World Food Program said around 1.8 million people are at risk of starvation in northeast Nigeria, victims of an Islamist insurgency that is undermining efforts by the WFP.
(Reuters, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 28, In Nigeria gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamic extremists attacked a convoy of motorists along a recently secured highway. At least 15 trucks laden with food were seized when the Islamists struck at the Korowaso forest. More than 20 people were feared dead.
(AP, 1/29/17)(AFP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan, Nigeria seized OPL 245 oil block, labelling it the proceeds of a crime. In 2011 Eni and Shell had paid $1.3 billion for the block. Prosecutors alleged that over $500 million ended up in front companies for former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan.
(Econ, 3/4/17, p.54)
2017 Feb 2, Nigeria’s government said it will soon pay all the overdue cash stipends it owes former militants who signed up for an amnesty in 2009 in the Niger Delta oil hub.
(Reuters, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 4, James Ibori, who as governor of oil-rich Delta State became one of Nigeria's richest and most powerful men, returned to the country after serving a sentence for corruption in Britain. Ibori served half his 13-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 6, Hundreds of Nigerians marched to protest poverty and corruption as President Muhammadu Buhari's prolonged absence abroad for medical tests raised political and economic tensions.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 7, Nigerian troops saved the life of a young woman strapped with explosives and killed another suicide bomber, apparently primed by Boko Haram Islamic extremists to attack the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AP, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 8, The Russian embassy in Nigeria said seven Russian sailors and a Ukrainian have been kidnapped in Nigerian waters from the BBC Caribbean, a cargo vessel flagged in Antigua and Barbuda.
(AP, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 9, In Nigeria more than 700 people took to the streets in Abuja to protest against the government's economic policy in a sign of mounting public anger in the oil producer grappling with recession.
(Reuters, 2/9/17)
2017 Feb 9, In northern Nigeria Boko Haram killed one person and abducted a seven-year-old boy from the village of Kaumutaiyahi near Chibok.
(AFP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 10, In northern Nigeria at least eight soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram ambush in the Mafa area east of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 17, Nigerian troops and civilian self-defense fighters repelled multiple suicide bombers in Maiduguri. Nine bombers and two civilians were reported killed.
(SFC, 2/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 21, UNICEF said nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk" of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
(Reuters, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria at least seven soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on military positions in the town of Gajiram.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 23, UN aid agencies and donor countries gathered in Oslo for a two-day meeting to raise emergency aid for millions of people threatened by famine in the Lake Chad region, which comprises northeast Nigeria, northern Cameroon, western Chad and southeast Niger.
(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 24, In Norway fourteen donor countries, with the US conspicuously absent, pledged $672 million in emergency aid for people threatened by famine after eight years of Boko Haram violence in the Lake Chad region, but the sum is just a fraction of what the UN says is needed.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 27, South Africa deported 97 Nigerians for various offences following a series of raids, amid heightened bilateral tensions over anti-immigrant violence in South Africa.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 2, Nigeria filed criminal charges of corruption against oil multinationals Royal Dutch Shell and Eni over the $1.1 billion sale of one of Africa's richest oil blocks. Malabu Oil, secretly set up by former Oil Minister Dan Etete, was awarded OPL 245 while he was oil minister. Nigeria's government got only $210 million from the deal.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 6, Nigeria’s former Adamawa state governor James Bala Ngilari was jailed for five years after being found guilty of corruption related to procurement of cars while in office.
(Reuters, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 8, Nigeria's capital was cut off by air, as Abuja airport closed for at least six weeks for repairs, forcing flights to divert and lengthening travel times for passengers.
(AFP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari returned home after nearly two months' medical leave in Britain but did little to quell fears about the state of his health by saying he would not start work again immediately.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN warned that the world is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II, with more than 20 million people facing starvation and famine in four countries (northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen).
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 13, South Africa and Nigeria said they would launch a jointly run "early warning" system to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerian migrants.
(AFP, 3/13/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Nigeria three suicide bombers suspected to be members of Boko Haram detonated explosive devices strapped on their bodies late today, killing at least four people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 21, The UN said more than 2,600 Nigerians who fled into northern Cameroon to escape Boko Haram jihadists have been forced to go home since the start of the year.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, In northeastern Nigeria at least four suicide blasts rocked a camp for migrants fleeing Boko Haram insurgents, killing at least three people and wounding 20.
(AFP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, The International Red Cross appealed for $400 million to help some 20 million people facing famine or the risk of it in four conflict-ridden countries: Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria.
(AP, 3/22/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.39)
2017 Mar 27, The foreign minister of Nigeria visited Poland an effort to develop economic, military and security ties with the fast-growing economy in central Europe.
(AP, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 30, In Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists raided the village of Pulka near border with Cameroon and kidnapped 18 girls. Jihadists outside Dumba killed a herdsman who had tried to escape after refusing to pay protection money. They shot dead 50 of his cattle and took four women from his family along with the rest of his herd.
(AFP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 2, In Nigeria three suicide bombers blew themselves up attempting to get into the northeastern city of Maiduguri. A dog grappled with a suicide bomber at a wedding in Belbelo village near Maiduguri until her explosives detonated, killing the animal as well.
(AP, 4/2/17)(SFC, 4/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 9, In Nigeria gunmen shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Lagos.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2016 Apr 9, In southeastern Nigeria two Turkish were kidnapped from a hotel room in the town of Eket, Akwa Ibom state.
(Reuters, 4/11/17)
2017 Apr 12, Nigeria's military destroyed 13 illegal refineries in the restive Niger Delta oil hub, in an operation in which two soldiers died in clashes with "sea robbers".
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 19, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an investigation into corruption allegations against a senior civil servant related to the use of funds intended for handling a humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the country. Buhari suspended two key aides over an alleged contract scam and for keeping an unauthorized stash of cash in a private home.
(Reuters, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 24, In northeast Nigeria four people were killed in two separate suicide attacks blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.
(AFP, 4/24/17)
2017 May 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari (74) missed his weekly cabinet meeting for the third straight time as concerns mounted about his health.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 6, Nigeria secured the release of 82 of some 270 girls, kidnapped in Chibok in 2014, in exchange for five Boko Haram leaders.
(Reuters, 5/7/17)(AP, 5/7/17)
2017 May 11, The US Center for Disease Control said more than 1,000 people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria, but added that the spread of the disease is slowing. A new strain of meningitis C was first reported in Zamfara last November.
(AFP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists killed six farmers who were working on their land near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 5/15/17)
2017 May 15, In northeastern Nigeria three female suicide bombers killed two people and injured six others in an attack late today on a village Borno state.
(Reuters, 5/16/17)
2017 May 20, Nigerian troops fought Boko Haram in the Lake Chad area, killing 13 of the Islamic extremists and arresting 10 others, including 6 women believed to have helped smuggle supplies to the insurgents.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 Jun 7, In Nigeria at least 13 people were killed after Boko Haram launched the deadliest attack in months on Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist group. The attack came just hours before a visit by Yemi Osinbajo, the country's acting president.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 11, Nigerian soldiers battled Boko Haram extremists in Jarawa village in Borno state. A large number of rebels were reported killed, including Abu Nazir, who was on the military's wanted list. The soldiers also rescued nine abducted children.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 14, The leader of Nigeria's Senate, Bukola Saraki (54), was cleared of corruption charges, ending of one of the most high-profile trials in President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-graft campaign.
(AP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 15, The EU announced a support package of nearly $160 million for recovery and reconstruction in Nigeria's Borno state, which has been devastated by attacks from homegrown Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 19, In northeastern Nigeria 12 people were killed after suicide bombing attacks by five female bombers in Kofa, not far from Maiduguri.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Nigeria seven suicide bombers, six of whom were women, targeted the campus of Maiduguri University and residential buildings in a district just northeast of the city. Nine people along with the seven suicide bombers were left dead.
(AFP, 6/26/17)
2017 Jul 8, US President Donald Trump promised $639 million in funding for humanitarian programs, including $331 million to help feed starving people in four famine-hit countries - Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen. Trump's pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 11, In Nigeria a graphic video seen by AFP showed Boko Haram publicly executing eight villagers in the northeast Nigeria who opposed the enforcement of its hardline form of Islam.
(AFP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 11, In northeastern Nigeria four Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 19 people late today and injured 23 in Maiduguri.
(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 16, In Nigeria violence erupted between herders and farmers in Kajuru village, 50 km (30 miles) outside the city of Kaduna. Two days of violence left at least 33 people dead.
(AFP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 17, In northeastern Nigeria eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in Maiduguri. Two others were killed shortly before midnight while the third was intercepted shortly after.
