Hamas-led groups execute four for looting aid trucks amid some Gaza dissent

Hamas has executed four men for looting some of the aid trucks that have begun entering Gaza, sources familiar with the incident said on Monday, as a clan leader in southern Gaza issued a challenge to the militant group over guarding the convoys.

One source said the four were involved in an incident last week when six security officials were killed by an Israeli airstrike as they were working to prevent gang members from hijacking aid trucks.

"The four criminals, who were executed, were involved in the crimes of looting and causing the death of members of a force tasked with securing aid trucks," one of the sources told Reuters.

Seven other suspects were being pursued, according to a statement issued by an umbrella group identifying itself as the "Palestinian Resistance".

Humanitarian assistance began trickling into Gaza last week after Israel yielded to international pressure and lifted a blockade it imposed in early March that has left half a million people facing starvation, according to a global hunger monitor.

Aid groups have said that deliveries have been hampered by looting, but they have blamed Israel for creating a situation in which hundreds of thousands of people have been driven to desperation by the blockade.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and the issue of control over the aid trucks has been hotly disputed.

Israeli military officials say the security teams put in place by Hamas are there to take delivery of the supplies not to protect them, but it has provided no evidence of Hamas looting since it eased its blockade last week.

Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, has long cracked down hard on signs of dissent among Palestinians in Gaza but it has faced sizeable protests in recent months over the war and faced challenges to its control by armed groups of looters, some of whom it has punished by shooting them in the legs in public.

Yasser Abu Shabab, a leader of a large clan in the Rafah area, now under full Israeli army control, said he was building up a force to secure aid deliveries into some parts of the enclave. He published images of his armed men receiving and organising the traffic of aid trucks.

Hamas, which is unable to operate in the Rafah area where Abu Shabab has some controls, has accused him of looting international aid trucks in previous months and maintaining connections with Israel.

On a Facebook page in his name Abu Shabab denies that he has acted as an alternative to the government or other institutions and rejects accusations of looting.

On the page Abu Shabab is described as a "grassroots leader who stood up against corruption and looting" and who protected aid convoys.

But a Hamas security official called Abu Shabab a "tool used by the Israeli occupation to fragment the Palestinian internal front".

Asked if the U.N. was working with Abu Shabab, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said it did not pay anyone to guard aid trucks.

"What we do is talk to communities regularly, build trust and engage with the authorities on the urgent need for more aid to come in through more routes and more crossings," the spokesperson said.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow was ‘forced’ to start military operation against Kiev – Putin

Russia was left with no choice but to launch its military operation in Ukraine because of the continued persecution of the people of Donbass by Kiev following the 2014 Western-backed Euromaidan coup, President Vladimir Putin has said. 

During a meeting with a group of businessmen in the Kremlin on Monday, Putin said that Moscow could not ignore the plight of Russian-speakers in the neighboring country. He reiterated Russia’s position that the ongoing conflict stems from the turbulent events in Kiev in early 2014 when initially peaceful protests spiraled into riots and clashes with police, which led to the ouster of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich. The anti-Yanukovich forces included ultranationalist groups like Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) and the Svoboda (Freedom) party. 

“You need to understand that we weren’t the ones who orchestrated the coup in Ukraine,” Putin said. “[The West] has always told us that there should be democracy and elections… but they carried out a coup – a bloody one, in fact – as if it were normal. They later went on to suppress the Donbass, killing people with helicopters and jets.” 

“They practically forced us into doing what we’re doing today, and now they’re trying to blame us for it,” the president said.

The coup in Kiev sparked counterprotests and more riots, including a deadly clash in Odessa in May 2014, where 48 people were killed. The largely Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk rejected the Euromaidan and voted for independence from Ukraine. The new government in Kiev responded by sending troops in the spring of 2014 and repeatedly shelling and bombing Donetsk and other Donbass cities.

Ukraine later refused to implement the UN-backed 2014-2015 Minsk accords, which would have granted autonomy to Donetsk and Lugansk. EU officials, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, acknowledged later that Kiev had used the pause in the fighting to rebuild its army and economy. Ukraine also adopted several laws since 2014 aimed at restricting the use of Russian language in the public sphere.

Putin cited Ukraine’s failure to respect the Minsk accords and the attacks on the rights of Russian-speakers as “the root causes” of the conflict, describing Kiev’s actions as “genocide.” 

