15, January 2017
Nigeria:Gunmen have abducted 5 students, 2 teachers and a Turkish national 0
Unknown gunmen have abducted five students and two teachers, including a Turkish national, from an international school in southwestern Nigeria, police say. The incident occurred on Friday evening when some unidentified gunmen gained entrance through the back fence of the Turkish Tulip International School, located in the Isheri area of Ogun State and took the students and teachers away at gunpoint on the school premises, said Ogun police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi on Saturday.
“We have deployed police operatives and are making serious efforts to release the victims unhurt and bring the culprits to book,” Oyeyemi further said, adding that the kidnappers had not made any contact with police or school authorities so far and no arrest has been made. Other reports maintained that the kidnappers came in a white Hilux pickup and fled through a swamp. No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions, but It is unlikely for the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group, which is active in the northern and northeastern parts of Nigeria, to have been involved in the raid. Thus, local criminal gangs, which kidnap people for ransom, may be to blame.
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok in Borno. About 80 of the girls managed to escape afterward or were swapped for a number of Boko Harm prisoners, but the fate of the rest remains unknown. On September 8, police announced that they had managed to rescue two Chinese nationals, a week after they had been kidnapped by unknown gunmen, in the town of Odeda in Ogun. On October 6, unidentified gunmen also invaded Lagos Model College in the town of Igbonla in Epe area in the southwestern state of Lagos, abducting four students, a vice president and a teacher from the school.
Presstv
15, January 2017
Scores of refugees feared dead off Libya coast 0
Scores of people are feared dead in an incident involving a boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea while carrying 110 asylum seekers. The Italian coastguard said four people had been rescued in the waters between Libya and Italy, where the incident occurred, media reported on Sunday. A spokesman for the coastguard added that 13 bodies had so far been recovered from the boat, which capsized around 50 kilometers off the coast of Libya. Italian, Spanish, and French naval and merchant vessels as well as a plane and a helicopter were involved in rescue operations, the spokesman said.
According to the Italian government, 181,000 asylum seekers arrived in Italy last year, all of them having departed from Libya. The refugees, desperate to leave and thus at the mercy of human traffickers, are often loaded onto rickety vessels in the waters of the Mediterranean. Countless incidents of boats capsizing have occurred and hundreds have perished as a result. In 2016, 5,000 asylum seekers died during the perilous crossing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The exodus of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East has also led to a refugee crisis in Europe, their desired destination. In reaction to the crisis, European countries have mobilized resources to reduce refugee arrivals and deport those that do arrive to other countries. Tougher border controls, strict refugee policies, and deals with countries to return asylum seekers are part of the measures enforced by European authorities to cope with the crisis. This is while analysts believe Western policies are the root of the crisis, as those policies fan the flames of wars and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa and force locals to leave their homes.
Presstv