(AFP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 23, In northeastern Nigeria female suicide bombers attacked two camps for those displaced by the Boko Haram conflict outside Maiduguri. At least 8 people were killed and another 15 wounded.
(AP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 25, In Nigeria eight people were killed when a four-storey building collapsed after heavy rains in Lagos.
(AFP, 7/26/17)
2017 Jul 25, In northeastern Nigeria at least 69 people died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno state.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria three young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated prematurely in Bama.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 28, In northeastern Nigeria two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 km (56 miles) east of Maiduguri, killing five people.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Aug 3, Nigeria’s state-run oil firm said it has signed financing deals with oil majors Shell and Chevron to develop projects that would boost reserves and revenue.
(AFP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 6, In southeastern Nigeria gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 18 others in St. Philip Catholic Church in an attack arising from a feud between members of the local community in in Ozubulu, Anambra state.
(AP, 8/6/17)(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Nigerian protesters demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving treatment in London for an undisclosed ailment for more than three months, either return or resign.
(AFP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 11, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters stormed a crude oil flow station owned by Shell in the restive Niger Delta demanding jobs and infrastructure development.
(Reuters, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 15, In northeastern Nigeria suicide bombers attacked a camp for internally displaced people and a market killing at least 20 people.
(SFC, 8/1617, p.A2)
2017 Aug 18, Nigeria’s government said more than 100 girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in the town of Chibok in 2014 are ready to return to normal life after being released and receiving psychological and medical treatment.
(Reuters, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters entered villages in the Nganzai area, slitting throats and using guns to kill at least 15 people while injuring two others. Suspected Boko Haram fighters also attacked in the Guzamala local council area, killing 12 people and injuring at least four.
(AP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 28, A Nigerian court seized $21 million from bank accounts linked to Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former oil minister accused of corruption, as investigators continued to claw back her fortune.
(AFP, 8/28/17)
2017 Sep 1, Nigeria's president said more than 100,000 people have been displaced by flooding in the central part of the country. It was not immediately known whether anyone has died in the flooding in Benue state.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 8, In northeastern Nigeria four farmers were shot dead by Boko Haram fighters. Eight more farmers were killed in a series of raids over the next two days.
(AFP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 8, In northeastern Nigeria at least seven people were killed when Boko Haram jihadists attacked a camp in Ngala for people displaced by conflict. The attack came as two people were killed along with two suicide bombers in an explosion outside the Muna Garage camp in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 8, In central Nigeria Fulani herdsmen attacked Ancha village, in the Bassa local government area of Plateau state, early today killing 19 people in Plateau state. The attack was thought to be a reprisal attack after a boy from the community was killed.
(AP, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 14, In Nigeria Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), went missing following an alleged military raid that left his house in the city of Umuahia riddled with bullet holes, its windows smashed and doors hanging off hinges. Around 20 IPOB members were reportedly shot dead but most of the bodies were taken by soldiers. The army later denied the raid.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Sep 18, In northeastern Nigeria suspected suicide bombers killed at least 12 people and injured 26 others in Borno state, epicenter of the Islamist militant Boko Haram insurgency.
(Reuters, 9/18/17)
2017 Sep 19, Nigeria intercepted 470 rifles from Turkey, which had been falsely declared as elbow joints for plumbing. That shipment was uncovered barely a week after a 20-foot container-load of 1,100 pump-action rifles was impounded at the same port. According to Nigeria Customs Service a total of 2,671 action pump rifles allegedly imported from Turkey have been seized in Lagos since January.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Children's Fund said Boko Haram's ongoing insurgency in northern Nigeria has forced the closure of more than 57 percent of schools in Borno state, leaving about 3 million children without an education as the school year begins.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 1, President Muhammadu Buhari railed against separatists seeking Nigeria's "dismemberment" as it marked its 1960 independence from Britain and said corruption remained the African oil giant's "number one enemy".
(AP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 4, Nigeria's financial crimes agency brushed off allegations by the wife of the country's former president that it had conducted a "witch-hunt" against her. Last year, the EFCC froze four US dollar bank accounts that the ex-president's wife said she owned. Her spokesman said in September 2016 that the accounts in total contained around $10 million - a third of the sum reported in the Nigerian press.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 12, In southern Nigeria Italian priest Maurizio Pallu (63) was snatched in broad daylight by armed men just outside of Benin City. He was travelling with a group of four other people when they were attacked and robbed by armed men who took Pallu but let the others go.
(AFP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 13, In Nigeria four British missionaries giving free medical services were kidnapped in southern Delta state. After three weeks Ian Squire was reported killed and the other three released.
(Reuters, 10/18/17)(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Nigeria Rev. Maurizio Pallu was released late today, five days after being kidnapped in Benin City.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 19, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting Nigerian Pres. Muhammadu Buhari vowed to ramp up security and economic cooperation between Ankara and Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 21, Pirates In Nigerian waters attacked the Liberia-flagged container ship MV Demeter. Six crew members were kidnapped. Those kidnapped comprise four Filipinos, one Ukrainian and one Hungarian. On Nov. 12 a German shipping company said pirates have released the six crewmembers who were taken hostage from the vessel.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Oct 22, In Nigeria three bombers, all of them women, detonated their explosives near the sprawling Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 30, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the country's most senior civil servant. Babachir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation, was sacked after a report into corruption allegations recommended his dismissal.
(Reuters, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, Court papers said Nigeria has agreed to pay compensation to victims of the country's civil war, 47 years after it ended, and clear former conflict zones of abandoned bombs and landmines.
(AP, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 6, In northeastern Nigeria at least two civilians were killed when dozens of Boko Haram fighters tried to storm Gulak town, Adamawa state, but were repelled by troops.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 15, In Nigeria four suicide bombers killed 14 people and wounded 29 in Maiduguri, home of the Boko Haram insurgency.
(SFC, 11/16/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 16, In Nigeria police broke up a sit-in protest in Lagos, dispersing hundreds of former slum-dwellers demanding compensation after being evicted from their waterfront homes. Earlier this week, Amnesty International published a report calling the evictions "unlawful" and demanded an investigation into the violence.
(AFP, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 21, In northeastern Nigeria a teenage suicide bomber attacked a mosque and killed at least 50 people in Mubi, Adamawa state.
(AP, 11/21/17)(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attempt by suspected Boko Haram militants to seize the northeastern town of Magumeri. At least three soldiers were killed and six others wounded in the fighting.
(Reuters, 11/26/17)
2017 Dec 2, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber pretending to wait in line for food handouts detonated her explosives, killing at least 13 people at a crowded market in the town of Biu, Borno state.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, It was reported that Nigeria's government plans to house displaced people in the northwest in fortified garrison towns, ringed by farms, with the rest of the countryside effectively left to fend for itself.
(Reuters, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 10, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed after their vehicle hit a homemade explosive planted by Boko Haram insurgents along the Maiduguri-Damboa highway.
(SFC, 12/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 12, Nigeria's court of appeal dismissed 15 charges against Senate president Bukola Saraki related to alleged false declarations of assets, but it upheld three other charges against him.
(Reuters, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 12, A Nigerian official said two teenage girl suicide bombers attacked the town of Gwoza, Borno state. One girl was shot dead and the other detonated herself killing four others.
(SFC, 12/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 14, Nigerian state governors approved the release of $1 billion from the country's excess oil account to the government to help fight the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
(Reuters, 12/14/17)
2017 Dec 15, In Nigeria four Chinese expatriates were kidnapped while travelling from Lagos to Ondo state in the south. The military received a distress call, freed the victims and captured one of the kidnappers.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 16, Nigerian authorities said soldiers in a two week operation have arrested 167 Boko Haram fighters as well as 67 women and 173 children associated with the extremist group hiding on the islands of Lake Chad.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 18, A major Nigerian oil union said it would suspend a nationwide strike after securing worker demands through dispute resolution with the government and an oil firm.
(Reuters, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 25, In northeastern Nigeria four civilians were killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 31, In Nigeria a new report said at least 5,247 Muslims have been killed in Adamawa state over the past four years because of Boko Haram.
(SFC, 1/1/18, p.A2)
2017 Nigerian writer Chibundo Onuzo (25) authored her 2nd novel: “Welcome to Lagos".
(https://hkrbooks.com/2017/01/25/welcome-to-lagos/)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.65)
2018 Jan 2, Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video message claiming a series of attacks in the northeast during the festive season.
