Boko Haram Violence in Lake Chad Region Leaves Children Displaced and Trapped

 "Thank God we're alive, but we've lost everything, our camels, our jewels, our savings. Everything," says Fatime Saleh, 10, who was displaced from Chad alongside her family due to Boko Haram violence. "This is not ok for ...

TORONTO and DAKAR, Aug. 25, 2016 /CNW/ - Years of violence by Boko Haram in Africa's Lake Chad basin have led to a worsening humanitarian crisis that has displaced 1.4 million children and left at least one million still trapped in hard-to-reach areas, UNICEF said in a report released today.
"The Lake Chad crisis is a children's crisis that should rank high on the global migration and displacement agenda," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. "Humanitarian needs are outpacing the response, especially now that new areas previously unreachable in north-east Nigeria become accessible."

How British Companies and Others Control Over US$1Trillion of Africa's Resources

How British Companies and Others Control Over US$1Trillion of Africa's Resources

Give them their parliament but we will control the banks
Lusaka Times, August 26, 2016
~ By Mark Curtis

Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control $305billion worth of platinum, $276billion worth of oil and $216billion worth of coal at current market prices. The ‘Scramble for Africa’ is proceeding apace, with the result that African governments have largely handed over their treasure.

Click here to read the full report.

How President Buhari is Cracking Corruption in Nigeria

Nigeria: Cracking Corruption
Public Finance International, August 26, 2016
~ By Emma Rumney

Nigeria is one of the most “fantastically corrupt” countries in the world – that is, in the words of former prime minister David Cameron, who was caught boasting to the Queen in May that a delegation from Nigeria was to attend his flagship anti-corruption summit.

Video: Lagos Morning Rush Hour on Victoria Island

Elsie-Femi Pearse Street and Adeola Odeku Road Junction on Victoria Island during the Wednesday morning rush hour of yesterday.

Video: For Clean Water And Sanitation For All

For Clean Water And Sanitation For All 

The facts are startling. Today, 663 million people are still denied access to clean water and 946 million people do not have proper sanitation.

With your help, we can end these risks and save millions of lives year.

Take action on our Water & Sanitation campaign now.

Join me in a growing movement of millions of people across the planet who are taking action to solve the world's biggest challenges.

#showup and Join the movement http://glblctzn.me/2aYLiY9

Let us make a difference today.

JOBS: nuTonomy is Recruiting!

JOBS: nuTonomy is Recruiting!  

Current openings
nuTonomy is focused on research and development for state-of-the-art self-driving cars. We aim to be the first company in the world to launch an autonomous taxi system, and we are building up an awesome team to make this goal a reality.

Please send all applications to jobs@nutonomy.com. Include a CV, examples of your past work (e.g., papers, code), and your preferred office - Cambridge, MA or Singapore. If applying to our US office, please indicate your eligibility to work in the country.

nuTonomy offers competitive salary and benefits, great colleagues, and a fun work environment.

Currently we have openings for:

    Embedded Software Engineer – Automotive R&D / ADAS Experience
    Motion Planning / Controls – Research Scientist or Engineer
    Research Scientist – Computer Vision – Machine Learning
    Software Engineer – Computer Vision – C++
    Mapping & Localization Engineer
    Software Engineer – Mapping and Annotation Tools
    Software Engineer – Master C++ Programmer
    Software Test Engineer
    Machine Learning Specialist
    Control Systems Engineer
    Radar Engineer
    UX / UI / Industrial Designer
    Drivers – Data Collection
    Drivers – Self-driving Vehicle Operator (Safety Driver)
    Business Intern
    Recent Graduates

Go to http://www.nutonomy.com/jobs.html.

Singapore Launches the First Self-Driving Taxi in the World

Singapore Launches the First Self-Driving Taxi in the World

World's first self-driving taxi service launches 
Aug 25 2016, 08:28 ET | By: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor

• Singapore became the first country in the world to offer a self-driving taxi service with the targeted launch of nuTonomy. A full roll-out of an autonomous taxi service across the nation is expected as early as 2018.

US$217.7 Billion Illegally Transferred Out of Nigeria

US$217.7 Billion Illegally Transferred Out of Nigeria

 Africa: Cleaning Up
~ By William Gumede

What is the extent of corruption in Africa? The recent Global Corruption Barometer shows that 12 of the 13 countries with the worst record of bribery are in Africa. The African Union estimates that 25% of the GDP of African states, or some $148 billion, is lost to corruption every year on the continent.

• The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates corruption costs Africa up to 50% in lost tax revenues and over $30 billion in aid, annually. As a comparison, Africa receives around $22.5 billion in development aid from industrial countries (pre-2007/2008 global financial crisis figures), according to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

• In many African countries local and foreign private donors fund governing parties in return for favourable policies, subverting regulations and the drive toward efficient privatisation. This stymies development. Developed countries also contribute to the situation by harbouring the proceeds of corruption in Africa in secret bank accounts.

• Africa is losing $50 billion every year in illicit financial outflows because of fraudulent schemes to avoid or evade taxes by governments and companies, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). According to the report, the continent lost $850 billion between 1978 and 2008. Some $217.7 billion was illegally transferred out of Nigeria, $105.2 billion out of Egypt and $81.8 billion out of South Africa.

• Separate data provided by Global Financial Integrity has shown that South Africa loses annually about $12.2 billion in illicit outflows. That loss could easily plug South Africa's fiscal deficit. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who chairs UNECA said: "The information available to us has convinced our panel that large commercial corporations are by far the biggest culprits of illicit outflows, followed by organised crime".  

Click here to read the full report. 

Source AllAfrica

Don't Blame President Muhammadu Buhari for Economic Hardship in Nigeria

Don't Blame President Muhammadu Buhari for Economic Hardship in Nigeria

Many ignorant and poorly educated Nigerians have been calling President Muhammadu Buhari all sorts of derogatory names, cursing and swearing as they blame him for the current economic hardship majority of people are suffering in Nigeria. But unknown to them, the current recession is a global development that is affecting all the continents and in fact Nigerians should be thanking God, because the hardship would have been worse.
Nigeria is not even among the worst economic performers and not among the top ten most affected countries in the world and they include mighty Japan, Italy, Taiwan and Ireland without even mentioning the weeping baby of Europe, Greece.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry currently visiting Nigeria knows that America is also facing economic challenges and will discuss the global recession with President Buhari.

According Bloomberg:
Oil-rich Venezuela will contract by 3.3 percent this year, the worst forecast of any of the 93 countries in our analysis, followed by junk-rated Brazil, debt-laden Greece and commodities-ravaged Russia. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-11/meet-2016-s-worst-economic-performers-flirting-with-disaster


~ By  Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
https://twitter.com/247nigeria

Click here to order for copies. 
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The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: My Testimony on the 2015 Presidential Election is an important chronicle of the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria and the principal actors in the emergence of the first Nigerian presidential candidate to defeat an incumbent President in the political history of Nigeria.

Nigeria: With Thousands in Urgent Need, UN Health Agency Scales Up Emergency Response

On 12 August 2016 internally displaced children waiting for ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) distribution in Banki IDP camp, Borno state, northeast Nigeria. Photo: UNICEF/Andrew Esiebo.

Nigeria: With thousands in urgent need, UN health agency scales up emergency response

NEW YORK, 22 August 2016 / PRN Africa / -- The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) is ramping up its response in north-eastern Nigeria, where initial assessments have revealed urgent health problems among populations in areas formerly held by Boko Haram insurgents.