Nigeria arrests woman with 15 trafficked children

 

Nigerian police have arrested a 44-year-old woman for alleged theft of 15 children in the southern Rivers state.

The police say the children were abducted in order to be trafficked by the woman – who claimed to be a nun running an orphanage.

The children are reportedly aged between four and 15 years.

The police said they were working to reunite the children with their parents.

State Commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka, said investigations revealed that some had been abducted years ago, including a nine-year-old boy who had been taken from a market in 2020.

He said some of the children had recounted to the police their experiences of torture and mistreatment.

He said a further probe into the incident was ongoing with a view to arrest other suspects linked to the crimes.

Human trafficking is common in Nigeria.

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New York returns $19m worth of stolen art to Italy

 New York’s district attorney has returned $19m (£16m) worth of stolen art to Italy.

The 58 pieces include a marble head of the goddess Athena dated 200 BC, worth an estimated $3m alone.

The stolen artefacts were sold on to museums and private dealers by convicted looters, said Mr Alvin Bragg.

It is the city’s latest effort to return plundered goods to their country of origin – $66m worth have been returned so far this year.

The head of the DA’s antiquities trafficking unit promised there would be ”many more seizures and many more repatriations”.

Homeland Security was part of the investigation to seize and repatriate these objects to the Italians – 21 of these came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Although the pieces have immense monetary value, an Italian official described them as “priceless”.

General Roberto Riccardi said he felt especially happy knowing that these objects would be returning to communities who will know “where we come from, about our history, about our identity”.

Investigators had worked for years to track down the art smugglers’ trails and locate the items that were being repatriated, according to Homeland Security officials.

Giacomo Medici and Giovanni Franco Becchina are among the convicted robbers who used a network throughout Italy to steal pieces from unguarded sites, according to the DA’s office.

It said these objects were eventually imported to the US where they were sold to American billionaire Michael Steinhardt, who is now banned from buying antiquities after evidence found that items he owned had been looted and illegally smuggled.

In 2021, Mr Steinhardt surrendered treasures worth $70m as part of a deal which means he will not face criminal charges.

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Nigeria seizes donkey penises for export at airport

 Nigeria’s customs service has intercepted 7,000 donkey penises at an airport in the commercial hub, Lagos, that were headed to Hong Kong, according to an official.

The animal parts were packed in 16 sacks found in the animal export section, said Sambo Dangaladima, the customs controller at Murtala Muhammed airport.

He said the smell from the sacks aroused suspicion of the authorities.

The consignment is estimated to be worth 200 million Naira ($478,000; £416,000)

A suspect linked to the package is said to have escaped.

Donkey parts are sought after in China where they are used to make traditional medicine.

Nigerian law forbids export of donkey parts.

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EU announces cash support for Mozambique ‘terrorism’ fight

 The European Union (EU) announced on Thursday that it is providing additional support to the African military mission in Mozambique in the form of $15m (£13m), which will go towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to Mozambique (SAMIM).

The EU says the money will go towards “peace building” and will focus on “the capacity building of police and correctional services officers, women and youth empowerment, and dialogue with civic leaders tailored towards good governance and the rule of law”.

The EU said with this money, it will join “Mozambican and international efforts to restore peace, safety and security in the North of Mozambique”.

In concrete terms, this means SAMIM will receive “camp fortifications and storage containers, medical equipment, vehicles and boats, as well as technological devices”.

Since 2017, northern Mozambique’s gas-rich Cabo Delgado region has been plagued by armed violence, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

The insurgency led to a military response a year ago by SADC forces, liberating districts next to the gas projects, but leading to a new wave of attacks in other areas.

The announcement comes as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles, visits Mozambique.

During his trip he will visit EU training missions in the country, which are aimed at helping the Mozambican army fight “terrorism”, Mr Fontelles says.

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Juul to pay $438.5m to resolve US marketing probe

 Juul Labs will pay $438.5m (£380m) to end a probe of its advertising to underage buyers as it rose to be one of the top e-cigarette firms in the US.

The deal with 33 states and Puerto Rico also restricts Juul’s marketing, for example barring use of people under the age of 35 in its adverts.

Juul called the settlement “a significant part” of its efforts to resolve “issues from the past”.

The firm is also fighting a US ban of its products.

