Foreign News
Peace Institute Foresaw Boko Harm Emergence, Farmer-Herder Crisis, Says DG
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) foresaw the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency way back in 2007, the Director-General of the institute, Dr Bakut Bakut, disclosed on Sunday.
Bakut, who made the disclosure at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, said that based on its findings, the institute had advised the then administration in power to act on the discovery of the institute.
He said that the institute also discovered warning signals of the current crisis between farmers and herders.
The don said that based on the growing rate of religious intolerance and strict application of certain doctrines in the Northeast, which the institute noticed, IPCR had to alert the then administration.
“One of the things that I would like to say and I always say it with caution, is: in 2007 this institute could predict that the intolerance that we saw, particularly in terms of religion and strict application of doctrines in the Northeast, we saw it becoming a problem.
“We warned them but obviously maybe we did not warn enough and today we have what we call Boko Haram.
“The same thing we saw again in 2012, the danger of what has become the farmer-herder issues. Again we warned but again, maybe we did not warn enough.
“So, what we have now done is to make sure that we do not just warn but go into the environment and try to intervene directly.
“These are the things that we have done to make sure that between year 2000 and today we operate within the context of our mandate,” Bakut said.
Giving further insight into what the institute has done in concrete terms to ensure peace in Nigeria, the director-general said that the IPCR had prepared a National Peace Policy and handed it over to the government, which in turn presented same to the United Nations (UN).
He said that based on that policy, which Nigeria also presented to the global body, the UN Security Council passed a resolution asking other African countries to follow Nigeria’s example.
“In that period, the Federal Government under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, set up a Presidential Implementation Committee on our findings and established a Presidential Implementation Plan.
“The directors of the IPCR then were working on strategies that would help solve some of the problems but something happened and that one went out.
“By 2007, when the government was going we were moved to the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Unlike before when we sent our policy directly to the president, we now have to go through the ministry.”
Bakut noted that changes in the country’s administration and changes in the institute’s supervising body could have scuttled plans to act on the institute’s forecasts over the years. (NAN)
Russia on Wednesday proposed to create the Association of Ethno-Gastronomic Tourism, saying it would help strengthen cooperation between states and the private sector at the BRICS working group meeting.
Nikita Kondratiev, Director of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development made the announcement on the ministry’s website.
“The accession of new members to BRICS expands not only the geography but also the cultural diversity of the association.
This becomes a competitive advantage for promoting the tourism potential of the member states,” he said.Kondratiev noted that gastronomic travelling in the world had been developing very actively in recent years.
He stressed that such dynamics could be associated with the growth of tourist spending, the increasing popularity of niche tours and travelers interest in eco-friendly food. (Tv Brics/NAN)
German authorities have arrested three men on suspicion of planning arson and explosive attacks on railway freight transport in Germany on behalf of Russia, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The suspects are said to have told several persons allegedly commissioned by Russia that they were willing to carry out the acts of sabotage, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe said.
German intelligence services believe Russian actors are hiring people to carry out espionage and sabotage operations across the country.
The deployment of professional spies are being made increasingly difficult due to sanctions and increased vigilance amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Three German-Russian nationals were charged with spying for Moscow in December.The man at the centre of the indictment is said to have discussed sabotage operations on German soil with a Russian agent and agreed to carry out explosive and arson attacks on industrial sites and infrastructure used by the military.
According to prosecutors, this was an attempt to undermine the military aid provided by Germany to Ukraine. (dpa/NAN)
The Israeli military has once again called on civilians in Yemen to evacuate several ports, after it intercepted a missile launched by the Houthi militia.
The “repeated warning” concerns the Houthi-controlled harbours of Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif in the west of the country, an army spokesman wrote in Arabic on X.
The Houthis are using the ports for “terrorist activities,” the spokesman said, adding that civilians should stay away from the facilities for their own safety.
The latest development comes days after Israel called on civilians to evacuate the three harbours on Sunday evening.
No information on subsequent Israeli attacks on the ports has emerged.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia has regularly launched missile and drone attacks against Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
The group, which says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas, has recently stepped up its attacks, with one rocket hitting close to Tel Aviv’s international airport earlier this month.
In response, Israel attacked the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
Another launch was reported by the Israeli military on Wednesday, with sirens sounding in Jerusalem and other cities.
The missile was intercepted. (dpa/NAN)
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