(AFP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 2, Nigeria's electricity grid was shut down late today by a fire on a gas pipeline, the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada in the southern state of Edo.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber entered a mosque in and detonated his explosives, killing 14 people during early morning prayers in Gamboru Ngala town, Borno state.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 4, The Nigerian military said it had rescued Salomi Pogu, one of more than 270 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok in 2014.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 5, In Nigeria Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Governing Council of Ambazonia, a Cameroon separatist movement, was taken into custody in Abuja along with six aides.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, Nigerian government and police officials said at least 83 people have been killed in communal violence since Dec. 31, much of it involving clashes between Muslim cattle herders and Christian farmers. Terve Akase, chief press secretary to the governor of Benue, attributed 71 of the deaths from Dec. 31 to Jan. 6 in the state to killings by the Fulani. In neighboring Taraba state at least 12 people were killed in similar, ethnically-charged attacks in the Lau region on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 9, Nigeria’s military said troops from Nigeria and neighboring countries have launched major offensives against the two Boko Haram factions and their leaders. Soldiers from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria were targeting Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad, both in Borno state.
(AFP, 1/9/18)
2018 Jan 11, The United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said more than 15,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria amid a crackdown on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 12, Nigeria’s army said that militant leader Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo was killed in a gun battle after his gang members ambushed a military unit that was transporting him following his arrest a day earlier in Delta state.
(SFC, 1/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 15, In Nigeria a video released by Boko Haram Islamic extremists purportedly showed some of the young women kidnapped from a school nearly four years ago who vow never to return home.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 15, Nigeria's army released 244 Boko Haram suspects who have denounced their membership in the deadly extremist group. The public release at the Maiduguri military barracks was done to mark Nigeria's Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
(AP, 1/16/18)
2018 Jan 16, In Nigeria kidnappers abducted one American and one Canadian in the northern state of Kaduna, killing two police officers.
(Reuters, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 17, In northern Nigeria a double suicide bombing at a market in Maiduguri killed at least 12 people and wounded 45 others.
(SFC, 1/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 17, In Nigeria two Americans and two Canadians were ambushed by unknown gunmen while traveling from the town of Kafanchan in Kaduna state to the capital, Abuja. The four were freed on January 19.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 18, In Nigeria five oil workers from local firm Sahara Energy were kidnapped in the southern Niger Delta region.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 25, Nigeria said it will protest to the United States over conditions imposed on its planned $494 million purchase of 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter planes. The sale of the aircraft, with weapons and service, includes thousands of bombs and rockets.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 25, Local aid officials said more than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape a crackdown by the government on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 30, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists killed at least five loggers, in the latest attacks against civilians in the violence-hit region.
(AFP, 2/1/18)
2018 Jan 30, Amnesty Int’l. said Nigeria’s military has killed at least 35 people in air raids during attempts to combat growing violence between farmers and herdsmen over land in five states.
(SFC, 1/31/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 30, Cameroonian troops crossed into neighboring Nigeria in pursuit of separatist rebels. More than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape the government crackdown on the separatists.
(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN refugee agency appealed for $157 million (126 million euros) to help over a quarter of a million people affected by the insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Since 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced another 2.4 million people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 3, Nigerian court papers showed that Danladi Umar, a top judge handling corruption cases against public officials, has himself been charged with bribery.
(AFP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 4, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram fighters stormed a village and murdered two civilians, while six people were killed in an attack in northern Cameroon.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, It was reported that India is seeking the help of the navies of Benin and Nigeria to find the Marine Express oil tanker that has gone missing in the Gulf of Guinea with 22 Indian crew members.
(SFC, 2/6/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 14, The Court of Appeal in London ruled that two Nigerian communities cannot pursue Royal Dutch Shell in English courts over oil spills in Nigeria's Delta region.
(Reuters, 2/14/18)
2018 Feb 16, In northern Nigeria a trio of suicide bombers detonated at a crowded fish market late today in Konduga, Borno state, killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 16, Nigeria’s justice ministry ordered 475 Boko Haram suspects to be freed following a series of mass trials in which most cases were dropped for lack of evidence. The court imposed a second 15-year sentence on Haruna Yahaya (35), who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok.
(AFP, 2/18/18)
2018 Feb 19, A Vatican statement said the pope had accepted the resignation of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as bishop of Nigeria’s diocese of Ahiara. It said the position had been declared vacant and that a papal administrator would run it for the time being. Rebel priests and faithful had rejected him as an ethnic outsider.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 20, In northeastern Nigeria more than 90 schoolgirls went missing after Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram attacked Dapchi village in Yobe state.
(Reuters, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 27, In northeastern Nigeria soldiers killed at least 10 people after attackers struck a village in the Gwamba region of Adamawa state. The region been a flashpoint for communal clashes between farmers and herders.
(Reuters, 2/28/18)
2018 Feb 28, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari's office said security forces have been ordered to defend all schools in "liberated areas" of the country's northeast to avoid further mass abductions from schools by Boko Haram extremists.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria three workers for UN agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by armed Boko Haram militants on a military base near the border with Cameroon. Aid agencies soon pulled out of Rann, leaving tens of thousands uprooted by the fighting living again in parlous conditions with little or no international humanitarian support.
(AP, 3/2/18)(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 2, The UN suspended aid work helping tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria after an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants a day earlier in the town of Rann, Borno state. The suspected militants killed at least 11 people, including the three aid workers. Three other aid workers were missing.
(Reuters, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, Nigerian police said least 10 people were killed in several days of violence between herdsmen and farmers in a number of remote herding villages in the Mambilla district of Taraba state. Cattle drivers said 19 people have been killed and 23 injured.
(AFP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 7, It was reported that between 10,000 and 30,000 Nigerian prostitutes are estimated to be walking Italian streets, often to pay off the debts they incurred to get there.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, In eastern Nigeria rural communities in Taraba state were put on indefinite lockdown as the authorities tried to contain mounting violence between cattle herders and farmers.
(AFP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, In central Nigeria gunmen suspected to be herdsmen killed at least five people in Plateau state. The attack happened just as President Muhammadu Buhari was rounding up a tour of Plateau and four other flashpoint states.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 16, Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani's revelation that lawmakers in the upper house of parliament receive about $37,500 each month for personal expenses prompted anger in the country, where most people live on less than $2 a day.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 21, Nigeria's government said 101 of the 110 schoolgirls abducted a month ago by Boko Haram are confirmed freed, and it indicates that the release is not over.
(AP, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, said police have smashed a Nigerian organized crime ring in one of the largest European operations against human trafficking. It says 89 people have been arrested in Britain and Spain and 39 victims rescued. The gang had trafficked victims to Europe through Libya and Italy, forcing women into prostitution to pay for their journey.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria four teenage girl suicide bombers killed two people in multiple attacks in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 1, In Nigeria Boko Haram tried to enter Maiduguri but were repelled by army soldiers. Six insurgents and seven suicide bombers were killed.
(SFC, 4/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 2, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists attacked two villages on the outskirts of Maiduguri, killing at least 15 people and wounded 83, in the biggest strike since the government said it was in talks with the Islamist militant group.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)(SFC, 4/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 5, The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lassa fever has killed 142 people in Nigeria since the start of the year, reporting a rise of 32 fatalities in a month.
(AFP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 9, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari departed for Britain for talks with PM Theresa May after announcing that he would seek re-election in 2019.
(Reuters, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 12, In northern Nigeria gunmen killed 26 people in Zamfara state, in the latest in a series of attacks blamed on cattle thieves. The victims were miners from Kuru-Kuru that were attacked and residents of Jarkuka village who had come to help their neighbors.
(AP, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 17, Nigeria's upper chamber of parliament said it would invite the central bank governor and the ministers of finance and defence to explain the release of $462 million to buy helicopters.
(Reuters, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 17, Nigerian police fired teargas for a second day at protesters in Abuja demanding the release of Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been in jail without charge since December 2015.
(AFP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, In Nigeria three men burst into the Senate and snatched the legislature's ceremonial mace. The body's spokesman blamed lawmaker Ovie Omo-Agege, who had been suspended.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 26, In Nigeria at least four people were killed when Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked Maiduguri. Five suicide bombers also died trying to detonate their explosives while trying to reach the city's Giwa Barracks, where suspected militants are held. At least one member of the security forces was killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a military vehicle. Air strikes killed an unspecified number of jihadists as they fled. It was also announced that 22 soldiers from a regional force have been killed in fighting this month.
(AFP, 4/27/18)
2018 Apr 30, President Donald Trump met with Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari, president of Africa's most populous and wealthiest country. Buhari sought support in his battle against Boko Haram, as well as investment in Nigeria's rickety infrastructure.
