
Zamfara school fire: Nigerian children die in Kauran Namoda
At least 17 children have died in a fire at an Islamic school in northern Nigeria.Several other pupils were injured and rushed to health centres in the town of Kauran Namoda, Zamfara state, for treatment.It is believed that the fire broke out in a nearby house on Tuesday night and spread to the school while the children were sleeping.Local authorities and emergency responders were sent to the scene, but the fire had already resulted in significant casualties.
Eyewitness Yahaya Mahi told BBC Hausa the location of the school made it difficult for those trying to stop the fire.'Even if the firefighters had come on time, reaching the house would've been difficult due to the tight road leading to the house,' he said.Local official Mannir Haidara said other Islamic schools would be inspected to make sure they were not a fire risk.'We'll take measures to prevent another occurrence of this nature,' he said.The father of one of the victims told BBC Hausa that he was devastated but his faith in God was comforting him at this time.
More Nigeria stories from the BBC:
Five sentenced to death in Nigeria over 'witchcraft' murderTems sees off Yemi Alade and Burna Boy to win Grammy'We dig graves for free, like our fathers did before us'
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
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Scottish Sun
29 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
My Satan-obsessed cannibal dad chopped up my stepmum & cooked her in salt – I'll never get over her chilling last words
Jamie-Lee Arrow had a dark and twisted childhood at the hands of father who bought her Satanic bibles and voodoo dolls DARKEST PROPHECY My Satan-obsessed cannibal dad chopped up my stepmum & cooked her in salt – I'll never get over her chilling last words SITTING down for a tense dinner as her dad skulked out of sight, Jamie-Lee Arrow had a sickening feeling in her gut. It was a mood shared by her stepmother, Helle Christensen, who uttered a chilling prophecy as they began to eat. Advertisement 8 Jamie-Lee Arrow has struggled to come to terms with her father's monstrous crimes Credit: Instagram/@jamieleearrow 8 The Satan-obsessed killer is now behind bars Credit: Investigation Discovery 8 Cannibal Isakin Jonsson, 32, murdered girlfriend Helle Christensen, 40, and ate parts of her body She said: 'Enjoy your meal because this is the last time I will cook for you... because Isakin is going to kill me." A day later, on the evening of November 12, 2010, Isakin Jonsson, 32, picked up a knife and climbed on to the bed where his girlfriend was resting. Advertisement He slit her throat, decapitated her, and cut pieces of flesh from her arms and legs, which he cooked in salt and homegrown cannabis leaves. The depraved crime sent shockwaves through the sleepy town of Skara, Sweden, but for Jonsson's daughter, Jamie-Lee Arrow, who was nine at the time, this came as no surprise. In the build-up to Helle's haunting prophecy, the 40-year-old - who had five children with previous partners - had been fighting with Isakin for over 24 hours while Jamie-Lee and two of her children were staying. Jamie-Lee tells The Sun: 'They were throwing plates, pushing each other, throwing knives, and me and her two other children were just sitting on the sofa, crying like babies. 'So at that time, during those 24 hours, I was certain that either I would get killed or she would.' Advertisement After the vicious murder, Jonsson came forward to the police and confessed. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to forensic psychiatric care in March 2011. Looking back on Jamie-Lee's earliest memories of her dad, she reflects it was little surprise that things ended in unimaginable violence. She said: 'Walking into my dad's flat was like walking into a horror movie. Moment killer returns to room where he brutally murdered friend to steal his TV 'Pictures from Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger. Everything was just dark and misery.' Jamie-Lee's parents separated when she was a toddler, in the early 2000s, leading her to spend her childhood split between two worlds, her mum's and her dad's. Advertisement She tells us: 'I was experiencing light and dark, and even though everything was normal at my mum's, I didn't feel normal because I was carrying dark secrets about what was going on at my dad's.' Those 'dark secrets' came from Jonsson's morbid fascination with the occult, an obsession that he often tried to force on to his young daughter. She said: 'He often talked about the devil, demons and evil spirits, and when I was little he liked to introduce me to the other side. 'We would lay in the dark on the bed and he would go, 'Do you see the faces on the wall, can you see them?' 'Then he would say it so much I would actually start seeing them.' Advertisement 8 Jamie-Lee was just nine years old at the time of the murder 8 She confronted her father in a recent documentary Credit: Investigation Discovery He gave Jamie-Lee a Satanic bible at the age of 11, but his warped worldview corrupted even the most basic of parental responsibilities. When Jamie-Lee was around eight, she told her dad about her problems with bullies at school. Instead of offering some warm words and a cup of hot chocolate, he gave her a hand-made voodoo doll and a pin. Advertisement 'Beautiful' second mum It was around this time that Jamie-Lee met her dad's new girlfriend, Helle, who he met at a psychiatric hospital after he was admitted following a drug overdose. On meeting Helle, Jamie-Lee said: 'I immediately fell in love with her, I thought she was so beautiful. 'She was a very unique person and wasn't afraid of my dad. I was used to girls being very careful around my dad. 'They didn't dare to do or say much, but she was joking on his behalf and she was so funny.' Jamie-Lee and Helle became very close over the years as their relationship turned into that of a mother and daughter. Advertisement Jamie-Lee said: 'She even told me, you are like my daughter, I love you like a daughter. 'And I really loved her like my mum.' 8 Jonsson and Helle had a troubled, turbulent relationship 8 Jamie-Lee has turned her trauma into a positive force for good Credit: Instagram/@jamieleearrow But it didn't take long for Jamie-Lee to notice the cracks in Jonsson and Helle's newfound relationship. Advertisement She said: 'They could have very few moments where they seemed very loving, where they were laughing and having a good time. 