November 30

• Nigeria: Violence Reveals Flaws in Criminal Justice System

  The major atrocities in northern Nigeria's violent insurgency have been widely reported: church bombings, including an attack on Christmas Day; attacks on government buildings,... Read more »

November 29

• Nigeria: Hurdles to Govt-Boko Haram Dialogue [analysis]

  Attempts by the Nigerian government and the Boko Haram militia to peacefully resolve a three-year-old insurgency by the Islamist group have thus far floundered, dashing hopes of an... Read more »

November 9

• Nigeria: Floodwaters Recede but Millions Remain Displaced

  Efforts to repair infrastructure and restore livelihoods destroyed by Nigeria's recent flooding - the worst in five decades - require urgent funding and will take six months or... Read more »

November 2

• Nigeria: Farmers Must Prepare for More Flooding [opinion]

  Elderly Nigerien rice-farmer Adamou Sambeye shows IRIN his rice plot on the banks of the River Niger near the capital Niamey: water lilies fill his still-flooded field. In one... Read more »

October 19

• Nigeria: Nigeria-Chad - Child Migrants Reuniting With Families

  Most of the Chadian Koranic students who fled Boko Haram related violence in northern Nigeria to return to their country in March 2012, have now been reunited with their parents,... Read more »

September 27

• Nigeria: Delta Militants Angry Over Amnesty Deal

  The Nigerian government plans to integrate 3,642 additional former Niger Delta fighters into its amnesty programme, but some ex-militia leaders have denounced the move, saying it... Read more »

July 16

• Nigeria: Carrot or Stick? - Nigerians Divided Over Boko Haram

  How to deal with Boko Haram violence splits Nigeria: in the north, the centre of bombings and shootings by the Islamist extremists, there is an almost universal demand for... Read more »

July 6

• Nigeria: Bridging the North-South Maternal Death Divide

  Nigeria's health services halved the maternal mortality rate between 1990 and 2010, but in parts of the predominantly Muslim north, which is less socio-economically advanced, women... Read more »

July 5

• Nigeria: Violence, Curfews and Border Closures Hurt Livelihoods

  More than 1,000 people are estimated to have died in bombings and shootings by Islamist extremists in northern Nigeria since 2009, but an additional casualty has been the jobs and... Read more »

June 28

• Nigeria: Owning Up to Food Insecurity in the North

  It is the start of the rains in northern Nigeria, and farmers are out sowing their fields. They know that the next three months will be the belt-tightening lean season, when... Read more »

May 16

• Nigeria: Where Is the Money to Help Poisoned Children? [analysis]

  Aid organizations and rights groups are putting more pressure on the Nigerian government to release a promised US$5.4 million in aid for lead-poisoned children, but government... Read more »

April 27

• Africa: Bone Marrow Register an 'Important Milestone'

  Only a fraction of the millions of people worldwide with blood and autoimmune disorders survive - especially those in poorer countries - partly due to the lack of bone marrow stem... Read more »

April 22

• Nigeria: School Attendance Down After Boko Haram Attacks

  So far this year 14 schools have been burnt down in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, northern Nigeria, forcing over 7,000 children out of formal education and pushing down... Read more »

April 18

• Nigeria: Police Arrest Rights Activist Over Criticism

  Chidi Odinkalu, chair of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission, was summoned for an interview with police yesterday over remarks he made in March about the judiciary and the... Read more »

March 29

• West Africa: Hunger Affecting 10 Million as Dry Season Approaches

  Hunger has come again to the Sahel. "Since yesterday I have only drunk water," said Houley Dia, 60, a widow who lives in Houdallah, a village of the Fula ethnic group in southern... Read more »

March 12

• Nigeria: Gas Flares Still a Burning Issue in the Niger Delta

  Despite longstanding laws against gas flaring - the burning of natural gas during oil extraction - in Nigeria, and shifting deadlines to end the practice, the activity continues,... Read more »

March 10

• Chad: Migrants Fleeing Boko Haram Violence Await Aid

  Some 1,000 Chadian migrants - most of them children separated from their families - are waiting for aid in the village of N'Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad having fled... Read more »

February 24

• Mali: Refugee, IDP Numbers Rise As Fighting Continues

  Refugee numbers are rising daily in countries bordering Mali as fighting rages between the Malian army and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which is... Read more »

February 20

• Nigeria: Calls for More Action On Child Lead Poisoning

  The Nigerian government has stood back and watched while hundreds of children in the northwestern state of Zamfara have died of lead poisoning, and hundreds more been affected by... Read more »

• Niger: Diffa Traders Hit By Nigeria Border Closure

  For generations, Diffa, the arid southeastern corner of Niger, has benefited from being closer to Nigeria than to commercial centres in Niger: Staple grains, fuel, clothing and... Read more »

February 10

• Nigeria: Bayelsa State to Speed Up Aid for Oil-Spill Victims

  Nigeria's Bayelsa State government said yesterday it would speed up the release of money over the next two weeks to help hundreds of thousands of villagers affected by a Chevron... Read more »

February 3

• Nigeria: Never So Divided, Never So United [analysis]

  A month after an angry public launched protests across Nigeria over skyrocketing fuel prices due to the removal of a government subsidy, a measure of calm has returned and people... Read more »

January 20

• Nigeria: Timeline of Boko Haram Attacks and Related Violence

  Bombings and shootings by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram - also known as Jama'atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid Da'awati Wal Jihad - have increased sharply in recent months, leaving many... Read more »

• Nigeria: Boko Haram Displaced Fear Returning Home

  Many of the tens of thousands of civilians who have fled their homes following a string of deadly attacks by "terrorist group" Boko Haram in northern Nigeria over recent weeks have... Read more »

January 13

• Nigeria: What Can Be Done About Boko Haram Militants? [interview]

  As bombings and shootings by the militant Islamic group Jama'atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid Da'awati Wal Jihad - better known as Boko Haram - escalate, the Nigerian government appears to be... Read more »