(AFP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr, In central Nigeria 33 people, including a number of policemen, were killed during a brutal bank robbery in Offa, Kwara state.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 May 1, In northeastern Nigeria explosions in and around a mosque in Mubi, Adamawa state, killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 2, In northern Nigeria 13 people were killed over the last two days in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 5, In northwestern Nigeria as many as 40 people were killed by armed bandits in Gwaska, Kaduna state.
(SFC, 5/7/18, p.A2)
2018 May 8, Lawyers said Nigerian migrants, who survived a deadly sea crossing last year, filed a lawsuit last week against Italy for violating their rights by supporting Libya's efforts to return them to North Africa.
(Reuters, 5/8/18)
2018 May 18, In Nigeria anti-corruption representatives from around Africa vowed to "strengthen cooperation and partnership in the tracing, recovery and return of (stolen) assets".
(AFP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 31, Nigerian soldiers on patrol in the southwest intercepted three trucks carrying boxes of ammunition from Benin. The UN Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament (UNREC) has said more than 350 million small arms and light weapons are circulating in Nigeria -- nearly two for every member of its population.
(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 6, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari faced a threat of impeachment after lawmakers issued a raft of demands over security and corruption in a deepening rift with the executive.
(AFP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria six suicide bombers killed at least 20 people in Borno state, in the Shuwari and Abachari districts of the local government area. Residents said at least 31 people were killed.
(AP, 6/17/18)(Reuters, 6/17/18)
2018 Jun 20, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (75) signed the 2018 budget into law, more than six months after the 9.1-trillion-naira ($25 billion, 22-billion-euro) spending plan was first presented to parliament.
(AFP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, In northeastern Nigeria at least five people were killed late today and six others injured in a night-time Boko Haram raid and suicide attack on Tungushe village, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/23/18)
2018 Jun 23, In central Nigeria scores were dead after vicious clashes between mostly Muslim herders and Christian farmers. One report citing police saying 86 people were killed in Plateau State. Multiple local sources said that more than 100 people died in the violence, an apparent reprisal after ethnic Berom farmers allegedly killed five Fulani herders on June 21.
(AP, 6/25/18) (AFP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 28, Nigeria's army said they have arrested 17 people in connection with the killing of more than 200 people in the central state of Plateau.
(AFP, 6/28/18)
2018 Jul 1, Nigerian police found the bodies of 41 men with their throats cut in Zamfara state, a northern area that is notorious as a hideout for criminal gangs. Police soon arrested four suspects after searching the bush area and also found machetes and guns.
(AFP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 4, In Nigeria French President Emmanuel Macron called for Africa and Europe to reach a "win-win" solution to migration during an address to 300 young entrepreneurs on the second day of his visit to Lagos.
(AP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 6, Nigeria's Supreme Court dismissed all outstanding charges against Senate president Bukola Saraki related to alleged false declarations of assets.
(Reuters, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 11, In northern Nigeria 26 people were killed over the last two days in violence blamed on cattle thieves.
(AFP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 14, Nigeria's ruling party won a governorship election in southwestern Ekiti state, unseating the opposition and giving President Muhammadu Buhari a boost ahead of national polls next year.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 18, The Nigeria Police Force said eight suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram have confessed to involvement in the 2014 abduction of some 270 girls from the town of Chibok.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 21, In northeastern Nigeria military troops killed "scores" of Boko Haram fighters in Yobe state. Jihadists had been intending to attack and loot the market in the town of Babangida when they ambushed troops.
(AFP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 23, In northern Nigeria seven people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in Konduga town.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 24, Fifteen Nigerian senators quit the ruling All Progressives Congress party, making it a minority in parliament's upper house and indicating worsening rifts in President Muhammadu Buhari's political camp months ahead of an election.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Aug 1, In northern Nigeria Sokoto governor Aminu Tambuwal dumped President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress for the opposition, in the latest defection to hit the ruling party.
(AFP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 9, In southern Nigeria armed robbers killed at least 10 people, including a policeman, when they raided a police station and two banks in Igarra, Edo state.
(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 9, In Nigeria 13 people burnt to death when a bus burst into flames after a head-on collision with a digger near the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 12, In Nigeria hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, shooting into the air and disrupting flights. They were furious about a planned redeployment to a battlefront in the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.
(AFP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 14, Nigerian reporter Samuel Ogundipe was arrested for refusing to reveal the source of a letter, which identified who was blamed for a blockade on parliament last week by members of the Department of State Security. His article cited a confidential letter from the chief of police. On August 17 he was released on bail.
(Reuters, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 28, In Nigeria eight people were killed in the Barakin Ladi district of Plateau state in a long-running resource conflict between farmers and herders.
(AFP, 9/4/18)
2018 Aug 29, Nigeria's central bank ordered South African telecoms giant MTN to refund $8.13 billion (6.96 billion euros) that it allegedly illegally repatriated and fined four banks involved in the transfer.
(AFP, 8/30/18)
2018 Aug 29, Britain's Theresa May landed in Nigeria's capital on the second leg of her maiden Africa tour aimed at drumming up post-Brexit trade deals outside the EU. Britain said it would open new embassies in Chad and Niger to boost its diplomatic presence in Africa's troubled Sahel region.
(AFP, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 30, In Nigeria an attack by suspected members of Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), on a base in Zari village in the north of Borno State, killed up to 30 soldiers. The known death toll of Nigerian troops soon rose to 48, but state media quoted an official army spokesman as saying such reports were wrong.
(AFP, 9/1/18)(Reuters, 9/3/18)
2018 Aug 31, In Nigeria German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari wrapping up a three-day Africa visit with a meeting that focused on migration.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 2, In central Nigeria gunmen shot dead 11 people in an attack suspected to be part of ongoing communal violence in Lopandet Dwei Du village, Plateau state.
(AP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 3, In Nigeria eleven people were shot dead in the Lopandet Dwei Du area of Plateau state in a long-running resource conflict between farmers and herders.
(AFP, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 5, It was reported that Nigeria's two main political parties have asked election hopefuls to pay huge fees for the chance to stand at next year's general election, in a move criticized as favoring the rich and well-connected. According to newspaper adverts the All Progressives Congress (APC) wants 45 million naira ($125,500, 108,000 euros) per presidential primary candidate.
(AFP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 7, In northern Nigeria Boko Haram extremists overran Gudumbali, a key crossroads and military outpost. In June the government encouraged displaced people to return to the town in Borno state.
(AP, 9/8/18)(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Nigeria at least 18 people were killed and more than 40 others were burned in a gas explosion at a gas station in Lafia.
(SFC, 9/11/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 14, Nigerian finance minister Kemi Adeosun (51), accused of forging a document to avoid compulsory national service, said she was quitting to protect government integrity.
(AFP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 17, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that one of its employees, midwife Saifura Khorsa, had been killed in Nigeria after more than six months in captivity by Boko Haram.
(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, The UN said more than 500 people have died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, representing the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years. The Lake Chad region straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which are also grappling with a jihadist insurgency.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 22, In southwestern Nigeria voters in the state of Osun went to the polls to elect a new governor amid growing concerns about free and fair voting, six months ahead of a presidential election.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 22, The United Nations said a cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed nearly 100 lives over the past two weeks.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 22, Pirates off Nigeria's coast attacked the MV Glarus early today as it sailed from Lagos to Port Harcourt with a load of wheat. The next day Geneva-based Massoel Shipping said 12 of the ships 19 crew members had been kidnapped.
(AP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 23, In Nigeria the governorship election in southwest Osun state ended in a stalemate when the nation's electoral body failed to declare a clear winner. A run off between Gboyega Oyetola from President Muhammadu Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ademola Adeleke of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is expected to be held on October 27.
(AFP, 9/23/18)
2018 Sep 27, Nigerian authorities said the death toll from large-scale flooding in recent weeks has jumped to nearly 200 people.
(SFC, 9/28/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 29, Nigeria's women's affairs minister submitted her resignation in a letter to the president, becoming the second cabinet member to step down this month and adding that she would leave the ruling party. The minister said she was resigning and leaving the leader's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party because she had been barred from running for governor of eastern Taraba state.
(Reuters, 9/29/18)
2018 Oct 4, Vietnam seized eight tons of pangolin scales and elephant ivory shipped from Nigeria, the second such haul in a week.
(AFP, 10/5/18)
2018 Oct 7, In Nigeria Atiku Abubakar (71) won almost half the votes cast in a primary race to become the main opposition challenger to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in next year's elections.
