Headline

Activist Wants Reparation, Restitution For Niger Delta

Published

4 years ago

February 13, 2022

An Activist, Mr Somi Uranta, has demanded for the payment of reparation and restitution for the Niger Delta over environmental degradation.

The activist made the demand while fielding questions from newsmen in Benin on Sunday.

Uranta said rather than being a blessing, the discovery of oil has become a curse to the people of the Niger Delta region and by extension the country as a whole.

He pointed out that oil exploration in the region has also left the people poorer aside degradation of their environment.

He stressed that while the proceeds from the oil have largely remain non beneficial to the people, they are further left with no land to carry out farming activities.

The activist said that Nigeria would be the ultimate beneficiary of a permanent solution to the challenges of the Niger Delta.

He said, “It is indeed painful and sad that a region so endowed with natural resources and a region that contributes and account for the bulk of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the people have nothing to show for it.

“It is even made worst with the fact that environmental degradation have left the people with no land to farm while acquatic life have been eroded.

“I travelled to my village in December and I stayed over a week without eating fresh fish. This is just one of the numerous problems that we are faced with.

“The people and region remain the poorest due largely to the ecological unfriendly exploitation of oil by multinationals.

“Government on its part does not seem to have a clear-cut an on how to solve the challenges of the region.”

Uranta concluded by saying that he has made arrangement to train 30, 000 Niger Delta youths under the Youths Enterprise Development Training.

He said the training which would see the beneficiaries being provided with seed grant, will involve 5,000 youths each from Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Edo States.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

6 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

8 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

8 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP