Daily Watch – Hostages rescued in Kaduna raid, Turkey & Egypt to pursue rapprochement

Nigerian security forces have rescued nine hostages and 90 cattle during a raid on the forest hideouts of armed criminal gangs in Kaduna, officials have said. Troops had clashed with the gangs during the operation in Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna state commissioner for internal security Samuel Aruwan said in a statement. The armed kidnappers then fled, he added. It was not immediately clear if any terrorists were killed or captured or for how long the hostages had been in captivity but Amuran said, “initial debriefing of the rescued victims revealed that they had all been kidnapped around the Gurara Dam area.” The Guardian reported that further clearance patrols to Bawa Rikasa Hill led to the recovery of four motorcycles belonging to the bandits.

The National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, assured that attacks on its facilities won’t stop the conduct of the 2023 election. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance at a meeting with the Africa Union Special Pre-Electoral Political Mission led by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Yakubu said for election materials destroyed in attacks, the commission would replace them. Three local government area offices across the country have been targeted in the past three weeks; the most recent was a suspected arson incident in Izzi, Ebonyi on Sunday where over 340 ballot boxes, 130 voting cubicles, 14 electric power generators and an unspecified number of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) were destroyed. In his words, “So far, we can recover from all the losses but it’s a source of concern. This shouldn’t be allowed to continue.”

The Horniman Museum in south-east London is returning 72 items, including so-called Benin Bronzes, to Nigerian ownership – the first institution in the United Kingdom to officially take such action on this scale. The formal signing ceremony transferring ownership of the 72 objects back to Nigeria unconditionally took place on Monday evening in front of Nigerian royalty and other dignitaries. In a speech, the head of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Prof Abba Tijani praised the Horniman for doing all it could “to correct the past”. Nick Merriman, director of the Horniman Museum said after a lot of research and consultation “there was no doubt they’d been looted – so there was a moral argument for their return”. The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) has issued formal repatriation requests to museums across the world. Germany signed a historic agreement with Nigeria this summer to transfer ownership from its museum collections of more than 1,000 items taken from Benin. France has also returned items. In 2026 the government will open the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City to house the largest collection of Benin Bronzes ever assembled. Six of the items in the Horniman collection will return to Nigeria. The rest of the collection will remain in London on loan.

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said his country and Egypt may soon restore full diplomatic relations after nine years of tensions. He said negotiations could begin “in the coming months”. Ankara and Cairo severed ties in late 2013 soon after Egypt’s President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, came to power in a coup. Turkey was a strong supporter of the deposed leader, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Earlier this month Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan shook hands with his Egyptian counterpart at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar – signalling what his office described as a new start in bilateral relations.