He has since demanded that Ukraine drop its plans to join NATO in favor of becoming a permanently neutral state, and recognize Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian governor says Russian forces capture four villages in Sumy

The governor of Ukraine's Sumy region on the Russian border said on Monday that Russian forces had captured four villages as part of an attempt to create a "buffer zone" on Ukrainian territory.

Russia's military and Russian military bloggers have in recent days reported captured villages in Sumy, which has come under frequent Russian air strikes for months.

Sumy Region Governor Oleh Hryhorov, writing on Facebook, listed four villages inside the border that he said were now held by Russian forces -- Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka. He said their residents had long been evacuated.

"The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone,'" he wrote.

Ukrainian forces, he said, "are keeping the situation under control, inflicting precise fire damage on the enemy".

Hryhorov said fighting was continuing around other villages in the area, including Volodymyrivka and Bilovodiv -- two settlements that Russia's Defence Ministry had earlier on Monday said were now held by Moscow's forces.

Russian reports in recent days had said that Moscow's forces had taken control of villages in the region.

Ukraine's State Emergency Services reported that one person was killed on Monday when Russian forces shelled an area of Sumy region west of the captured villages.

Sumy region is opposite Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a large cross-border incursion last August. Moscow says Ukrainian troops have been ousted from Kursk, but Kyiv says its forces are still active there.

Ukraine's popular military blog DeepState had said at the weekend that Russian forces had for the first time "been able to take up positions" along a line of border villages.

A Russian missile strike on the region's main city, also called Sumy, killed 35 people on Palm Sunday last month.

DeepState on Monday said Russian forces had launched attacks further east near Vovchansk in Kharkiv region, where it had launched an earlier incursion in May 2024.

In the afternoon of Tuesday, November 26, 2024, the following announcement appeared on the Internet: “With profound gratitude for her life, her achievements and her contributions to the struggles for equality, justice and dignity for all, I hereby announce the transition early this morning of Comrade Benedicta A. Madunagu, known universally and affectionately simply as ‘Bene’. She was aged 77 years and passed away peacefully at the Madunagu residence in Calabar. Although this is not a tribute but a formal announcement made on behalf of the family and the Nigerian Left, I wish to state here that my sense of profound loss in Bene’s passing is matched by an equally profound celebration of her life and achievements. Further details to be announced later. Biodun Jeyifo, Chair, BOT-SOLAR”. The announcement was titled “Comrade Benedicta A. Madunagu (1947-2024)”.

The person who made the announcement and signed simply as “Biodun Jeyifo” is Comrade Professor Biodun Jeyifo, Chair of the Board of Advisers (BOA) and Board of Trustees (BOT) of Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR). The deceased herself was Comrade Professor Mrs. Bene Edwin Madunagu (nee Afangide) who was a member of the Board of Advisers (BOA) and one of the founders of SOLAR.

Biodun Jeyifo is known universally-in the Left as well as in the Right – as BJ. Before November 26, 2024, Bene and BJ, together with the present writer, my humble self, were the three surviving founding members of the Revolutionary Directorate (RD), a tendency in the Nigerian Left, formed in Lagos on Christmas Day, December 25, 1975. Now, only two of us are Left.

The Nigerian Left is the aggregate of Nigerian Marxists and socialists and their movement, radical feminists and their movements, progressive workers’ and middle-class movements, and generally those who see the necessity and possibility of radical social change along the interests of the presently exploited, oppressed, dominated and humiliated classes and segments of the Nigerian society. At the root of this iniquitous social inequality and injustice are feudalism, capitalism, imperialism and various forms of patriarchy.

We return to BJ’s announcement. In May 2021, as I turned 75, I said in an essay Looking back: forty-five years ago: “My life as a professional revolutionary since 1976 has been tough. Inevitably, life has also been tough for that person who, in addition to having to share my life as a wife, a comrade and a lover, also has to live her life as an academic, a mother, a social activist, a Leftist-Feminist, a revolutionary socialist and a Leftist Internationalist. If there is any one person who, since 1977, has kept me on my feet, stood with me as equal, pointing out what can be done today in anticipation of tomorrow, and helping to correct my frequent tactical and strategic errors, that person is Comrade Professor Bene Madunagu.”

