At least 24 people have died and dozens more are missing in the sinking on Sunday of a boat carrying peasants to their fields in central Nigeria on Sunday 10 September.

The boat was carrying more than a hundred peasants crossing the Niger River to go to their crops located on the other side, in the State of Niger, when the boat capsized, aindiqué in a statement Garba Salihu, the head of the Relief Management Agency of that State.

“At this point, 24 bodies were found and 30 people were rescued,” he said. More than 100 people were to be on board when the sinking occurred,’ he added. The causes of the accident were not specified.

Operations continued to find missing passengers, he said.

On Friday, ten people drowned and three were reported missing when a boat with 23 passengers

Amin Suleiman, the local head of the Relief Management Agency, told AFP that he had capsized on Lake Njuwa in Adamawa State (north).

Shipwrecks of boats in Nigeria on rivers, very borrowed, are frequent. They are usually due to overloaded boats, poor maintenance or non-compliance with safety rules.

It’s an open secret. ECOWAS gave the Nigerien putschists a week to restore constitutional order, and does not rule out using force if this ultimatum is not respected. In Nigeria, the army is already ready to intervene. Indeed, according to the chief of general staff of the armies of the country, his men are waiting only for the orders of ECOWAS to land in Niamey.

“This is unacceptable”
“You have heard what President (Bola Tinubu) said, if the problems continue, action will be taken. He said that no one would support a military takeover of power. That is unacceptable. We stand up for democracy and it must continue. And we will do exactly what the chair says. We are ready and as soon as we receive the order to intervene, we will,” Musa said, according to RFI.

He says he is absolutely sure to carry out the operation if it starts. “Everyone is retaliating and our president is in discussions with his counterparts in neighbouring countries. We are convinced that the putschists knew that what they were doing would not pass. We are sure to win over them,” he continued.

Threats from Mali and Burkina Faso
Needless to say, Mali and Burkina Faso have already warned ECOWAS against military intervention in Niger. This would lead to a withdrawal of Bamako and Ouagadougou from the sub-regional organization as well as «the adoption of self-defence measures in support of the armed forces and the people of Niger».

The Nigerian authorities have announced a comprehensive national counter-terrorism operation. This is a major military operation across the country. The aim is to combat insecurity, according to a statement issued by the army on Saturday 17 October 2020.

The fight against national insecurity has been a priority of President Muhammadu Buhari since his arrival at the head of the country.This exercise with the code name “Crocodille Smile” is part of the army’s efforts to eradicate insecurity. The operation targets all areas affected by this scourge. It includes cyber-warfare exercises against cybercrime.This involves identifying, tracking and countering negative propaganda in social networks and in cyberspace. The proliferation of false information on the internet and social networks is a threat taken very seriously by the Nigerian army. Since 2017, some digital platforms have been monitored. 

The exercise also includes an identification component with the sole ambition of locating Boko Haram terrorists who are fleeing to the northeast of the country and to other regions, including the north-central and northwest, due to ongoing operations. This dangerous secctes of Islamist claim, has already perpetrated many deadly attacks on civilian populations but also on military personnel.The other objective is to fight against terrorist propaganda through fake news broadcasted on the Internet. On 17 October, the General Staff again denied the death of 11 Nigerian soldiers, allegedly killed in an ambush by the jihadist sect Boko Haram.

Operation Crocodille Smile is the first cyber warfare or cyber warfare exercise to be conducted by the National Army in the history of the African Armed Forces. This is the fourth time the Nigerian army has launched this operation. It began on October 20 and will end on December 31, 2020.