(AP, 10/7/18)
2018 Oct 12, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by Boko Haram fighters to overrun a military base in the restive northeast leaving six soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In southeastern Nigeria at least 19 people were killed when a leaking oil pipeline exploded in Abia state. Oil thieves were suspected of hacking into the pipe
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 15, The Nigerian government said a medical aid worker held hostage by Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) militants was killed after a deadline they set expired. The next day the Red Cross named the health worker as Hauwa Mohammed Liman, a 24-year-old midwife. She and two other Nigerian aid workers, Alice Loksha and Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, were working in the northeastern town of Rann when they were kidnapped by ISWA in March. Khorsa, also a midwife, was killed in September.
(Reuters, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 21, Nigerian police said communal violence in the northern state of Kaduna over the last few days has killed 55 people.
(Reuters, 10/21/18)
2018 Oct 23, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari flew in by helicopter to cut the ribbon at the new Seme-Krake Joint Border Post with his Beninese counterpart Patrice Talon.
(AFP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 27, In Nigeria three members of the IMN (IMN) were killed during protests in Abuja. The IMN has staged a series of demonstrations demanding the release of leader Zakzaky, who has been detained since bloody clashes broke out in the northern city of Zaria in 2015.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 27, Pirates off the coast of Nigeria struck the MV Pomerania Sky, a container ship bound for the Nigerian port of Onne and abducted 11 of the crew, including 8 from Poland.
(Reuters, 10/29/18)
2018 Oct 29, In Nigeria three more IMN supporters were killed during a protest on the outskirts of Abuja.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 30, Nigerian police fired shots and tear gas at thousands of supporters of an imprisoned Shiite cleric in Abuja.
(AFP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct 31, In northeast Nigeria suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency killed at least 15 people late today in an attack on a group of villages.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 3, Nigeria's main Shiite Muslim movement said the army killed at least 50 of its members who were protesting this week. Nigeria's military said it killed six people and claims the protesters had fired first.
(AP, 11/3/18)
2018 Nov 18, In Nigeria 44 soldiers were killed in an attack in Metele in the northeastern state of Borno. Nigerian troops later released a video claiming dozens had died in the attack and deploring the poor state of their equipment.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 22, Nigerian security sources said attacks blamed on Islamic State West Africa have killed around 100 soldiers in northeast Nigeria since Nov. 18.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 28, Nigeria's military revealed a death toll of 39 from five attacks by extremists on soldiers between Nov. 2 and Nov. 18.
(SFC, 11/29/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 28, At least 15 Nigerian news organizations joined forces on the CrossCheck Nigeria project to fight misinformation ahead of February's elections in a collaborative first as the country's main political parties trade accusations of fabrication and exaggeration.
(AFP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 29, Nigeria's Pres. Buhari said Islamic extremists in Nigeria have begun using drones.
(SFC, 11/30/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 29, Top leaders from Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon held talks in N'Djamena (Chad) to discuss the recent escalation of attacks by Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad area.
(AFP, 11/29/18)
2018 Dec 12, Nigerian opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar signed an election peace accord, a day after his absence from the official signing ceremony raised concerns about the conduct of the February 2019 vote.
(Reuters, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Nigerian military accused United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) staff of spying for Islamist militants in northeast Nigeria, and suspended the agency's activities there. A new military statement hours later lifted a suspension of UNICEF's work in the extremist-threatened northeast. The reversal came after an emergency meeting with UNICEF representatives.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 15, In Nigeria leaders of countries in the Lake Chad region met to give fresh impetus to their fight against Boko Haram. Benin, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria will hold a follow-up to a November gathering in Chad to tackle a surge in Boko Haram attacks in the restive region.
(AFP, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 24, Nigeria said it has resolved a dispute with Africa's largest mobile operator over $8.13 billion (6.96 billion euros) which it accused MTN of illegally repatriating to South Africa.
(AFP, 12/24/18)
2018 Dec 24, In Nigeria 14 military and police personnel were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram exstremists outside Damaturu town in Yobe state.
(SFC, 12/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 26, In Nigeria militants attacked a military base late today in Baga, in eastern Borno state. 10 people were killed and clashes were continued as the militants tried to capture the town. The attacks in the Baga-Kawa area caused more than 6,357 people to flee east into Chad and some 20,000 others to flee to safety within Nigeria.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2018 Dec 28, Shehu Shagari (93), Nigeria's second president (1978-1983), died. His civilian tenure was sandwiched between two military rulers in an era rocked by coups.
(AP, 12/29/18)
2018 Dec 30, Five Nigerien and five Nigerian" troops and 11 enemy fighters were killed over the last 24 hours in an operation launched against gangs in the Maradi region.
(AFP, 12/31/18)
2018 Dec, Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) began collaborating with French data firm Kpler to help it ferret out the smugglers from the thousands of ships plying Nigerian waters.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 Jan 2, A Nigerian Air Force helicopter crashed in combat at Damasak in northern Borno state, killing five crew members.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his niece, Amina Zakari, to the election commission ahead of presidential elections in February, when he will seek a second term. The opposition quickly objected to the appointment.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Nigeria the Koluama Seven Brothers militant group carried out an unconfirmed warning strike on an oil facility owned by local energy firm Conoil in the southern state of Bayelsa. The group soon threatened a production shut-down and demanded action from Conoil and a traditional ruler called King Solomon Eddy on issues such as job creation.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 6, In Nigeria two journalists of the Daily Trust were arrested in Maiduguri. They had written a critical report of the army's performance fighting against Boko Haram extremists.
(SFC, 1/8/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 11, In Nigeria an overturned oil tanker exploded while dozens of people were scooping up the leaking fuel and many were killed. About 60 people were inside a pit scooping fuel when the explosion occurred.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 14, In northeastern Nigeria 7 people were killed when Boko Haram fighters attacked a military base in Rann, setting fire to shelters for those displaced by the conflict.
(AFP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 18, The United Nations said it was "extremely alarmed" by the forced return by Cameroon of thousands of refugees to northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamists pose a continuing threat to civilians. The UN refugee agency said Cameroon forced "several thousand" refugees back to Nigeria this week. According to the UNHCR Cameroon is currently hosting 370,000 refugees, 100,000 of whom are Nigerians.
(AFP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 24, A Nigerian appeals court issued an interim order stopping a tribunal from charging Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen with breaching asset-declaration rules, a month before a presidential election.
(Reuters, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari set off an uproar by announcing the suspension of the chief justice, citing corruption allegations.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 28, In Nigeria the militant group Boko Haram killed at least 60 people when it renewed its attack on the northeastern town of Rann.
(AP, 2/1/19)
2019 Jan 29, The United Nations refugee agency says more than 30,000 Nigerians fled the border town of Rann over the weekend to seek safety in Cameroon as attacks by Boko Haram extremists continue. Spokesman Babar Baloch said thousands more have fled to neighboring Chad because of the violence in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Feb 9, Nigeria's main political opposition said it had been forced to cancel a key presidential campaign rally in the capital Abuja, and blamed President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party.
(AFP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 12, In southern Nigeria fifteen people were killed in a stampede at an election campaign rally by President Muhammadu Buhari.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 12, In Nigeria three people were reported killed when insurgents attacked a motorcade on route to an election rally in Borno state. Survivors of the assault later put the toll much higher. One survivor said he saw about 40 bodies; another estimated that as many as 100 died. The militants also took between 100 and 200 people captive.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar joined other candidates to sign a "peace accord", in front of foreign observers.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Nigeria Boko Haram insurgents killed eight people during an attack late today on the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 15, In Nigeria authorities in Kaduna state reported at least 66 deaths in fighting said to be between Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herdsmen. The death toll from the attack soon doubled to more than 130 people.
(SFC, 2/15/19, p.A2)(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 16, Nigeria's president and the leading opposition candidate urged people to remain calm after a national election scheduled for today was postponed by a week just five hours before polls were due to open.
(Reuters, 2/16/19)
2019 Feb 21, In northwestern Nigeria two people were killed in clashes between rival party supporters in the village of Kofa, 2-days ahead of rescheduled general elections.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 23, Nigeria held presidential elections. In the northeast one soldier was killed and 20 others were injured in a Boko Haram rocket attack in Maiduguri, just hours before elections began.
(AP, 2/23/19)(AFP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 24, In Nigeria some polling stations remained open in several states while votes were counted in the previous day's presidential election, widely seen as a tight race between the president and a former vice president. The death toll in election-related violence continued to climbed to 39 after one election worker was hit by a bullet after completing work in Rivers state.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 26, Nigeria's incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari extended his early election lead based on official results from a third of the country's districts as the death toll from sporadic poll-related violence rose to 47.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Feb 26, In Nigeria gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders stormed into villages of ethnic Adara farmers, killing 29 people and burning some 40 homes. The bloodshed was believed to be in retaliation for gunmen attacking eight Fulani settlements in Kaduna state on February 11, which state governor Nasir El-Rufai said killed more than 130 people.
