Nigeria rules out accepting US deportees
Kimiebi Ebienfa told the outlet on Saturday that the West African nation is grappling with 'multiple domestic challenges' and will not take on 'additional baggage' from abroad.
'We have our own issues we are struggling with. We will not allow ourselves to be pressured into accepting deportees, regardless of what other nations are doing,' the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the newspaper.
'We are a sovereign country and we take decisions only after fully analyzing the implications to our national security,' Ebienfa added.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

TimesLIVE
5 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Mali arrests dozens in military who posed threat to government: sources
Mali has arrested more than 30 soldiers and military officials accused of attempting to destabilise the government, two sources said, a sign of internal tensions as the West African nation's leaders take steps to strengthen their hold on power. The arrests have unfolded over multiple days and have targeted several senior officials including Gen Abass Dembele, former governor of the central Mopti region, said a Malian security source who put the total number of arrests at 36. Mali's military leaders took power after coups in 2020 and 2021, vowing to restore security in a country where militant groups control large areas of the north and centre and stage frequent attacks on the army and civilians. In April a national conference recommended naming Gen Assimi Goita, who became interim leader in 2021, as president with a five-year mandate, as well as dissolving all political parties. The move spurred rare protests in the capital Bamako in early May, and the junta responded by suspending political activities across the country. A second source in the government said 40 people had been arrested over recent days.

IOL News
6 days ago
- IOL News
Nigeria rules out accepting US deportees
Nigeria will not accept foreign migrants deported from the US despite other neighbors doing so under deals with Washington, local newspaper The Punch has reported, citing the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson. Kimiebi Ebienfa told the outlet on Saturday that the West African nation is grappling with 'multiple domestic challenges' and will not take on 'additional baggage' from abroad. 'We have our own issues we are struggling with. We will not allow ourselves to be pressured into accepting deportees, regardless of what other nations are doing,' the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the newspaper. 'We are a sovereign country and we take decisions only after fully analyzing the implications to our national security,' Ebienfa added.


The Citizen
6 days ago
- The Citizen
Nigerian military kills more than 100 ‘bandits' in northwest raid
Over 100 bandits were killed in a coordinated air and ground attack by Nigerian forces in Zamfara's Makakkari forest. The Nigerian military killed more than 100 members of a criminal gang in an air and ground raid over the weekend, according to a conflict monitoring report produced for the United Nations and seen by AFP on Monday. Armed groups called 'bandits' by locals have for years been terrorising communities in northwest and central Nigeria, raiding villages, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes after looting them. The military raid in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara was launched 'in the early hours' Sunday in the Bukkuyum local government area, where fighter jets in coordination with ground troops pounded a gathering of more than 400 bandits in their Makakkari forest camp. The military's attack 'may have occurred in response to consecutive banditry, especially kidnapping, in the state in the previous month', the report said, noting a link between a recent decrease in military operations in the state and a spate of bandit attacks. Bukkuyum's Adabka village was on Friday the scene of a bandit attack that saw residents kidnapped and 13 security personnel killed. ALSO READ: Ramaphosa pays tribute to former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari Bandits had been planning an attack on a farming village when 'air and ground troops ambushed a bandit camp… killing over 100', the report said. A spokesman for the Nigerian army did not respond to an AFP request for comment. Violence spreading Nigeria's 'banditry' crisis originated in conflict over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has morphed into organised crime, with gangs preying on rural communities that have long had little or no government presence. Cattle rustling and kidnapping have become huge moneymakers in the largely impoverished countryside. Groups also levy taxes on farmers and artisanal miners. ALSO READ: West African leaders admit security woes mounting in region The conflict is worsening a malnutrition crisis in the northwest as attacks drive people away from their farms, in a situation that has been complicated by climate change and western aid cuts. Despite military deployment to fight the criminal gangs since 2015 and the creation of a militia force by the Zamfara state government two years ago, the violence has persisted. In July, Nigerian troops killed at least 95 members of an armed gang in a shootout and air strikes in the northwest state of Niger. But the military is overstretched, with banditry spreading out of its northwestern heartland into central Nigeria. Bandits, who are primarily motivated by money, have also increased their cooperation with Nigeria's jihadist groups, who are waging a separate, 16-year-old armed insurrection in the northeast. NOW READ: Three drug traffickers arrested in one week at OR Tambo Airport – By: © Agence France-Presse