United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has called for effective collaboration between governments at all levels, development partners and non-state actors in addressing the needs of Nigeria where poverty and infrastructural challenges are the most acute. Speaking at a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Acceleration Conference organized by the Kaduna state government, Mohammed stressed the need for government and other stakeholders to take the issue of accurate data gathering and analysis very seriously in order to for government to effectively plan and implement its policies and programmes that will impact positively on the people. Present at the conference were Kaduna state government officials, captains of industry, youths and development partners. Most notable amongst those present were Governor Nasir El-Rufai and the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed. Addressing the participants, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, emphasized that ending extreme ...

  UN Peacekeepers Killed in Attack on Mali's Aguelhoc Camp At least 10 peacekeepers from Chad have been killed and 25 others wounded in an attack on a United Nations camp in northern Mali, according to the world body. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, saying it was "in reaction" to the visit to Chad by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency, which regularly receives statements from this armed group. Read also: UN plans to evict Nigerian refugees to borno UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned what he described as a "complex attack" on the UN camp in Aguelhoc, some 200km north of Mali's Kidal region towards the border with Algeria, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

UN Raises Alarm as Cameroon Plans to Evict Nigerian Refugees to Borno The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed grave concerns over plans by Cameroon to evict thousands of Nigerian refugees to Borno. UNHCR said it deplored the reported move that Cameroon was forcing several thousand Nigerians to return to Borno, adding that it has put the lives of the refugees “at risk”. Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria, according to UNHCR. “We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people”, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The UN refugee agency said on January 16, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned. It regretted that at dusk on January 14, militants attacked and ransacked the border town of Rann, about 10 kilometers from the Cameroon border. UNHCR said that at least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estim...