'And all I wanted was for them to be happy together and to always be together. 'I had a book where I had written that my biggest wish in life is that they'd stay together for the rest of my life. 'But then most of the time they were fighting and they were not good for each other." Cruellest news Those fights culminated in the violent 24-hour argument shortly before Helle's brutal murder, and her chilling final words to the girl she loved like a daughter. Advertisement It was her mum who told her about what happened the night after. She sat her down on the bed and said she had something horrible to tell her. Jamie-Lee recalls: 'I was like 'No, no don't tell me, I don't want to know' and I was just trying to run out the bedroom just to not hear it. 'Then she said, 'Helle's dead' and my first reaction was, 'Was it Dad?' 8 Jamie-Lee has gained thousands of Instagram fans inspired by her defiant response to her traumatic upbringing Credit: Instagram/@jamieleearrow 'And then we just sat crying and screaming, it was awful. Advertisement 'I felt like I had lost both his girlfriend and I had lost him and I felt something inside of me broke.' The ordeal had a traumatic effect on the nine-year-old, with Jamie-Lee going on to struggle with depression and addiction. 'I got into drinking at a very early age," she said. 'I finally had found something that soothed my anxiety and my hatred for myself, I could finally escape reality and it was amazing and I didn't want it to stop. 'It went from drinking to smoking weed to all different kinds of drugs, anything I could get my hands on I would take. Advertisement 'I knew I could fall asleep and not wake up again, but I didn't care.' Horror visits Despite dreams of becoming a doctor prior to the murder, Jamie-Lee's school attendance tanked as she sank further into addiction, dropping out completely at just 15. During these dark days, Jamie-Lee still visited her father in hospital, who brainwashed her into thinking that he was the only one who cared about her. But he had not changed, as the then 17-year-old was about to find out. 'I was in a really, really bad state and I was seconds away from killing myself and I said to my dad, 'I don't know what to do, I'm going to kill myself if something doesn't change'," said Jamie-Lee. Advertisement 'He said, 'The only way out is to do this', and he told me about a ritual that had came to him when he was lying in his bed, he said it was a blessing to him. 'We sat down, in front of each other, and he told me to hold his hands and he wanted me to say after him. Jamie-Lee still cannot bear to utter the words her father told her to say that day, but explains he tried to sell her soul to the devil. She said: 'I felt, like, 'What the hell am I doing?' It felt so wrong. 'I just got such a bad feeling in my body, and I was in such a bad state that I felt like I was going insane. Advertisement 'Like I had lost it, I had lost touch with reality.' Walking into my dad's flat was like walking into a horror movie. Pictures from Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger. Everything was just dark and misery On another visit, Jonsson walked his horrified daughter through the murder, in shocking detail. 'He told me with such passion, and that scared me, it was so disturbing," she said. But the final straw was when Jamie-Lee decided to confront her dad about something she wanted an apology for. When he responded violently, she decided to provoke him, to see if he was capable of doing the same thing to her as he did his former girlfriend. Advertisement Who are the UK's worst serial killers? THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor. Here's a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK. British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women. After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845. Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain's most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903. William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies. Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980. Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail. Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it's believed he was responsible for many more deaths. She said: 'He looked at me with black eyes, like he had no love for me at all. 'He said, 'If you don't stop now, you'll see what I can do'.' That was the last time Jamie-Lee saw her dad until she confronted him as part of Investigation Discovery's recent true-crime series Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks. When asked why she wanted to see her dad again, she said: 'For years I had been wondering about my dad, what he's doing, what he looks like, where he is mentally. 'It just couldn't leave my mind so I knew that I did want to see him one last time just to ask the questions I was carrying and to get closure. Advertisement 'I got to say goodbye to him and I got confirmation that he could never, ever in a million years be a part of my life.' Now 23, Jamie-Lee is happily engaged to her boyfriend of five years and the mother of two beautiful children, a three-year-old boy and a nine-month-old daughter, and is now able to move forward with her new life. Her Instagram has attracted over 30,000 followers in the last month, attracting an audience that is fascinated by her defiant response to her tragic upbringing. She now works as a public speaker and author, teaching people how to turn their trauma into something positive. Her advice? Advertisement 'Just because your childhood sucked doesn't mean your entire life has to," she said. 'We have the power over our own lives and we can create something beautiful even if we came from something ugly.'


Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Chris Brown's 'crazy tour budget' as he returns to the stage after UK arrest
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Scottish Sun
10 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Shocking moment man is chased across taxiway at Heathrow Airport near moving aircraft before being arrested
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