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82 Chibok girls released from Boko Haram's captivity; Nigerians celebrate

[email protected] (Agencies)
May 8, 2017

Abuja, May 8: Nigerians celebrated the release, on Saturday May 6, 2017, of 82 girls from Boko Haram militants. The girls' kidnapping in 2014, from the northeastern town of Chibok, made global headlines and launched the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which resonated with millions of people around the world, including former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

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The girls were set free following negotiations between the government and Boko Haram, which, in exchange, received members of their group held by Nigerian authorities, according to a statement from the Office of the President.

In April 2014, 276 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in Chibok were abducted by Boko Haram, a group that, over a seven-year period, has waged a violent campaign against the Nigerian government, which has led to the death of thousands and the displacement of two million people. At the time, 57 of the children captured by the militants managed to escape. In October, a further 21 were set free. Yet, even after the release of this latest group, 113 Chibok girls, as they have come to be known, are still missing.

International voices weren't the only ones bringing global awareness to the kidnappings. Local activists, such as Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili and others, led protests from the very beginning, “demanding accelerated government action in the release” of the schoolgirls. And now, their work is finally bearing fruit.

On Saturday, the official government statement said negotiations with Boko Haram “yielded results”:

After lengthy negotiations, our security agencies have taken back these girls, in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects held by the authorities. The released #ChibokGirls are due to arrive in Abuja tomorrow Sunday May 7, and will be received by the President. President Muhammadu Buhari expresses his deep gratitude to all who played a part in ensuring the success of this operation, as follows: Security agencies, the military, the Government of Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and local and international NGOs.

The International Committee of the Red Cross acted as intermediaries in the negotiations:

Journalist Stephanie Busari commended Dr. Ezekwesili and her group for their “resilience and steadfastness” in their fight to secure freedom for the abducted schoolgirls:

Aisha Yesufu, a collaborator of Dr. Ezekwesili's in the Bring Back Our Girls Group, tweeted:

Other Twitter users were agog at the news:

Despite the good news, some folks on social media remain unimpressed by the actions of successive governments over their response to the incident. Ikhide, a literary critic, decried the “zero transparency in the whole process” on Facebook:

…On Chibok, our government has refused to talk to us. All legitimate questions have been dismissed and any thinking person who dares ask questions is demonized as a Chibok denier. What happened in Chibok? Our government will not tell us. Because no one will hold them accountable. Can you imagine this happening anywhere else in the world? How can you do this to your own people?

Why should people believe the Chibok narrative when there is zero transparency in the whole process. No one truly knows what happened and the government is invested in lying and obfuscation. Can you imagine this happening in the U.K.? I have so many questions about this Chibok mess; each one has been ignored. This government expects no questions but demands respect and blind obedience. Why have they not released the girls that were ‘released' the last time to their parents? That was months ago? What kind of country is this????

Ikhide may be alluding to what happened to the group freed in October, who were initially kept in government custody. At the time, a minister said this was because “a team of medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, trauma experts” were going to examine them. “Especially because they have been in captivity for so long,” the minister said. “We are now contacting their parents as part of the necessary verification exercise.”

In December, however, they were reunited with their families for Christmas. There were reports that some of the girls “were kept in a politician's house and barred from going home,” according to the BBC. Nevertheless, they returned to school in January to “sit for their final exams“.

As for the latest freed girls, Amnesty International has urged the Nigerian government to respect their privacy. Osai Ojigho, country director of Amnesty International in Nigeria, said:

“It is vital now that they receive adequate physical and psychosocial counselling and support so that they can fully reintegrate in their communities…The government should also respect their privacy and ensure that the released girls are reunited with their families and not kept in lengthy detention and security screening which can only add to their suffering and plight.

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News Network
May 2,2020
Seoul, May 2: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance since speculation about his health began last month, cutting the ribbon at the opening of a fertilizer factory, KCNA reported Saturday.
 
Kim attended the event on Friday in Sunchon, near the capital Pyongyang, after nearly three weeks of swirling rumours that the leader of the nuclear-armed nation was seriously ill or possibly dead.
 
The North Korean leader had not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported that he had inspected fighter jets.
 
At Friday's event, "all the participants broke into thunderous cheers of 'hurrah!'" when Kim appeared, the Korean Central news agency reported.
 