Ten months later, in March 2022, as Bene herself also turned 75, I said: “It is my fervent hope, as well as that of Bene’s numerous comrades, compatriots, collaborators, colleagues, students, friends and family members – in Nigeria and outside Nigeria – and, in particular, her colleagues and students at the University of Calabar, an institution that she joined in 1976 as a lecturer, at the age of 29, and the Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI), Nigeria, that she co-founded in 1993/1994 and thereafter led for 20 years, that she recovers fully from her current ill-health to continue her selfless, productive, happy and inspiring life and revolutionary work”. Unfortunately, Comrade Bene did not oblige us. She died on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 32 months after our publicly expressed wish.

What can I remember of the afternoon of that “Black Tuesday”? Oh, I remember that a member of Bene’s “Nursing Team” had come to the living room to rouse me from a state that was between sleep and dream – after a sleepless night. She told me that Bene was “gasping”. I did not understand what she meant by “gasping”, but I followed her to the bed I had shared with Bene until a couple of hours earlier. I sat at the edge of the bed and held Bene’s right hand with my two hands. She opened her eyes, and looked at me. She then turned her head to the right, then to the left, again to the right and the left. Then she turned no more. I knelt down beside the bed, still holding her hand. I wept, the first time I did so in so many, many years.

There was the fear in close circles of our comrades that I might not be able to go through the emotional tortures of seeing Comrade Bene interred, and leaving her there, forever! I have to admit that I entertained the fear myself, “which did not help matters”, as the saying goes. To help myself, as another saying goes, I had to choose two individuals to stay close to me during the funeral, up to and including the actual interment.

When I recovered from the initial shock of seeing Comrade Bene dying with me holding her right hand with my two hands, I was led away from the bed we had shared until that morning. We moved from the bedroom to the living room. I was led by a team comprising the doctor, the lead nurse, my close comrades and some members of our household. Thereafter this team was also not far from me till Comrade Bene was interred in the grounds of Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI), Nigeria, in Calabar, on Friday, January 17, 2025. I was closely guarded.

The interment, together with the events and activities in the period before it, after Comrade Bene’s departure, is a separate story, to be told separately later. I may mention, however, that the last act before the actual lowering into the ground was what was called “Eulogy” where three representatives of the congregation of mourners – our oldest child (a female), our oldest comrade (a male), and myself – in that order, addressed Comrade Bene and the congregation who had gathered to bury her.

The Congregation included: representatives of the Revolutionary Directorate (RD); representatives of SOLAR; representatives of the Nigerian Left, its formations and detachments; representatives of the Nigerian Feminist Movement, its formations and detachments; the Nigerian Academics; Intellectuals and other segments of the middle class; representatives of Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI), Nigeria; representatives of the working class, the poor and the popular masses; and generally, representatives of oppressed and dominated segments of Humanity whose battles Comrade Bene had championed and “made her own.”

In my own Eulogy, I faced Bene and rededicated myself to the joint commitment we had made as we grew up in our relationship, a union that had begun in 1973 at the University of Lagos. With time the commitment had split and expanded into at least five distinct but connected parts. These are Marxism; Socialist Revolution; Socialist Humanism; Revolutionary Feminism; and Revolutionary Internationalism.

• Cooper Taylor, 17, aims to revolutionize the drone industry with a new design.
• Taylor designed a motor-tilting mechanism to lower manufacturing cost and increase efficiency.
• His innovation won awards at science competitions adding up to $23,000.

Cooper Taylor is only 17 years old, but he's already trying to revolutionize the drone industry.

Taylor has spent the last year optimizing a type of drone that's being used more and more in agriculture, disaster relief, wildlife conservation, search-and-rescue efforts, and medical deliveries.

His design makes the drone more efficient, customizable, and less expensive to construct, he says. He's built six prototypes where he 3D-printed every piece of hardware, programmed the software, and even soldered the control circuit board.

He says building his drone cost one-fifth the price of buying a comparable machine, which sells for several thousand dollars.

Taylor told Business Insider that he hopes "if you're a first responder or a researcher or an everyday problem solver, you can have access to this type of drone."

His innovation won him an $8,000 scholarship in April at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, funded by the Department of Defense. Then, on May 16, he received an even bigger scholarship of $15,000 from the US Navy, which he won after presenting his research at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.

"Ultimately having people in STEM careers is a matter of national security," Winnie Boyle, the senior director of competitions at the National Science Teaching Association, which administers JSHS, told BI.

Even though most students who compete won't end up working in the military, she added, "we as the community will still benefit from the research that they're doing."