The US Food and Drug Administration in June said it would bar sales of Juul products due to insufficient data about the health impact. The measure is on hold while the company appeals the decision.

It continues to face litigation in some other states, as well as private lawsuits brought by individual families and others.

Juul said the terms of Tuesday’s settlement were in line with its marketing practices since a “company-wide reset” in the fall of 2019 and that it was “focused on the future”.

“We believe that once the FDA does a complete review of all of the science and evidence presented, as required by law, and without political interference, we should receive marketing authorization,” the firm said in a statement.

Juul was widely blamed for the explosive growth in teen vaping. More than a quarter of high schoolers used e-cigarettes in 2019, according to a federal survey, though that share has since subsided.

The investigation into Juul’s marketing found that the company had “relentlessly marketed vaping products to underage youth” even though such purchases are illegal in the US, said Connecticut attorney general William Tong, who announced the settlement on Tuesday.

He said the company had also used age verification practices it knew were ineffective and did not clearly disclose that its pods contained nicotine, which is addictive.

“Juul’s cynically calculated advertising campaigns created a new generation of nicotine addicts,” he said.

Money from the settlement will be paid out over six to 10 years and is to be used to combat tobacco use.

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Zambia president denies role in politician’s arrest

 Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema is against laws that impinge on the freedoms enjoyed by citizens, his spokesperson has said.

The comment follows the arrest of a critic for allegedly defaming the head of state.

Neither does the president influence the arrest of his critics nor how the law should be applied, spokesman Anthony Bwalya added.

Opposition politician Sean Tembo was arrested last Thursday over the alleged defamation and he remains in police custody.

A video of Mr Tembo being taken to hospital on Monday for a brief visit before being returned to police custody has been shared online.

Social embed from twitter

Mr Tembo, an ardent critic of Mr Hichilema, was arrested last week after a Facebook post criticising a fuel price hike was widely criticised as vulgar and sexist.

“Bally’s monthly menstruation is here again. Fuel prices to be reviewed tomorrow,” he wrote.

Mr Hichilema is widely known as “Bally”, especially on social media.

But his spokesperson said Mr Tembo’s arrest had nothing to do with the president.

Mr Hichilema ” does not write the law, and neither can or does he direct how the law should be enforced, nor does he direct or effect the arrests of those who perceivably fall foul of the law in its current form,” Mr Bwalya said.

He added that the president was working to re-establish Zambia as a model of democracy and good governance in the region and beyond.

Despite promising to issue a comprehensive statement on Mr Tembo’s arrest, the police have yet to do so.

Several people have recently been arrested under the defamation of the president law that carries a maximum three-year prison sentence, as calls to repeal it intensify.

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Mistreated Kenyan returns from Saudi Arabia

 A Kenyan woman whose story of cruelty at the hands of an employer in Saudi Arabia had angered many has arrived back home.

Diana Chepkemoi had an emotional reunion with her family and supporters on Tuesday afternoon at the main airport in the capital, Nairobi.

“I left Kenya to go to Saudi Arabia with the hope of getting a better life. Mine is just a tip of the iceberg, people are suffering…. I am pleading with the government to do something, help them, they are suffering,” she told reporters.

She added that she faced “psychological abuse”, saying her employer told her she was “bought” and “anything” could be done to her.

Ms Chepkemoi’s mother said she was “very grateful” for her daughter’s return, adding that the 24 year old was in a “critical condition”.

“I was helpless, I thank everyone who has facilitated the return of Diana home alive,” Clara Cherotich said.

Photos of the former university student shared on social media over the weekend showed Ms Chepkemoi looking listless and emaciated, far from her radiant self before she left the country in June last year.

This led to her family as well as Kenyans on social media campaigning for her release.

Her local MP, Brighton Yegon, who was among the group at the airport, said he would table a motion in parliament banning workforce export to Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, the Kenyan embassy in Riyadh said in a statement that following the outcry, Ms Chepkemoi was picked from her employer’s house and rushed to a top-level hospital for a check-up. She was later discharged and referred to a specialised hospital for a further diagnosis where she was given a clean bill of health.

“The only difference is that I got the courage to speak out. It’s a shame being told that there is nothing your government can do,” Ms Chepkemoi told reporters.

In 2021 a report submitted by the foreign affairs ministry indicated that 89 Kenyans, the majority of them domestic workers, died in Saudi Arabia.

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