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Africa is rapidly becoming an environment rich in both targets and threats. In Nigeria, the fundamentalist terror group Boko Haram has seized vast swaths of territory and declared the foundation of an African Islamic caliphate. The group known for kidnapping, killing, and enslaving children has embarked on a crusade to destroy the ancient Christian communities in the territory it controls and has imposed Sharia law on locals. In Libya, the Islamist militias which arose after Gaddafi fell have captured the country’s capital. On Tuesday, new mysterious airstrikes were reportedly carried out against positions occupied by the Islamist militia, Libyan Dawn....

the leader of the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has established the world's second Islamic "caliphate" this summer and is seeking to cement his bloody rule on a territory that is now roughly the size of west Virginia. While much of the world has been focused on the brutal reign of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the forces of Boko haram have been racking up victories in northern Nigeria and have been violently imposing an equally harsh version of Islamic law on approximately 3 million civilians - including beheadings, forced marriages and the forced induction of children into its military...

A month after declaring an Islamic state-like caliphate in Northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram militants have reportedly surrounded the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where residents expect an attack on what could be the group's largest and most symbolic seizure yet. ...

The Ogun State Government has concluded arrangements for the commencement of airlifting of the first batch of pilgrims for the 2014 Hajj exercise today, Sunday, 7 September, 2014. The Executive Secretary, Ogun State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alh. Sefiu Rasheed, disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday, affirming that all eligible pilgrims whose names fall in the category (A) of the first batch list are expected to converge on the Board's headquarters at Governor's office Complex, Oke-mosan, Abeokuta by 7.30am, for onward movement to the International Hajj camp, Lagos, in anticipation of their flight to Saudi Arabia. Sefiu added that...

EXCLUSIVE – The FBI and CDC are investigating an attack on a federal air marshal who was injected with a syringe full of an unknown substance inside the Lagos, Nigeria airport on Sunday, according to a Situational Awareness notice obtained by FoxNews.com. A federal air marshal reported being attacked by a subject while on the public side of the Lagos Airport on Sunday, according to an alert from TSA's Transportation Security Operations Center distributed throughout the agency on Monday afternoon. It appeared to be an isolated incident, the alert says. "The [air marshal] reported that the subject stuck him with...

<p>YOLA, Nigeria (AP) - ...Boko Haram, has seized more towns along Nigeria's northeastern border with Cameroon and is adopting a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses said Sunday, as the militants pursue their new aim to carve out an "Islamic caliphate" under their black and white flag.</p>

Nigeria launched new national identification cards this week, and President Goodluck Jonathan received the first card. Each card contains biometric information and has the capability to receive electronic payments. The first phase of the collaborative effort between MasterCard and the Nigerian government will issue cards to 13 million Nigerians. The government plans to use the cards to electronically deliver salaries and pensions to reduce mismanagement of government payments. Some Nigerians are not excited about the identification cards. The Premium Times reported on citizen’s concerns about the collection of biometric information. Nigerians also reported distrust about the collaboration between MasterCard and...

Who is Vernice Guthrie, and where was she at 11 a.m. West Africa Time on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011? On that day, terrorist group Boko Haram carried out a suicide bombing at the main UN building in Abuja, Nigeria, killing 24 persons and injuring more than 100. Since then Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and other lawmakers have three times during hearings asked State Department officials whether Americans were in that building. Three times those officials have hedged. Now, Boko Haram’s rise has led to the deaths of thousands of Nigerians, the destruction of hundreds of churches, and the kidnapping this...

Scared stiff of the Ebola virus especially in some Lagos hospitals, the military has secretly ordered its health care workers to stop attending to civilians at its hospitals across the country. In most military hospitals in Nigeria, civilians account for less than 80 per cent of the patients that are attended to on a daily basis, meaning that the order will be depriving a sizeable number of Nigerians from accessing medical care from the military hospitals. A source close to the military told THISDAY that the instruction was handed down in a memo to all Nigerian Air Force hospitals in...

Breaking News U.S. Military Conducts Operation In Somalia By Barbara Starr September 1, 2014 (CNN) -- U.S. military forces conducted an operation Monday against the Al-Shabaab network in Somalia, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. "We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," he said.