(AFP, 2/28/19)
2019 Feb 27, Nigerian election authorities said President Muhammadu Buhari (76) has comfortably won a second term at the helm of Africa's largest economy, but his main rival planned a fraud challenge after a vote marred by delays and violence. Some 327 people died in election-related violence since the campaign began in October, 67 of them during or after the Feb. 23 vote.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Feb 27, Aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Cameroonian and Nigerian authorities have ordered 40,000 refugees in Cameroon to return to northeast Nigeria.
(Reuters, 2/27/19)
2019 Mar 1, In southern Nigeria more than 50 people were left missing after a leaking oil pipeline exploded and caused a stampede in Bayelsa state. The Nembe Creek Trunk pipeline exploded, but no fatalities were reported. It runs from an oil terminal in Bonny to the state of Bayelsa with capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.
(AP, 3/2/19)(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 3, It was reported that a Nigerian court last week condemned as "illegal and unconstitutional" the arrest and deportation of Cameroonian separatists who had applied for asylum in Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 8, In northeastern Nigeria at least five farmers were killed and dozens wounded after their vehicle struck a land mine buried by Boko Haram extremists. Three people were reportedly killed in Rivers state, following clashes between APC and PDP supporters, one day ahead of regional elections.
(SFC, 3/9/19, p.A2)(AFP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 9, Nigerians voted for a second time in a fortnight in governorship and state assembly elections.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 10, In Nigeria dozens of soldiers in armored vehicles encircled a vote counting center in the opposition-held oil-rich southern city of Port Harcourt, in the latest flashpoint as violence overshadowed the previous day's closely-watched regional elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission halted the vote count in Rivers state, citing violence at polling stations, kidnapping of staff, confiscation and destruction of results.
(AFP, 3/10/19)(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, In Nigeria gunmen abducted a Lebanese construction worker and killed another man in the northern city of Kano.
(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 13, In Nigeria a three-story building that housed a school collapsed in Lagos. 20 people were soon confirmed dead in the school building, and most of them are children. The school had been operating illegally on the top two floors.
(Reuters, 3/13/19)(AP, 3/14/19)(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 16, In northeastern Nigeria a fire killed at least eight people and left 15,000 others without shelter after raging through a camp for people displaced by a war against Islamist insurgents in the town of Gajiram, Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 23, Nigerians returned to vote in governorship and state elections after polling a fortnight ago was declared invalid in some areas because of violence.
(AFP, 3/23/19)
2019 Apr 1, In Nigeria an Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) video, dated April 1 and said to have been filmed in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, was published online by the IS propaganda arm Amaq. It claimed to have executed five Nigerian soldiers but security sources the next day said three of those killed were civilian militia members.
(AFP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 7, A presidential aide and the police chief said Nigeria has suspended mining in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara, amid concerns that illegal miners were connected to a surge in banditry.
(Reuters, 4/7/19)
2019 Apr 7, In northern Nigeria 14 people were killed in Katsina state in clashes between cattle thieves and a civilian militia armed by the government to support the security forces.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 8, In Nigeria eight people were killed early today in the southeastern state of Rivers when armed men attacked the village of Emohua in the Ogoni region.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 9, Nigerian media reported that 20 people had been massacred in the region of Kajuru, in Kaduna state, in fighting between crop farmers and nomadic herders.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 13, In Nigeria twelve people were killed and 16 others badly injured when a fuel tanker exploded in the northern city of Gombe.
(AFP, 4/14/19)
2019 Apr 25, In Nigeria two Royal Dutch Shell oil workers were kidnapped, and their police escorts killed, in the restive Delta region.
(Reuters, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 29, In Nigeria jihadists, packed into four trucks and flanked by gunmen on motorbikes, swept into Kuda in Adamawa state late today, shooting down villagers as they ran away killing at least 21 people. Nine more bodies were soon found, taking the total massacred to 30.
(AFP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters marched through Abuja demanding an end to police impunity, after police officers were accused of carrying out a string of sexual assaults.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria a regional militia allied with government forces freed almost 900 children it had used in the war against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 10, In Nigeria the Islamic State (IS) killed 11 government soldiers in an attack on the northeastern town of Gajiganna.
(Reuters, 5/11/19)
2019 May 13, The Nigerian army said it rescued 54 women and children over the weekend held captive in Borno State by the extremist group Boko Haram.
(AP, 5/13/19)
2019 May 18, It was reported that Nigeria has experienced 685 kidnappings countrywide in the first quarter of the year -- an average of seven per day. Half of the kidnappings took place in the northwestern state of Zamfara.
(AFP, 5/18/19)
2019 May 28, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced around 20,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Niger since April.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (76) was sworn in for a second term in office, vowing once more to tackle crippling security threats and root out corruption in Africa's key economy.
(AFP, 5/29/19)
2019 Jun 7, In Nigeria's Federal High Court in Abuja said African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower FM radio should be allowed to operate until a ruling on their legal challenge to the ban. Broadcasting resumed the next day.
(AFP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 7, In Nigeria gunmen in oil-rich Rivers state kidnapped two Lebanese workers helping to build a road.
(AP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 12, In Nigeria there was an attack on an army base in northeastern Borno state in the town of Kareto. The Islamic State later said its fighters had killed 20 soldiers.
(Reuters, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 13, In northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram jihadists launched a pre-dawn attack a military base near in Kareto village, killing several troops and stealing weapons.
(AFP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 14, In northwest Nigeria an armed gang killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages late today in Zamfara state.
(Reuters, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 16, In northeastern Nigeria 30 people were killed late today in a triple suicide bombing outside a hall in Konduga in an attack bearing the hallmarks of the Boko Haram jihadist group.
(AFP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 17, In Nigeria assailants late today arrived on nine armored trucks and stormed into the military base outside the town of Gajiram, 80 km (50 miles), north of Maiduguri, Borno state.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 21, The Islamic State fighters reportedly killed 15 Nigerian soldiers in fighting at Garno, a town in northeastern Borno state near Lake Chad. West African (MNJTF) troops reportedly killed 42 suspected Islamic State fighters in the battle, the heaviest death toll suffered by the insurgents in the last six months.
(Reuters, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Nigeria Islamist insurgents struck the village of Ngamngam in Borno state late today. By the next morning at least 20 civilians were killed.
(Reuters, 6/26/19)
2019 Jul 1, In central Nigeria at least 45 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a petrol tanker crashed off the road and exploded as people gathered fuel in Benue state.
(AFP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 11, Two members of Nigeria's pro-Iran Shia Muslim sect, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, were killed and several injured in the northern city of Kaduna when police fired on an anti-government demonstration. The killings happened at a protest against the detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 13, Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked the Paksoy-1, a Turkish-flagged cargo ship, off the coast of Nigeria. Another eight sailors were left safely aboard.
(Reuters, 7/16/19)
2019 Jul 18, In northeastern Nigeria one Action Against Hunger staff member, two drivers and three other health workers went missing after an attack on a convoy in which one driver was killed.
(Reuters, 7/19/19)
2019 Jul 20, In western Nigeria four Turkish nationals were kidnapped late today in Gbale village, Kwara state. Police soon began conducting a rescue operation.
(Reuters, 7/21/19)
2019 Jul 22, Nigerian police and a group of Shi'ite Muslim protesters clashed in the capital Abuja, with at least one marcher appearing to be dead.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 23, Nigerian troops and police clashed with Shi'ite Muslim marchers in the capital Abuja and gunfire could be heard.
(Reuters, 7/23/19)
2019 Jul 27, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists killed more than 60 people during an attack on villagers leaving a funeral in the Nganzai local government area.
(SFC, 7/29/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 13, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the central bank to stop dollar supply for food imports, saying food security has been achieved and agricultural production has increased.
(Bloomberg, 8/30/19)
2019 Aug 27, Nigeria said it will not relinquish assets to a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands following a court ruling related to a $9 billion gas project dispute. Earlier this month a judge in London granted Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to attempt to seize some $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.
(Reuters, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 29, Nigeria's biggest telecoms firm MTN said it launched a mobile money transfer service, targeting those without bank accounts, and that it plans to become a payment services bank once it obtains approval from the central bank.
(Reuters, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 3, Nigerian youths took to the streets this evening in some Nigerian cities to attack South African owned businesses, amid a growing outcry about the attacks on many Nigerians living in South Africa.