A drone that blends plane and helicopter

It all started when Taylor's little sister got a drone, and he was disappointed to see that it could only fly for about 30 minutes before running out of power.

He did some research and found that a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL)drone would last longer. This type of drone combines the multi-rotor helicopter style with the fixed wings of an airplane, making it extremely versatile. It lifts off as a helicopter, then transitions into plane mode. That way it can fly further than rotors alone could take it, which was the drawback to Taylor's sister's drone. Unlike a plane-style drone, though, it doesn't need a runway and it can hover with its helicopter rotors.

The problem is that VTOL drones are very expensive. As Taylor learned more about them, though, he realized he could improve a key inefficiency and maybe drastically reduce their cost.

VTOL drones use helicopter-style rotors to lift off straight from the ground, but once airborne, the motors running those rotors turn off and the drone switches to a plane-style motor to travel horizontally.

Motors are some of the most expensive parts of a drone, Taylor said, so having some motors sit idle during flight is "a big waste of cost and a big waste of energy."

He wanted to solve this problem by designing a motor that could start out helicopter-style for liftoff, then tilt back to become an airplane-style motor.

That's not a new concept. Aerospace companies have tinkered with tilting rotors for decades, according to David Handelman, a senior roboticist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

However, Taylor designed his rotor-tilting drone to be completely 3D-printed and completely modular. A user can pop the tail and wings out of their sockets and replace them with any custom appendages. Similarly, a port for cameras or scientific instruments leaves room for customization.

The cost savings come from the fact that his drone uses fewer motors, but the modular nature means users could upgrade or replace parts of the drone for a lower cost than buying a whole new drone.

Handelman, who mentored the high schooler, told BI in an email that Taylor's drone "could appeal to users who need a versatile platform but can't afford large or complex systems."

If you crash at first, try, try again

Taylor spent an entire summer solving this VTOL problem.

"It was a wonderful summer, really focused," Taylor said. "I'd wake up, I'd go into my basement, I'd work on the drone, I'd look outside, and it's 12 a.m."

When he hit a barrier in his knowledge of coding, design, or circuitry, he would look for advice in online forums or take a relevant course on the website Udemy.

His first three prototypes crashed. One of them soared 50 feet up and then face planted.

"That sort of hurt. That's a few hundred hours right there," Taylor said.

Each flight and crash revealed a problem he needed to fix until, finally, the fourth drone flew and touched down in one piece.

"I actually love doing this," Taylor said. "It's so much fun for me."

Taylor's latest prototype weighs about 6 pounds with a wingspan a little over 4 feet. He's flown it for up to 15 minutes at a time, but he has calculated that at the rate it uses power it should last for 105 minutes cruising at 45 mph. He doesn't want to push those limits just yet though.

"Cooper brought both curiosity and discipline to the project, working at a level I usually see in strong college students," Handelman said. "The fact that he got the aircraft flying is a testament to his persistence, creativity, and problem-solving ability."

Now Taylor is building his seventh iteration of the drone. Eventually, he wants to make it small enough to remove the wings and fit it in a backpack.

This summer, though, the high schooler says he'll be working on a different drone project through a program with the Reliable Autonomous Systems Lab at MIT.

Business Insider

Nigeria's capital market demonstrated remarkable strength in 2024, with listed companies on the Nigerian Exchange Limited delivering tidy returns to shareholders while maintaining robust fundraising activities, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Record Dividend Payments Signal Market Confidence

Companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange declared a total of N1.1 trillion in dividends to shareholders throughout 2024, with N1 trillion already distributed to investors, SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama announced in a Sunday statement. This substantial payout reflects growing market confidence and improved investor returns across the exchange.

The dividend distribution represents a significant milestone for the Nigerian capital market, demonstrating the profitability and cash generation capabilities of listed companies while rewarding shareholders for their investments.

Capital Raising Reaches New Heights

The commission approved an impressive N3.68 trillion in new issues during 2024, highlighting strong investor appetite and issuer confidence in Nigeria's capital markets. The breakdown reveals a heavy preference for equity financing, with N3.62 trillion raised through equity instruments compared to N59.82 billion from fixed income securities.

This trend continued into 2025, with the SEC approving N446.38 billion in new issues between January and April. However, the composition shifted significantly, with fixed income instruments accounting for N265.90 billion while equity raises totaled N180.48 billion, suggesting a rebalancing toward debt financing in the current period.

