Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

Six hundred people – mostly women, children and the elderly – have been evacuated from the Syrian city of Homs, according to non-governmental organisations. They were brought out by humanitarian assistance teams on Sunday despite mortar attacks and shooting. More civilians may be rescued as rebels and the Bashar al-Assad government have extended the ceasefire for another three days. The evacuation of about 600 of the 3,000 trapped people came as representatives from both sides converged on Geneva, Switzerland, for new peace talks. Sunday’s evacuation was the second after 83 people were brought out on Friday – the first day of the truce. The Syrian Red Crescent said on Facebook “around 600 people evacuated today, registration is still ongoing. We managed to get 60 food parcels & 1500Kg of flour inside old city”. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 611 were brought out – “210 women, 180 children, 91 men over 55 years old and 130 young men who surren...

Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah Operatives of the State Security Service have been directed by the Ministry of Aviation to stay away from all the nation’s international airports. The order, which was communicated to the SSS leadership a few weeks ago, was said to have shocked the operatives. It was further gathered that the directive by the ministry, which is headed by Ms Stella Oduah, might affect the ability of the SSS to perform its duties of preventing, detecting, and investigating threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage and terrorist activities, especially at the airports. Some of the   international airports are   the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt; the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano. A top security source, who declined to be named because he was not permitted to speak on the matter, confided in one of our co...

New violence and looting in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, has left at least nine people dead, including two more lynchings of minority Muslims. The latest assaults in the former French colony included mob attacks and an assassination attempt targeting the former justice minister. Fighting broke out on Saturday evening between Christian vigilantes and Muslims in the west of Bangui where many buildings were torched, witnesses and humanitarian officials told AFP news agency. A resident told AFP news agency that the Muslim killer of a Christian woman was lynched and killed before his body was burned and deposited in front of the local town hall, where it could be seen early on Sunday. A suspected Christian militia member killed another Muslim civilian, and was about to burn the body when Rwandan soldiers of the African peacekeeping force MISCA shot him, a witness who gave his name as Innocent told AFP. The shooting prompted an angry crowd to shout slogans against...