How Chinese are financing terrorists to illegally access mineral resources in Nigeria – Report

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Written by alib

Category: Africa

Published: 17 April 2023

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By Theophilus Adedokun

LAGOS - A British national newspaper, The Times, has reported that Chinese nationals in the mining sector are financing terrorist groups in some parts of Nigeria to gain access to the country’s mineral resources.

The national daily revealed this in an investigation it published on Saturday, April 15.

The Times said that the Chinese nationals are fuelling insecurity and terrorism through illegal transactions, lobbying and bribes.

The newspaper reported, “Beijing could be indirectly funding terror in Africa’s largest economy.”

According to the report, some Chinese who work informally as miners in Zamfara are serving as smugglers for some militant groups in the state and other states in the north-western part of Nigeria.

It noted that Chinese firms constantly negotiate with terrorists and bandits.

“Chinese companies working in parts of Nigeria where attacks are frequent have been striking security deals with insurgents.

“Attacks on Chinese citizens, of whom there are said to be between 100,000 and 200,000 in Nigeria, have become regular occurrences in recent years amid the country’s many conflicts.”

Research shared with The Times from SBM Intelligence, a Nigeria-based analytics company, revealed videos on social media, including WhatsApp, of militant leaders boasting that they are so powerful that Chinese workers wishing to operate in their areas must pay them ‘rent’. They have taken over swathes of northwest Nigeria, turning the region into the country’s bloodiest conflict zone.

“In one pocket of Zamfara, researchers found, interaction with militants runs so deep that some serve as runners for Chinese miners who have spread throughout Nigeria, controlling digs for gold. The country has some of the largest gold reserves in the world.

“Often operating informally in small groups as contractors registered to clearing-house companies, they speak local languages and can stay for years at a time living in remote areas that western companies consider off-limits.”

The report stressed that Chinese mining contractors underpay locals working on their fields.

“Chinese mining contractors, who local communities have accused of abuses and paying pitiful wages, often smuggle minerals out of the country illegally and are sometimes arrested.”

It said that the Chinese who smuggle mineral resources out of the country through illegal routes were sometimes apprehended.

“In 2020, 27 miners, including 17 said to be Chinese, were arrested in Osun state. Last October, a Chinese citizen, Gang Deng, 29, was jailed for five years after being found with 25 tonnes of a mineral thought to be lepidolite, containing lithium, which is used in batteries.”

SBM also found Chinese workers involved in the Boko Haram conflict in Nigeria’s northeast, with a case of a Chinese smuggler being paid to help a jihadist group move metal ore out of the country.

The ICIR had published a two-part investigation on the activities of illegal gold mining in Osun and Ondo states.

The ICIR’s investigations highlighted the implications of illegal mining on the environment and the health of the natives.

The reports revealed that the traditional rulers and native authorities were in connivance with illegal miners.

The ICIR had also reported that Kogi and Osun states banned illegal mining operations in their territories.

The governors of the two states reiterated their commitment to clamping down on all forms of illegal mining in the state within the ambit of the law, while stating the adverse effects of illegal mining on the well-being of residents of the states.

The government of the two states urged legitimate miners whose activities have contributed to environmental degradation and water pollution in the states to retract immediate steps towards remedying the situation.

Nigeria's Tinubu defends win in disputed presidential poll

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 01 March 2023

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By Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA - Nigeria's new president-elect, Bola Tinubu, called on citizens to unite around him on Wednesday, as he defended the integrity of the national election he won amid a bitter dispute over the results.

Both of the two main opposition parties have rejected the outcome as fraudulent, and said they would challenge the results in court. The bitter dispute has raised fears of violence in Africa's most populous nation and leading energy producer, which has a long history of electoral violence.

In past polls, street gangs with loyalty to Tinubu in the commercial hub of Lagos have fought pitched battles with gangs loyal to rival parties.

"I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria," Tinubu said to cheers in Abuja. "This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it."

He now faces a litany of national problems, including Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, armed attacks, killings and kidnappings, conflict between livestock herders and farmers, cash, fuel and power shortages, and deeply entrenched corruption.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Tinubu garnered 37%, or 8.79 million votes, in the weekend election, ahead of main opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar's 29%, or 6.98 million votes.

Peter Obi, an outsider popular with younger and more educated urban voters, won 25%, or 6.1 million votes.

A candidate can win by getting more votes than any of their rivals, provided they get 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 37 federal territories - that is the 36 states and the federal capital territory of Abuja, which Tinubu managed to do.