Major Corporate Transactions Drive Market Activity

The mergers and acquisitions landscape remained active throughout 2024, with the SEC approving 11 transactions valued at N320.36 billion. The year's most significant deal involved N Seven Nigeria Limited's acquisition of a 58.02 percent stake in Guinness Nigeria Plc, worth over N103.7 billion.

Corporate restructuring activities also featured prominently, including the notable scheme of arrangement involving Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, valued at over N105 billion, and Transnational Corporation Plc's share capital reconstruction through a one-for-four share consolidation worth N5.08 billion.

The momentum has continued into 2025, with three major transactions worth N38.53 billion approved year-to-date, comprising two takeovers and one corporate restructuring. While no mergers have been recorded in the current review period, the steady pace of market activity indicates continued interest in strategic consolidation across key sectors.

Investment Management Sector Experiences Robust Growth

Nigeria's collective investment schemes sector recorded substantial expansion, with registered mutual funds reaching 184 vehicles by the fourth quarter of 2024. These funds collectively managed N3.84 trillion in net asset value while serving over 800,000 unitholders.

The broader investment management landscape proved even more impressive, with privately managed portfolios and products growing to 444 vehicles managing N4.69 trillion in assets. In total, 82 active asset management firms now oversee N8.53 trillion in investments across the market.

According to Agama, these figures demonstrate a maturing market where professional fund management is increasingly recognized as a critical driver of capital formation and wealth creation. The growth reflects sustained confidence in Nigeria's investment management capabilities and the expanding sophistication of the country's financial services sector.

Market Outlook Remains Positive

The comprehensive data released by the SEC paints a picture of a dynamic and growing capital market that continues to attract both domestic and international investment. The sustained activity across equity and debt segments, combined with robust dividend payments and active corporate restructuring, suggests that Nigerian companies are successfully leveraging capital markets to finance growth and investment initiatives.

The strong performance across all market segments indicates that Nigeria's capital market infrastructure is effectively supporting economic development while providing attractive returns to investors. As professional fund management continues to expand and corporate activity remains steady, the market appears well-positioned for continued growth and development in the coming years.

Matthew Kukah, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, says the election of a Catholic pope is not based on the ideology of ‘emi lokan’.

Kukah spoke on the subject during a Channels Television interview aired on May 21.

‘Emi lokan’ is a Yoruba phrase which means ‘it is my turn’. The phrase was popularised by President Bola Tinubu in June 2022.

Tinubu, then an APC presidential aspirant, had said it was his turn to become president after his political support for former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The phrase has since been mainstreamed into the country’s political lexicon.

ELECTION OF NEW POPE

On May 18, Pope Leo XIV was inaugurated as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis.

Before the new pope’s election, social media was awash with conversations around the possibility of an African becoming the pope.

Asked for his take on the discourse, Kukah said a pope’s election is not based on human permutations, adding that Africa should first win the World Cup.

“I think we still have a long way to go. I did write an article in the course of all of this, and I remember remarking on something that happened when Pope John Paul II died and the speculators thought that Cardinal Arinze came very close,” he said.

“But as you know, electing a pope is not like that, it’s not an ‘emi lokan’ scenario in which you say, ‘these people have had their turn, now it’s our turn’.

“No, it doesn’t work like that. And then the pundits who think that this is like betting on a horse or whatever. You always notice that by and large, when people begin to make their speculations, they are using human parameters of their calculation, and very often, most of those who make these calculations simply accumulate their data and suggest this is where it’s going to go.

“But always, people are shocked in part because the election of a pope is not like any other election anywhere in the world.”

Kukah said the Catholic Church believes that the cardinal elected as pope is the choice of the Holy Spirit.

He added that, unlike African politics, there are no advantages accorded to the pope’s home country.

The Cable

Nigeria's security challenges have reached alarming new heights as a series of devastating attacks across multiple states have left dozens of people dead and entire communities in mourning. The recent surge in violence underscores the country's deepening security crisis, with attacks spanning from the north to the southeast.

Mass Killings in Taraba State Leave 42 Dead

The most devastating attack occurred in Taraba State, where suspected herdsmen launched a brutal pre-dawn assault on the communities of Munga Lalau and Munga Doso in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area. Over 50 attackers, armed with AK-47 rifles and machetes, stormed the villages around 2:00am on Friday, moving systematically from house to house in what survivors described as a "calculated extermination."