He inspected the facility and was "briefed about the production processes," the report said.
 
Kim "said with deep emotion" that his grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il "would be greatly pleased if they heard the news that the modern phosphatic fertilizer factory has been built," it added.
 
Also in attendance were other senior officials, including his sister and close adviser, Kim Yo Jong. Photos from the ceremony were not immediately released.
 
Conjecture over Kim's health had grown since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.
 
His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed reports over his condition, triggering global fears over the North's nuclear arsenal -- and who would succeed Kim were he unable to lead.
 
A top security advisor to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said less than a week ago that Kim was "alive and well," downplaying rumors that he was ill or incapacitated.
 
The advisor, Moon Chung-in, told CNN that Kim had been staying in Wonsan -- a resort town in the east of North Korea -- since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."
 
South Korea Reports Kim Jong Un Is 'Alive and Well' Amid Rumours of His Death
 
South Korea has told CNN that the rumours of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's death are untrue.
 
Rumours of ill health
 
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, reported that Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure last month.
 
Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim -- who is in his mid-30s -- had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
 
Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting an anonymous US official.
 
US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm that Kim was alive earlier this week.
 
On Friday, Trump refused to comment on Kim's reported re-emergence.
 
Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.
 
The North is extremely secretive, and doubly so about its leadership.
 
Kim's father and predecessor had been dead for two days before anyone outside the innermost circles of North Korean leadership was any the wiser.
 
In 2014, Kim Jong Un dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane.
 
Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

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News Network
June 27,2020

Moscow, Jun 27: The number of people who have contracted the coronavirus infection in Russia has increased by 6,852 over the past day to a total of 627,646, the country's COVID-19 Response Center said in a daily update on Saturday.

"Over the past day, 6,852 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in 85 regions of Russia, including 2,058, or 30 per cent, of asymptomatic cases," the response centre said.

Of the total 6,852 newly detected cases, 750 have been confirmed in Moscow, 366 in Moscow Region, and 280 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, according to the report.

The reported daily dynamics included 188 new fatalities, which brought the cumulative death toll to 8,969.

Total recoveries now count 393,352, an increase of 9,200 over the past day, including 1,852 in Moscow, 1,421 in Moscow Region and 716 in St. Petersburg.

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Agencies
March 31,2020

Months after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan city of central China, families of those deceased, who contracted the contagious infection, stood in long queues at funeral homes demanding to receive the cremated ashes of their loved ones.

Now this has spurred questions about the actual tally of COVID-19 related casualties in Wuhan, in a renewed pressure on the Chinese government that is already struggling to control its containment narrative of the pandemic spread.

Chinese media outlet Caixin showed how trucks carrying 2,500 urns with the ashes of the deceased COVID-19 cases were being shipped in a funeral home last week. Another picture published revealed how 3,500 urns were stacked within these funeral homes. It is therefore unclear how many urns have been filled in.

According to media reports, workers at several funeral parlors declined to provide any details as to how many urns were waiting to be collected, saying they either did not know or were not authorised to share the number.

Some families said they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes. The photos circulated as mass deaths from the virus spiked in cities across the west, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soar past 500,000, with 24,000 dead.

According to Chinese government figures, 2,535 people in Wuhan have died of the virus. The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after the country said its tally of new cases had hit zero and stepped up diplomatic outreach to other countries hard hit by the virus, sending some of them medical supplies.

But some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of the official tally, particularly given Wuhan's overwhelmed medical system, authorities' attempts to cover up the outbreak in its initial stages, and multiple revisions to the way official cases are counted.

Residents on social media have demanded disciplinary action against top Wuhan officials.

Many people who died had Covid-19 symptoms, but weren't tested and excluded from the official case tally, Caixin said. There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing with those who had the coronavirus.

There were 56,007 cremations in Wuhan in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to data from the city's civil affairs agency. The number of cremations was 1,583 higher than those in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 2,231 higher than the fourth quarter of 2017.

Two locals in Wuhan who have lost family members to the virus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, likely as a measure against public gatherings.

COVID-19 is affecting 199 countries and territories around the world. Over 664,000 coronavirus cases have been registered globally out of which 30,890 have succumbed to the infection.

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