LOW TURNOUT, LOW TRUST

With total votes cast at just under 25 million, out of 87 million people with voter identity cards and eligible to vote, turnout was only 29% - low, even by Nigerian standards. The 2019 election saw 35% turnout.

At least some of them were unable to vote due to malfunctioning of voter card reading machines.

Nigeria's election was meant to be its fairest and most open contest to date. But the electoral process encountered problems, owing to new technology that did not function well and seemed to overwhelm Nigeria's notoriously inadequate communications network. That undermined trust in the whole process.

"In the eyes of God, the man (Tinubu) is not the winner," trader Mercy Efong said in Akwa, in Obi's home state of Anambra.

The INEC had promised to upload results from each polling unit to its website in real time, but most units were unable to do so immediately. That was not a legal requirement, but it meant results had to be collated manually inside ward and local government counting centres as in previous polls, reneging on a policy that was meant to improve transparency.

"President Buhari said that he would do free and fair election (but) INEC is now turning everything upside down," said rickshaw driver Nedu Chukwunata, referring to the outgoing president.

"We want justice in Nigeria; we want democracy here in Nigeria ... we want our voice to be heard we are tired of corruption," said Chukwunata, who had parked his yellow rickshaw on a sandy patch of ground in Akwa.

'CREDIBLE ELECTION'

Observer missions have criticised the problems as the result of poor planning.

"I commend INEC for running a credible election no matter what anybody says," Tinubu said. "The lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election."

President Muhammadu Buhari, also from the All Progressives Congress (APC), congratulated his successor.

"Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power," he said in a statement.

As Lagos governor, Tinubu won praise for partially fixing some of the cities problems, including reducing violent crime, waste collection and traffic.

The 70-year-old has, however, sometimes appeared frail in public, slurring his speech, answering questions with platitudes and skipping several campaign events, leaving some to doubt how effective or dynamic he will be as leader.

Pope Francis tells rich world to stop stifling Africa’s progress

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 01 February 2023

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KINSHASA - Pope Francis on Tuesday criticised those he said have been keen on stifling progress in Africa, and especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, telling the rich world that the people in the continent are more precious than the minerals in the earth beneath them.

Speaking shortly after he arrived in Kinshasa, the Catholic pontiff said the region is not only suffering internally with conflict but also from what he called “a terrible form of exploitation”.

"While you Congolese struggle to safeguard your dignity and territorial integrity against the despicable attempts to fragment the country, I come to you, in the name of Jesus, as a pilgrim of reconciliation and peace".

"It is tragic that Africa still suffers from various forms of exploitation," he said.

According to him, after "political colonialism, an "equally enslaving economic colonialism has been unleashed".

"Get your hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo, get your hands off Africa. Stop smothering Africa; she is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be robbed," the pope said.

Pope Francis Tuesday arrived at N'djili International Airport at 2.40pm and was greeted by a large crowd of Catholic clergy and some members of the government led by Prime Minister Sama Lukonde, while President Félix Tshisekedi was waiting for him at the Palais de la Nation ( State House), 25 kilometres from N'djili airport.

A warm welcome

Along the streets of Kinshasa, the Pope received a warm welcome from the people of Kinshasa, who lined up Lumumba Boulevard, greeting the pontiff as he passed.

Cardinal Fridolin a Ambongo led the masses on this welcome.

"I am happy to be here, in this land so beautiful, so vast and so luxuriant, which embraces, to the north, the equatorial forest, in the centre and towards the south, the high plateaus and the wooded savannahs, to the east, the hills, mountains, volcanoes and lakes, to the west, other great expanses of water, with the Congo River joining the ocean," the Pope said in his message, which was delivered in Italian.

"I have longed to be here," he told President Tshisekedi in the garden of the Palais de la Nation.

Before the pope spoke, President Tshisekedi welcomed in a speech that described the situation in the country, highlighting the war that is currently shaking the DRC.

Enemies of peace

"The lives of our people are still deeply linked to religious convictions that reflect the dynamism and vitality of their faith. These convictions structure our collective action, and the lives of our families are largely based on these religious values. Among these values is hospitality, which is a cardinal value shared by all our families and our people.

“Unfortunately, it has to be said that over the last three decades, this hospitality that characterises us has been undermined by the enemies of peace and terrorist groups, mainly from neighbouring countries," Tshisekedi said, citing Rwanda as a supporter of the rebel groups.

He said in 30 years of violence in the east of the DRC, 10 million people have died due to, among other things, "foreign powers greedy for the minerals in our Congolese subsoil".

For almost 20 minutes, Pope Francis poured out his heart to the people of DR Congo.