Boko Haram strikes again; 30 killed in Ngamdu; hundreds run from homes

At least 30 people were killed in three attacks by Islamists in northeastern Nigeria, local officials and inhabitants said Wednesday. The three assaults were carried out simultaneously Tuesday. In the deadliest, over 20 were killed outside Ngamdu, a local legislator, Mohammed Sando, told AFP.

“Boko Haram gunmen … yesterday set up a barricade on the Damaturu-Maidiguri highway just outside Ngamdu, and attacked motorists. They killed over 20,” Sando said.

“They then moved to Ngamdu and began to set houses on fire. Last week they burnt almost half the village in a similar raid,” he added.

Haruna Kabil, a bus driver, said a large number of people from Ngamdu fled their homes after the attacks.

“Some houses in Ngamdu were smouldering when I passed this morning. I learned from some passengers I took from Ngamdu that Boko Haram invaded the village in the evening and began burning homes after attacking motorists on the highway. They said that many people were killed on the highway, by the attackers,” Kabil told AFP.

Near Baga, which is located northeast of Ngamdu, Boko Haram attacked residents who had decided to return home from Maiduguri, where they had been living in forced displacement since January.

“Yesterday, they chartered a lorry to (take) them to Baga. On reaching Garin-Giwa, which is just 4km from Baga, they were ambushed by Boko Haram gunmen who opened fire on the vehicle, forcing dozens of men inside to flee into the bush,” said Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fishermen’s union in Borno state.

“The gunmen however apprehended eight of the passengers and shot them in the head,” he added.

In Damasak, Boko Haram assailants set fire to the town and “opened fire on everyone they saw,” said local resident Buba Ari. “We are now going through the burnt area looking for bodies. So far we have covered five.”

The attacks underlined the threat still posed by the Islamists, despite the authorities’ pledges to crush Boko Haram’s insurgency and with a new regional force set to deploy at the end of the month. — AFP

USAfrica: Obama to host Buhari in Washington DC on July 20

”President Obama will host Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House,” on July 20, the White House has announced in a statement received by USAfrica. It will be the first meeting for the two leaders in Washington DC., and their second meeting this year.

The visit, the statement notes, will reflect “our support for the Nigerian people following their historic democratic elections and peaceful transfer of power.”

Among the issues Obama and Buhari will be tackling include the fight against the Islamic terrorists Boko Haram and how to “unlock (Nigeria’s) full potential as a regional and global leader.”

Buhari was sworn in on May 29, 2015; his second time as head of state of Nigeria.  Nigeria has major business and strategic interests with the U.S. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. @Chido247 

USAfrica:: Buhari’s rejection of Rolls-Royce ride in London, Obasanjo and lessons of history. By Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/2015/05/24/buharis-rejection-of-rolls-royce-ride-in-london-obasanjo-and-lessons-of-history-by-chido-nwangwu/

Forthcoming 2015 BOOK: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first PERSON reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two GLOBAL icons and towering PERSONS of African descent whose exemplary lives

 and friendship HOLD lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and CONSEQUENCE to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being CLOSE to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown UNIVERSITY in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that HISTORIC Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief EXECUTIVE of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when PRESIDENT BILL Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and CAME to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia 
specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the INTERNET, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/

  •Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (GOVERNANCE, SECURITY, and PEACE in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown UNIVERSITY in Rhode Island and former ADVISER on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the INTERNET USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360 and the largest pictorial events megasite on the African diaspora www.PhotoWorks.TV . He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn         E-MAIL: Chido247@Gmail.com