The attack resulted in at least 42 confirmed deaths, with many residents still missing. Armed assailants arrived on motorcycles and opened fire indiscriminately on sleeping residents, burning homes and killing anyone in sight. The communities held a mass burial on Saturday, conducted by soldiers and security personnel, as grieving families struggled to comprehend the scale of the tragedy.

"We didn't know where to run to," said survivor Soja Emmanuel. "They came around 2am, shooting sporadically. People jumped out of their homes into the bush. Some didn't make it."

The attack has left families devastated, with some residents losing multiple relatives. Augustine Munga, a community leader who lost two brothers, called for swift government intervention, while Madam Sarah Bitrus, who lost her husband and two family members, could barely speak through her tears, saying simply, "My world has ended."

Anambra Family of Four Murdered

In Anambra State's Ihiala Local Government Area, a family of four was brutally murdered in their home in Isseke on Thursday night. The victims, identified as Ichie Kennedy Igboanugo and three female family members, were attacked while sleeping in their apartment by unknown gunmen who left their bodies on the floor.

Police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga confirmed the incident, describing it as an "unprovoked attack" by criminal elements. The victims' bodies have been recovered and deposited at the mortuary while investigations continue. A joint security team has cordoned off the area and reinforced security measures in response to the attack.

Katsina Security Operatives Killed in Ambush

Katsina State suffered another significant blow when armed bandits killed five local community security operatives in an ambush near Maharba village in Matazu Local Government Area on Saturday. The security team was responding to a distress call about bandit presence when approximately 20 attackers on motorcycles ambushed them near a riverbank.

The bandits, concealed among trees, opened fire and set ablaze the Hilux van carrying the security operatives, killing all five personnel onboard, including unit commander Mallam Sanusi, who oversaw operations across multiple local government areas.

Governor Dikko Radda led a high-level delegation to assess the attack site, reaffirming his administration's commitment to working with security agencies and community leaders. "The sacrifice of these brave men will not be in vain," Radda pledged, promising to intensify peace restoration efforts.

Sokoto Village Ravaged by Lakurawa Bandits

The northwestern state of Sokoto also came under attack when suspected Lakurawa group members launched a large-scale assault on Alela village on May 23. Hundreds of bandits riding approximately 50 motorcycles stormed the village around 7:00pm in a coordinated attack, firing sporadically to terrorize residents before burning down several homes and rustling livestock.

Security operatives have been mobilized to track down the fleeing attackers, but the scale and coordination of the assault highlight the sophisticated nature of these criminal groups.

A Pattern of Escalating Violence

These recent attacks are part of a broader surge in violent incidents across Nigeria's northern and southeastern regions. According to media reports, at least 383 people were killed across northern states in just one month, with Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Kano, and Taraba among the most affected areas.

The violence stems from a complex mix of factors including banditry, ethno-religious tensions, farmer-herder conflicts, and the activities of various criminal groups. Recent months have seen particularly deadly attacks, including the killing of 56 people in Benue State and 40 people in Plateau State during coordinated assaults in April.

The attacks demonstrate the sophisticated tactics employed by these criminal groups, from coordinated pre-dawn raids to strategic ambushes of security forces. The scale and frequency of these incidents reveal the significant challenges facing Nigeria's security apparatus and the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to address the root causes of the violence.

As communities continue to bury their dead and security forces work to respond to the threats, the human cost of Nigeria's security crisis continues to mount, leaving families shattered and entire regions living in fear.

Israeli strikes kill 30 in Gaza, including rescue service official and local journalist

Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a senior rescue service official and a journalist, local health authorities said.

The latest deaths in the Israeli campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.

Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory's civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda's death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 220.

Israel's military said in a statement that chief of staff Eyal Zamir visited troops in Khan Younis on Sunday, telling them that "this is not an endless war" and that Hamas has lost most of its assets, including its command and control.

"We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas and dismantle its rule," Zamir was cited as saying.

The statement did not address Sunday's strikes.

Later on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC said in a statement that two of its staff - Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal - had been killed in a strike on a house in Khan Younis on Saturday.

"Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza. The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian relief, and civil defence personnel," the ICRC statement added.

In a separate statement, the Gaza media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77% of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes.

The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.

On Friday the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gazaovernight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

The conflict has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches war's largest air attack on Ukraine, kills at least 12 people

Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said.

