Nigeria: 28 kids killed, dozens more sickened by lead poisoning from illegal gold mining

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Twenty-eight children have died from lead poisoning from illegal gold mining in a remote west-central village, Nigerian health officials said, while doctors still are treating thousands from an earlier outbreak.

Dozens more children are sick in the Rafi area of Niger state and action must be taken quickly if they are not to suffer irreversible neurological damage, Michelle Chouinard, Nigeria director for Doctors Without Borders, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Her organization still is treating children from a 2010 mass lead poisoning, in Zamfara state, that killed 400 kids and left many paralyzed, blind and with learning disabilities because of a three-year delay in government funding for a cleanup.

Chouinard said they have cured 2,688 of 5,451 people infected and hope to complete treatment next year. They have had most success in the worst-affected village of Bagega, where all but 189 of 1,426 people have had the lead leached from their bodies.

Junior Health Minister Fidelis Nwankwo said Thursday all those newly infected in neighboring Niger state are under 5 with 43 percent of the 65 sickened children dying.

"The devastating impact of this outbreak is associated with new mining sites which were found to contain more leaded ores which are often brought home for crushing and processing," he said.

Previous government efforts to forbid artisanal mining have failed as poor villagers make up to 10 times as much from gold than from farming.

In Zamfara state, where the processing area was found to contain over 100,000 parts per million of lead — the United Nations considers 400 parts per million safe — Idaho-based TerraGraphics International Foundation took 5 ½ months to clean up and also trained villagers in safer mining.

"This (training) is working fairly well and I think it's one of the contributing factors to why the number of patients is decreasing so much and so quickly in Bagega," Chouinard said. Full Story

29 Boys Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Boarding School in Nigeria

It's a Zionist conspiracy!

(nbcnews) DAMATURU, Nigeria - Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in Nigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, police and the military said on Tuesday.

Many of the victims died as the school was burned to the ground.

"Some of the students' bodies were burned to ashes," Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state in the country's northeast.

All those killed were boys. No girls were touched, Rufai said.

Boko Haram, whose struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands, are increasingly preying on the civilian population.

The militant group, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, have frequently attacked schools in the past. A similar attack in June in the village of Mamudo left 22 students dead.

More than 200 people were killed in two attacks last week, including one in which militants razed an entire village and shot panicked residents as they tried to flee.

The failure of the military to protect civilians is fuelling anger in the northeast, the region worst affected by the four- and-a-half-year-old insurgency. An offensive ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan in May has failed to crush the rebels and triggered reprisals against civilians.

Boko Haram have also started abducting scores of girls, a new tactic reminiscent of Uganda's cult-like Lord's Resistance Army in decades past.

(source)

World Called On To Act Against 'Genocide' Of Nigeria's Christians.

- After meeting with the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S. this week, the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) is calling on the international community to pressure governments and those in authority to have Boko Haram declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) – as the militants have been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths since they started waging Jihad in 2009.

Boko Haram Decalres "War" On Christians In Nigeria

From 07 March 2012.

Nigeria Is Literally On The Verge Of Civil War (& Collapse) As Boko Haram Increases Attacks On Christians In Nigeria. Multiculturalism Really Doesn't Work.

- Militant Islamist group Boko Haram has declared “war” on Christians in Nigeria, saying that they are planning coordinated attacks to “eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country”.

A spokesman for the group, which has stepped up its violent campaign against Christians in the North since Christmas, said on Sunday (4 March): We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay
Boko Haram’s actions over recent months indicate that this is no idle threat.

Following a series of attacks on churches and other targets in five states over Christmas that left more than 40 people dead, the group on New Year’s Day issued a three-day deadline for Christians to leave the North. Unrelenting attacks have ensued, including the bombing of a number of churches as well as attacks on individual Christians.

Most recently, on 26 February, a suicide bomber drove a car into the grounds of the Church of Christ headquarters in Jos. The vehicle exploded three metres from the church building; two women and an 18-month-old child were killed, and around 50 people were injured.

The violence is having the intended effect of driving Christians from the North. Nearly 95 per cent of the Christians have left Yobe State, where 20 churches have been torched and many lives have been lost.
Some are heading to the mainly Christian South, while others are crossing the border into Cameroon. The mass migration is precipitating a major humanitarian and spiritual crisis in Nigeria; Northern Christians who have been forced to leave behind their homes and jobs are in great need, while, as the Christian presence diminishes, the Church is being wiped off the map in the North.

Boko Haram has killed around 1,000 people since 2009 in its bloody campaign to establish an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria. As well as attacking Christians, the group targets police, security forces and politicians, and also Muslim leaders who oppose its agenda. Over 300 people have been killed so far this year.
The government has been trying to curtail Boko Haram’s activities, deploying military units across the country, and arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks. But, issuing the latest threat, the group’s spokesman said that the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come”.

Source Article

Multiculturalism Has Failed. . . In Nigeria.

Muslims Are Slaughtering Christians (& Catholics) Again In Modern Moderate Nigeria. Is There Not A Single Country In The World Where Multiculturalism Is A Success?

From Yahoo.com:

            Nigeria’s 160 million population is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Muslims have been victims of Boko Haram attacks, but a wave of Christmas day bombings particularly targeting churches set off fears of retaliation from Christians.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Saturday in parts of four states hard hit by violence blamed on Boko Haram.

The declaration came in response to scores of attacks attributed to Boko Haram, particularly the bombings on Christmas that killed 49 people, most of them in a gruesome blast at a Catholic church as services were ending.

While Boko Haram has been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks for months, including an August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja that left 25 dead, the Christmas violence sparked intense fear and outrage.

It also led to warnings from Christian leaders that they would defend themselves if such attacks continued, raising deep concern.

While declaring the state of emergency in Africa’s largest oil producer, Jonathan acknowledged that the attacks “have threatened our collective security and shaken the foundations of our corporate existence as a nation.”

Read Full Yahoo Article - Here