AGBOR—THE number of people turning to dog meat (flesh and other palatable parts derived from dogs) for its undocumented health and spiritual benefits is snowballing, compelling sellers to open road side joints where they butcher and sell the meat, fresh or cooked. From Ibusa to Agbor, Ubuluku and Umunede in Delta State, you see men mostly in hidden or open kiosks demolishing plates of dog meat pepper soup, which they claim stands out from any other meats Dog meat joint Dogs butcher at work Dogs butcher at work As a group of people gathered round a giant size cooking pot...

Royal Dutch Shell said it had reached deals on some of the four Nigerian oil fields it has offered for sale as the oil major pushes ahead with divesting global assets to cut costs. Shell last year put up for sale its 30 percent shares in four oil blocks in the Niger Delta - Oil Mining Licences... - as well as a major pipeline, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line. "We have signed sales and purchase agreements for some of the oil mining leases, but not all that we are seeking to divest," a Shell spokesman said on Wednesday. In several...

All schools in Nigeria have been ordered to remain shut until 13 October as part of measures to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.The new academic year was due to start on Monday.But the education minister ordered the closures to allow staff to be trained on how to handle suspected Ebola cases.Five people have died of Ebola in Nigeria. The West Africa outbreak has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 1,400 people.

Boko Haram militants seized a police academy in Gwoza, Nigeria, storming the school in armored tanks taken from Nigerian soldiers. A local police spokesman confirmed the attack on the Liman Kara police college. ... An armored tank, parked at the entrance to the academy, was blown up by Boko Haram members to gain entrance.

Boko Haram has seized control of a town in northeastern Nigeria, the latest to fall into Islamist hands in the crisis-hit region and an indication of the group's increasing territorial ambitions. The insurgents have tended to use hit-and-run attacks in the past but the recent seizure of towns suggests a significant shift in strategy, more in keeping with their stated goal of carving out a strict Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria. Residents who fled the assault on the fallen town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state said attacks began late last month and the insurgents have since taken over the...

Top doctor is Nigeria's fifth Ebola death Abuja - A senior doctor who treated Nigeria's first Ebola patient has died, taking the death toll in Africa's most populous country to five, health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said on Tuesday. Chukwu said the doctor was "the most senior who participated in the management of the (first Ebola) patient" in the country. Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, aged 40, died in a Lagos hospital on 25 July, five days after arriving at the city's airport visibly unwell on a flight from the Liberian capital, Monrovia. "With this unfortunate development, the total number of Ebola virus-related...

A 48-year-old British Nigerian woman is feared to have died of the deadly ebola virus in Austria. The woman’s body was found at her apartment in Vomp, in the Tyrol, at the weekend after she returned from a trip to Nigeria.

Two men who arrived in Austria last week from Nigeria have been hospitalised on suspicion of carrying the Ebola disease, a regional Austrian governor said Tuesday. Blood samples were sent to a laboratory in Germany with results expected later on Tuesday, Josef Puehringer, governor of Upper Austria province said. The two men were hospitalised in Voecklabruck after developing a fever following their return from Lagos and were currently being held in quarantine, Puehringer said.

Cases in West Africa's Ebola outbreak this year have risen to 2,240, including 1,229 deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, reporting the toll in four countries, including Nigeria. While Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and No. 1 oil producer, appears to be containing its smaller outbreak, Liberia and Sierra Leone are struggling to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus among their populations. On Friday, these small two West African nations and a medical charity chided the WHO for its slow response, saying more action was needed to save victims threatened by the disease and hunger.

A Nigerian woman with cancer who died in the Emirati capital had shown signs “that may be consistent with Ebola,” the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi said on Sunday. The 35-year-old woman was travelling to India from Nigeria via Abu Dhabi to seek treatment for advanced cancer when her health deteriorated during her time in transit at Abu Dhabi’s airport, the authority said in a statement according to the state WAM news agency. “It was noted at the time of resuscitation that she had shown signs that may be consistent with Ebola virus infection, although her existing medical condition provided...