Daily Watch – Troops kill Kachalla in Kaduna, FX sullies Nigerian banks outlook

Kachalla Gudau, a notorious bandit leader, has been killed by the Nigerian Army in Kaduna State, state commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said on Wednesday. He said Gudau was killed when soldiers repelled an attack led by the bandit himself on Sunday, “ending his ignoble reign of brutality and evil”. According to Aruwan, his remains were retrieved by his followers in the Kankomi forest where he bled to death. Aruwan added that credible sources reported that after Gudau’s remains were retrieved, a large number of bandits under his command buried him in a location said to be around Kaku forest situated in Kaso, Chikun LGA of the state. According to him, the identity of another bandit, whose remains were found by the troops, had been confirmed as ‘Rigimamme’, one of Gudau’s trusted aides. Gudau, who has known links with other bandits in the North-West and North-Central regions, played a leading role in the joint kidnappings of students and expatriates in Kajuru, Chikun and Kachia councils, in addition to killing victims, coordinating attacks on herder settlements, organising ransom collections as well as trafficking in illicit drugs and sophisticated weapons.

At least 11 people have been killed, with six others injured in an overnight attack on the Maikatako community of Butura district in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State. Daily Post reported that the attackers were suspected herdsmen who burnt nine of the victims beyond recognition and razed down four houses in the attack which started 11 pm, Tuesday night, with the attackers overpowering patrolling vigilantes. According to a member of the affected community, the unprovoked attack started after the weekly Monday market when a boy was shot at the hilltop, a community about a kilometre from Maikatako. The shooting incident led to tension in the community despite the vigilante’s efforts to repel the attackers after observing strange movements and notifying the security authorities. Confirming the attack, Plateau police spokesperson DSP Alabo Alfred, said details remain sketchy. Governor Simon Lalong said the rising number of attacks in Bokkos is becoming worrisome and must be checked immediately.

The global credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has said that “things are going to get worse next year” for Nigerian banks amid a protracted foreign exchange liquidity crisis that has unsettled lenders in Africa’s biggest economy. Mahin Dissanayake, head of African banks at Fitch Ratings said this during the agency’s annual Nigeria conference in Lagos, citing the currency shortage as the biggest factor in the agency’s outlook. “The banks will obviously benefit from higher interest rates and government bond yields,” Dissanayake said. But regulatory risks from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cash reserve ratio policy remain a banana skin, even as the banks now risk a repeat of falling out with international correspondent banks, as in 2016, due to deepening foreign exchange shortages. “The first sign is a lot of overdue trade finance obligations to international correspondent banks being built up,” Dissanayake said. “We have seen signs of that but not to the extent we saw in 2016, but it could change. You just need an international correspondent bank to call in a default,” he said. The credit ratings of the banks are also likely to be affected, with the sovereign ratings worsening. Fitch downgraded Nigeria to B- with a stable outlook last Friday, barely weeks after Moody’s took an even harsher stance by downgrading the Nigerian government’s rating to B- with a negative outlook.

The UN’s new special envoy for Libya has warned that the first anniversary of the postponed elections was fast approaching and that further postponement of the polls could lead the country to greater instability, putting it at risk of partition. Abdoulaye Bathily, the Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya told the Security Council that the October 2020 ceasefire still held despite escalating rhetoric and the build-up of rival governments’ forces in the east and west of the country. The current political crisis stems from the failure of elections on 24 December 2021 and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah – who headed a transitional government in the capital, Tripoli – to resign. Bathily, a former Senegalese minister and diplomat who arrived in Libya in mid-October and has travelled to all parts of the country, told the council that he has seen Libyans hope for “peace, stability and legitimate institutions.” “However, there is a growing recognition that some institutional actors are actively impeding progress toward elections,” he said. He warned that further prolonging the elections “will make the country even more vulnerable to political, economic, and security instability” and could risk partition. Bathily said the Security Council must make it clear that ending the ceasefire and resorting to violence and intimidation “will not be accepted and that there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis.”