The dead included three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, local officials there said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out.

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"The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin," he wrote on Telegram.

"Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia."

It was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 12 people had been killed and 60 more wounded. Earlier death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of dead at 13.

"This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death," he wrote on Telegram.

The assault comes as Ukraine and Russia prepared to conduct the third and final day of a prisoner swap in which both sides will exchange a total of 1000 people each.

CEASEFIRE EFFORTS

Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war.

Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting, as Kyiv had wanted.

Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.

Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.

In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials.

This was the second large aerial attack in two days. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in waves that continued through the night.

In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said early on Sunday that drones hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.

Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground.

In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines of fighting, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor.

"Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries," the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.

"Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons."

Russia's Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian attack destroys Russian church dome

A Ukrainian drone strike destroyed the dome of a cathedral in Tula Region, Russia in a large-scale overnight UAV raid on the country on Saturday, the regional governor has said.

The drone struck St. Nicholas Cathedral in the village of Yepifan, setting the main spire on fire and completely burning it, Dmitry Milyaev said in a statement on Telegram Sunday morning. The blast also damaged windows of nearby homes, he added.

“The fire has been localized,” Milyaev wrote, adding that there were no casualties.

Footage circulating on social media shows the Orthodox cathedral’s dome engulfed in flames, with burning debris tumbling onto the roofs below.

The drone raid damaged civilian homes and outbuildings in other parts of Tula Region, Milyaev said.

Russian air defenses shot down 16 UAVs over the region during the assault, according to the country’s military. In total, 110 drones were intercepted across Russian airspace overnight, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Ukraine has escalated its drone strikes on civilian targets in Russia in recent days. Nearly 900 Ukrainian drones have been intercepted over Russian regions since Tuesday, according to data from the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has described the surge in UAV “terrorist attacks” on non-military targets as a deliberate attempt by Ukraine’s “party of war” to sabotage the recently renewed direct peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev. Ukraine’s Western backers, “led by the UK, France, Germany, and the EU leadership,” are facilitating the attacks by supporting “Ukrainian Nazis,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

Direct peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia resumed in Türkiye earlier this month, three years after Kiev unilaterally withdrew from the previous round of talks in Istanbul in 2022. As a result, both sides agreed to draft memorandums outlining their proposals for a peace settlement, and agreed on a landmark 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner exchange, which concluded on Sunday.

Reuters/RT

Marte, the headquarters of the eponymous Local Government Area (LGA) on the western floodplains of the Lake Chad in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, has been a site of lingering contest between Nigerian troops on the one hand and Islamist insurgents of Boko Haram on the other for over one decade. At 3,154 km2 , Marte LGA is just a little under the size of all of Lagos State.

For a while, between 2014 and 2015, Boko Haram reportedly bivouacked in Marte on its way to its more permanent operational headquarters in the Sambisa Forest. For much of 2015, control of the town exchanged hands in succession between the Nigerian Army and Boko Haram. Around May 2015, Boko Haram reportedly took back the city from the Nigerian troops who had held it for three months from February of the same year.

For the most part, Nigeria has controlled Marte thereafter with the exception of a brief duration in 2021, when the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) temporarily visited havoc upon a military base in Marte.

All that appears to have changed recently. Around Monday, 12 May, Islamist insurgents reportedly attacked the Forward Operating Base of the 153rd Task Force Battalion in Marte, resulting in considerable carnage. Sources familiar with the early morning attack reported that “over 10 soldiers were killed and hundreds of personnel deserted. The (terrorists) burnt down armored tanks and made away with arms and ammunition.” The beleaguered governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, has been left appealing to his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that Marte does not fall back into the hands of Boko Haram and its allies.

In the same week that they attacked Marte, the insurgents also attacked the 3rd Battalion base in Rann, Kala Balge district, killing at least five soldiers and leaving at least four others reportedly injured. The intensity and scope of the attacks by Boko Haram in Borno State in the past six months led the state governor to raise an alarm last April, suggesting that the country was “losing ground” in the fight against Islamist terror.

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, a retired assistant inspector-general of the Nigeria Police Force, who has run for and is credibly rumoured to retain ambitions for another tilt at the presidency, ostensibly failed to get the governor’s memorandum. Addressing the National Summit, so-called, of the APC, the NSA claimed to have killed 13,543 Boko Haram elements in the first two years of the administration and recovered over 11,000 arms from them. He notably did not mention the haul of arms the insurgents have been busy harvesting from Nigerian military formations. Over the same period, he claimed, “124,408 Boko Haram fighters and their families” also surrendered.