(AP, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 10, A Nigerian Shi'ite group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), banned by the government said police killed 12 of its members and injured more on during marches in the north of country to mark the Ashura Muslim holiday.
(Reuters, 9/10/19)
2019 Sep 12, OPEC agreed to trim oil output by asking over-producing members Iraq and Nigeria to bring production in line with their targets as the group strives to prevent a glut amid soaring US production and a slowing global economy. Oil prices have dropped below $60 per barrel in recent weeks from their 2019 peaks of $75.
(Reuters, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 20, In Nigeria residents of Africa's most populous city, Lagos, joined a global day of demonstrations over climate change. The low-lying city of more than 20 million people is among the many African coastal cities at risk from flooding due to global warming.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 22, Nigeria's army said it will require anyone moving through three northeastern states to carry identification cards in an effort to root out members of Boko Haram and Islamic State.
(Reuters, 9/22/19)
2019 Sep 24, A court in Nigeria's capital Abuja ordered the State Security Service to release activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore while charges of treason against him are pending.
(Reuters, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 26, Nigerian police rescued hundreds of boys and men from a building in Kaduna state where they had been beaten, starved, sexually assaulted and chained.
(AP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN said worsening violence has doubled the number of people displaced from northwest Nigeria to some 40,000 over the past four months.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 29, In northeastern Nigeria militants killed at least nine people in an attack. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 9/30/19)
2019 Oct 3, In northern Nigeria gunmen kidnapped six schoolgirls and two staff members from a boarding school near the village of Kakau Daji in Kaduna state.
(Reuters, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 8, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record 10.33 trillion-naira ($33.8 billion) budget for 2020 to lawmakers as he aims to spur growth in Africa's largest economy at the start of his second term in office.
(Reuters, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 9, A new study by the World Health Organization said more than one-third of women in Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Nigeria had been abused during child birth in health centers.
(SFC, 10/10/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 11, In Nigeria global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc launched a pilot test of a boat service in Lagos to attract commuters seeking to avoid the megacity's notoriously congested roads.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, It was reported that thousands of Nigerian hunters on the northest are preparing an offensive against Boko Haram extremists. They were backed by Borno state Gov. BabaganaZulum and were armed with charmed amulets and knowledge of the harsh terrain.
(SFC, 10/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 16, Nigerian police freed about 500 men and boys from a northern Islamic school in Katsina where some had been chained to walls, molested and beaten.
(Reuters, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 30, The UN humanitarian office said that humanitarian groups are "relieved" that Nigeria's has suspended the ban on Mercy Corps and Action Against Hunger.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 5, Nigerian police said they have freed 259 people from an Islamic rehabilitation center in the southwestern city of Ibadan, taking the number rescued from abusive institutions since September to nearly 1,500.
(Reuters, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 11, Human Rights Watch published a report saying thousands of people with mental health conditions are held in chains in institutions across Nigeria and urged the government to ban the practice.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Dec 3, Pirates kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise. The Nave Constellation was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 6, Lawyers for the Nigerian government filed "new and substantive" allegations of fraud with a British court in an ongoing fight against an arbitration award now worth some $10 billion. The government has been fighting efforts by British Virgin Islands-based Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) to enforce the award for a failed gas project and is also seeking to overturn the underlying award.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 23, Armed groups in northern Nigeria reportedly executed many civilians and abducted many others in Borno state where Boko Haram is active.
(AP, 12/25/19)
2019 Dec 27, Nigeria's government condemned extremists linked to the Islamic State group after a video circulated of 11 hostages, most of them Christians, being executed. They were thought to be killed on Christmas Day.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2020 Jan 18, In northeast Nigeria heavily armed jihadists have carried out an "extremely violent" attack on a vital aid facility housing UN workers. One soldier and four assailants died in the ensuing gunfight.
(AFP, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 20, In Nigeria Islamic militants killed a Christian pastor who had appealed for help life in a video just days earlier. Rev. Lawan Andimi was abducted earlier this month when Boko Haram militants attacked the Michika local government area, where he was the chairman of a local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Jan 31, In Nigeria More than 1,000 motorcycle taxi drivers marched to the gates of the Lagos state legislature to protest against a measure that will bar them from much of the traffic-choked commercial capital.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, The Trump administration announced that it was restricting immigrants from six additional countries that officials said failed to meet minimum security standards, as part of an election-year push to further clamp down immigration. Immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new restrictions in obtaining certain visas to come to the United States.
(AP, 1/3120)
2020 Feb 1, Nigeria's government said it has created a committee to address the issues that led to a suspension of US immigrant visas to its citizens.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Nigerian authorities bannd two-and three-wheeled motor bike taxis. Drivers asked "How do we feed our families?"
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.36)
2020 Feb 4, Nigeria said it has eased its visa rules in an effort to boost trade and tourism as an African trade agreement promoting freer movement of goods and services comes into effect.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, The United States and the British dependency of Jersey said they have agreed with Nigeria to repatriate more than $300 million in funds stolen by former military ruler General Sani Abacha. Corruption watchdog Transparency International estimates he stole as much as $5 billion of public money from 1993-1998.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Mar 2, Nigerian stocks fell as authorities contacted around 100 people who may have been exposed to an Italian man who is the country's first coronavirus patient.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Nigeria the emir of Kano, a former central bank governor and critic of Pres. Buhari's economic policies, was ousted for showing "insubordination" to local authorities.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 15, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 21, Nigeria announced it is closing airports as of March 23 to all incoming international flights for one month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In Nigeria Boko Haram extremists killed at least 50 government soldiers in an ambush hear Goneri village, Yobe state.
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 23, In northeastern Nigeria around government 70 soldiers were killed in an Islamist militant ambush in the village of Gorgi, Borno state. 47 soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram ambush on a convoy that had left the north-eastern city of Maiduguri carrying ammunition.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(BBC, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the cessation of movement in Lagos and the capital Abuja for 14 days in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Nigeria had 97 confirmed cases. The country has shut international airports, closed all land borders and imposed curbs on cargo vessels allowed to dock at its ports in an effort to contain the outbreak. Nigeria's petroleum regulator ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 31, Africa's confirmed cases of coronavirus climbed to at least 5,300, with more than 170 recorded deaths. The Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja entered a two-week lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari announced a two-week extension of a lockdown in three states, including the capital Abuja, to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Nigerian doctor Emeka Chugbo (60) died following exposure to a coronavirus patient at his private clinic.
(BBC, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nigeria's the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the country's security forces have killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the coronavirus in Germany.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 21, Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper reported the recent deaths of around 150 people in the northern commercial city of Kano, prompting investigations to determine if they were related to the coronavirus pandemic. The state government acknowledged the deaths but said they were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria has 1,182 coronavirus cases and a national death toll of 35.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 23, It was reported that the governors of Nigeria's 36 states have agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 27, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the coronavirus lockdowns, which had been due to end today, needed to continue until 4 May. He also ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks. Nigeria has reported 1,273 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and that he was sending a government team to investigate a high number of unexplained deaths.
(BBC, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr, In Nigeria residents of Lagos and neighboring Ogun state resorted to forming vigilante groups as reports spread that hundreds of gangsters belonging to One Million Boys and Awawa Boys were attacking some neighborhoods.
(BBC, 6/2/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 6, Nigeria said it will extend a ban on all flights by four weeks as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 7, Nigeria has recorded 3,145 cases of coronavirus and 103 deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.34)
2020 May 10, Authorities in Nigeria's oil-rich southern Rivers state demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus. The state currently has 15 active cases of the virus and has recorded two deaths. One owner said authorities were asking for a bribe and denied that the hotel was operating.
(BBC, 5/11/20)
2020 May 12, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that in northern Nigeria tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across 19 states in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories. Hundreds of the children already had coronavirus, so officials inadvertently contributed to spreading the virus rather than containing it.
(BBC, 5/15/20)
2020 May 18, Nigeria said it would impose precisely targeted lockdown measures in areas that report rapid increases in coronavirus cases, while the phased reopening of the economy as a whole would go ahead more slowly than planned.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 25, Fifty trafficked Nigerian women, rescued from Lebanon, returned home. A further 19 Nigerians, stranded in Lebanon because of Covid-19 lockdowns, were also repatriated.
(BBC, 5/26/20)
2020 May 29, In Nigeria nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as worries grew about undetected spread in the north.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 2, The board of governors of the 55-year-old US and the African Development Bank met to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the conduct of Akinwumi Adesina, the head of the Nigerian branch of the AfDB, just days after the US rejected an initial inquiry that cleared him. Besides the core 54 African countries, the US is one of the 27 non-regional members of the AfDB and its second largest shareholder.
