Daily Watch – NESG laments economy, Mali to integrate 26k rebels into army

Terrorist leader, Abdulkarim Faca-faca, suspected to be among the masterminds of the attack on President Muhammadu Buhari’s advance convoy to Katsina during the last Sallah holiday has been killed along with eight of his gang members. Faca-faca was reportedly killed on Saturday in an airstrike by a team of the Nigerian Air Force when they raided some terrorist hangouts in Marina village in Safana Local Government Area, Katsina State. According to a local source who craved anonymity, aside from those killed, many of the terrorists secured gun wounds, though they managed to escape. He also alleged that all their rustled cows were destroyed in the process. Confirming the report to VANGUARD, Hon. Abduljalal Haruna Runka, the lawmaker representing Safana in Katsina State House of Assembly said, “It is true. Nigeria Air Force raided the area late evening on Saturday and continued with a morning mop-up operation. Abdulkarim Faca-faca and eight of his boys were killed in the attack. They were buried in Marina, his hometown this Sunday morning,” Runka disclosed.

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the killing of six Nigeriens and Nigerian law enforcement officials by gunmen in the South East. The President in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, called on people who know the perpetrators behind the dastardly act to expose them. He promised all possible action to conduct a speedy investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice. The President’s reaction came amidst reports of the slaying of six Nigerien citizens and the brutal killing of a number of policemen at their duty posts. He urged community and religious leaders to speak more forcefully against the killings, stand up and defend the ethos of our cultural and religious heritage. The President expressed his administration’s unwavering commitment to peace and stability in the southeast and the entire country, saying that the reports of killings anywhere were sad and unwelcome. President Buhari offered his condolences to the families of the law enforcement agents murdered and to the government and people of the Niger Republic, whose citizens were cruelly beheaded by the attackers.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has lamented that Nigeria is currently stuck in an economic morass, as most macroeconomic indicators are spiralling out of control, inflicting severe hardship on more Nigerians. A communique issued on Sunday by NESG Chairman Mr Asue Ighodalo explained that even though the economy continued to recover in the first half of the year, economic growth was dominated by sectors with low contributions to output and weak job-creating capacity. In contrast, the oil sector remained in recession for eight consecutive quarters. Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics, Ighodalo said the headline inflation is 18.6%, which stands at more than double the Central Bank of Nigeria’s price stability threshold of 9%. The communique pointed out that the Russian/Ukrainian war and the lingering effects of COVID-19 on the global food supply chains have negatively impacted the Nigerian economy, with its attendant dire consequences. On security, the NESG observed that “despite increased budgetary allocation to defence and national security, the current state of insecurity is indicative of a country under siege.”

Mali’s government has said it will integrate 26,000 ex-fighters from a northern rebellion group into its army as part of a deal with the former independence movement. The agreement was struck in a meeting on Friday between the two parties and suggests new energy in the stalled reconciliation deal, signed several years ago. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga. Also attending the event were the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the peacekeeping mission in Mali, El Ghassim Wane, and other ambassadors. A peace deal between the government and non-extremist armed independence groups in the north was signed in February 2015 but has stalled in the past seven years.