It is unfortunate that the ruling party has chosen to make national security a party political matter. It is even more tragic that the wannabe political opposition has allowed it to get away with it. The result is a vacuum of leadership in the security sector filled and fed with an atrocious body count of Nigerian casualties, whose death and suffering barely registers on the priorities of the people supposed to protect the country, its people and communities.

The central problem is a failure of strategy. To understand this, it is necessary to explain that the presidency is many jobs in one. A president is – among other things – party leader, chief marketer of the country, head of government, and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. Every one of these roles of the president can be delegated, except the last. As Commander-In-Chief, the president sets security strategy.

For over 50 years, Nigeria’s national security strategy docked onto the neighbourhood of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). There was good reason for that. The country’s northern boundaries feed into the southern rim of the Sahel. With Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to its north as founding members of ECOWAS, the country could count solidly on friendly neighbours as buffers against the historical brutalities of Sahelian violence.

This understanding was at the heart of the transformation of the ECOWAS from an economic integration arrangement envisioned at its foundation in 1975 into a collective security arrangement in 1981. For much of the period since then, this arrangement held together.

However, following the military coup in Niger Republic in July 2023, the country lost its marbles and decided to bite its nose in order to spite its sovereign face. On behalf of ECOWAS, President Bola Tinubu committed the blunder of threatening to invade another member of the ECOWAS collective security arrangement. He alone knows what he was thinking.

The hubris of Tinubu’s handling of the coup crisis in Niger is inexplicable. With a landmass of over 1.267 million km2, Niger Republic constituted about 22 per cent of the 5.8 million km2  of the landmass of ECOWAS. The idea of an invasion of the country in order to militarily restore the ousted administration of President Mohamed Bazoum was always worse than bluster; it was plainly unviable.

In invoking war against Niger on behalf of ECOWAS, Tinubu managed in one stroke to violate the prohibition against the use of force in international law; create the impression that Nigeria’s Sahelian neighbours did not matter; and suggest that France was a more important factor to Nigeria’s neighbourhood strategy than its immediate neighbours.

That much should have been evident to the people who thought up the idea. But the damage was beyond a resort to fantastic bluster where hard-nosed rationality was needed. The costs have been prohibitive and rising; and the result has been devastating.

In September 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger created their own collective security arrangement and orbited off into the realm of Russia’s mercenary diplomacy. Since then, the consequences for Nigeria have been stark. In the period since September 2023 and despite the fantasies of Ribadu, Nigeria’s internal security situation has disintegrated into mayhem.

In the North-West states of Sokoto and Kebbi, a new terror group, Lakurawa, has taken root. South of Kebbi, in Kwara State, another new terror group, Mahmuda, runs murderously rampant. To the east of Kwara in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, vast swathes of territory and communities in Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau states are being emptied in intense attacks credited to so-called “foreign herdsmen.”

The politicians are reluctant to acknowledge what is obvious and the soldiers have been trained not to say that their Commander-In-Chief has left them in an insecurity pickle. But that is exactly what Tinubu has done with the way he has brought about the transformation of ECOWAS from an integrated security arrangement for the region into a rump of an association of Atlantic West African States (AAWAS).

The evidence is everywhere in the rising casualty count which Ribadu would not acknowledge. According to monitoring coalition, Nigeria Mourns, 4,416 people were killed in atrocities in Nigeria in 2023. In 2024, Tinubu’s first full year in office, the number rose by 21.2 per cent to 5,353, including 308 security personnel. Some 88.5 per cent of these killings occurred in Northern Nigeria. Another 5,171 were abducted.

Behind these numbers are people, families, communities, traumas that both Ribadu and the ruling APC will not allow Nigerians to see, hear, acknowledge or mourn. They are the experiences of loss and indignity that the dissolute wannabes in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) cannot bring themselves to ask the APC to account for or acknowledge.

On 28 May, the civic Coalition Nigeria Mourns invites all Nigerians wherever they may be to spare a thought for all these victims and their loved ones in a National Day of Mourning (NDoM) “to rage, resist, and demand action from the government” in memory of all who have been killed or violated. A more responsible government would not have waited for a group of un-armed, un-elected citizens to remind them.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..