(BBC, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 9, Nigerian police arrested a man after 40 people were raped in one town over the period of a year. A mother in the northern town Dangora caught the man in her children's bedroom. The man ran away but neighbors gave chase and caught him.
(BBC, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 9, In north-eastern Nigeria at least 69 people were killed in a suspected jihadist attack on a remote village in the Gubio district of Borno state. It was unclear who carried out the attack.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, It was reported that an outbreak of African swine fever in Nigeria's largest pig farm co-operative in the south-west of the country has been confirmed and that some 300,000 pigs have been killed.
(BBC, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, The Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs called on law enforcement to speed up prosecution of rape cases which had reached an "alarming rate" three times the typical level as women and children are locked down with their abusers.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Nigeria three attacks by Islamic extremists, including an assault on Monguno, a military garrison town, have killed more than 40 people in northeastern Borno state. At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the attacks.
(AP, 6/14/20)(BBC, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 19, In Ghana a building inside the Nigerian High Commission compound in Accra was demolished. Armed men reportedly stormed the compound and destroyed buildings under construction. Days later Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo apologized to Nigeria.
(BBC, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, It was reported that police in Nigeria have rescued more than 100 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.
(BBC, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun, Nigeria's government announced that it would phase out petrol subsidies. When ten days of protests followed along with 12 deaths, the government backed down and reduced subsidies instead of eliminating them.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 3, US prosecutors said Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a Nigerian man charged with conspiring to launder a fortune from email scams, has arrived in Chicago to face charges. UAE authorities arrested Abbas last month. Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, had showed off his wealth to 2.4 million Instagram followers. Hushpuppi, and another cyber-heist suspect Olalekan Jacob Ponle (aka Mr Woodberry) appeared in a Chicago court. They had been arrested in Dubai, where they lived, in June. Dubai police said they had been extradited to the US.
(NBC News, 7/4/20)(BBC, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 4, It was reported that motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves in Katsina state are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The recent attacks in the president's home state killed more than 100 people between April and June.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 14, In New York City the body of Fahim Saleh (33), a technology entrepreneur who founded Nigeria's Gokada ride-hailing app, was found decapitated and dismembered in a luxury apartment with a power saw plugged in nearby. Nigerian state officials in February banned all motorcycle taxis, known locally as 'okada'.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that five aid workers abducted last month in north-east Nigeria's Borno State have been killed. Pres. Muhammadu Buhari blamed Boko Haram and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Aug 1, According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the Nigerian city of Onitsha is the most polluted in the world.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 10, In Nigeria musician Sharif-Aminu (22) was sentenced in northern state of Kano to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad. Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad. An appeal was allowed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 12, It was reported that a court in Nigeria has fined three men $52,000 (£40,000) each for hijacking a ship in March and securing a ransom of $200,000 for the release of its crew.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 7, It was reported that two Nigerian men have been arrested for allegedly scamming a German state that tried to buy 2.3m euros (£2m) of personal protective equipment (PPE).
(BBC, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 11, It was reported that lawmakers in Nigeria's Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14. State governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the state.
(BBC, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 14, Nigerian health workers demanding the payment of a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients went on strike only a week after doctors in Africa's most populous country staged a walk out.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Nigeria Gracious David-West (40), a member of the Greenlanders - also known as Dey Gbam, a mafia-styled street gang that sprung out of the armed militant groups, was arrested. In October he sentenced to death in Port Harcourt for killing nine women. Authorities said he had sex with his victims before binding their arms and feet with strips of white sheets and then strangling them.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Sep 21, Nigerian health workers who went on strike in mid-September for a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients returned to work, without their demands being met.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 23, In central Nigeria at least 25 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded following a collision with other vehicles on a major highway in Lokoja.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 25, In northeastern Nigeria 18 people were left dead after an ambush on a government convoy in Borno state. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack, claiming 30 people had been killed.
(BBC, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Nigeria militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) used a donkey strapped with explosives to ambush the convoy of the governor of north-eastern Borno state. A number of insurgents were killed in the ensuing shoot-out.
(BBC, 9/28/20)
2020 Oct 4, Nigeria's inspector general of police banned a notorious unit from carrying out stop and search duties and setting up roadblocks amid growing anger at routine harassment and atrocities allegedly committed by its officers. The ban was triggered by the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the unit in the city of Lagos a day earlier.
(BBC, 10/4/20)
2020 Oct 9, In Nigeria police fired tear gas at a protest against police brutality in Abuja. This followed the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the Sars unit on Oct. 9.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, It was reported that Nigeria has dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), the police force at the center of protests against police brutality. The officers from the controversial unit will be redeployed. It was unclear where to.
(BBC, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Nigeria two people were killed in Lagos as protests continued against police brutality for a sixth day.
(BBC, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Nigeria's police chief ordered the unconditional release of all demonstrators arrested during protests against police brutality.
(BBC, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 14, Nigeria announced that the new Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team will fill the gaps left from the dissolution of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (Sars).
(BBC, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 15, Nigeria's government announced a ban on all protest in Abuja, saying the demonstrators were violating public safety measures introduced to tackle Covid-19. The military has issued a warning to "subversive elements and trouble makers" to desist after a week of protests about police brutality. Amnesty International said at least 10 people have been killed and hundreds injured.
(BBC, 10/15/20)(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Nigerian protests against police brutality continued for the ninth day, with demonstrators fending off attacks from gangs suspected to be backed by the police, warnings from the Nigerian military, and a government order to stop because of COVID-19.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 20, Nigeria's police chief ordered the nationwide deployment of anti-riot officers to quell violence following protests against police brutality. The announcement came as an indefinite 24-hour curfew was imposed in the commercial hub of Lagos. Some 1,000 protesters gathered at the Lekki toll gate to prevent cars using a major motorway. Soldiers were reportedly seen barricading the protest site moments before shooting started. Amnesty International later said 12 people were killed. The Nigerian army rejected the claim.
(BBC, 10/20/20)(NY Times, 10/21/20)(BBC, 10/22/20)(BBC, 11/15/20)
2020 Oct 21, In Nigeria unrest saw buildings torched and looted, and police shooting into the air to enforce a curfew in Lagos.
(BBC, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, In Nigeria plumes of smoke rose from a prison in Lagos and gunfire could be heard as people ran through streets in the area, signs of continued unrest in the West African nation that has been gripped by protests against police brutality.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 23, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said 69 people have been killed in protests against police brutality that have rocked the country. A group that has been key in organizing the demonstrations has now urged people to stay at home.
(BBC, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, Nigeria's chief of police ordered the immediate mobilization of all police resources to put an end to days of street violence and looting.
(BBC, 10/25/20)
2020 Oct 25, In Nigeria there were reports of government warehouses being ransacked in the central city of Jos, as well as in Adamawa and Taraba states, with people taking away food and agricultural supplies.
(BBC, 10/25/20)
2020 Nov 3, In Nigeria Ipob activists were accused of burning down three police stations in southern Rivers state. and killing three policemen, after one of them was killed during a protest at a police station in Oyigbo.
(BBC, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 18, The United Nations humanitarian office said it is releasing $100 million in emergency funding to seven countries at risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East amid conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement overnight said $80 million of the money will go to Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Another $20 million has been set aside for "anticipatory action to fight hunger in Ethiopia.
(AP, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Nigeria attackers tied up agricultural laborers working in rice fields and slit their throats near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. More than 43 people were killed. About 15 women were kidnapped.
(AP, 11/29/20)
2020 Dec 8, Amnesty International charged that at least 10,000 civilians have died in Nigerian military custody since 2011 after being detained in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 11, In north-western Nigeria hundreds of students were feared missing after gunmen raided a secondary school in Katsina state. On Dec. 15 the Islamist militant group Boko Haram said it was behind the kidnapping.
(BBC, 12/12/20)(AP, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 17, In Nigeria the governor of Katsina state announced that all of the boys, abducted on Dec. 11, had been released, and would be reunited with their parents the next day. The governor of Katsina has insisted bandits were responsible for the recent attack.
(NY Times, 12/17/20)(BBC, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, In Nigeria 84 schoolchildren were seized by gunmen late today as they returned home to Mahuta village after taking part in a religious ceremony. The children were soon released following a gun battle between the abductors, security forces and local vigilantes.
(AP, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 24, The head of Africa's disease control body said that another new variant of the novel coronavirus seems to have emerged in Nigeria. In the past week, Nigeria reported a 52% increase in cases.
(AP, 12/24/20)
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