ABUJA: Daesh-allied Boko Haram militants have killed another kidnapped female aid worker in northeast Nigeria, the government said, a month after one of her colleagues was murdered.
Three female health workers were kidnapped during a Boko Haram raid on the remote town of Rann, in Borno state, on March 1 that killed three other aid workers and eight Nigerian soldiers.
Two of the kidnapped women, Hauwa Liman and Saifura Khorsa, worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), while the third, Alice Loksha, worked for the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.
There had been no news of the trio until last month when the ICRC said it had received footage of Khorsa’s killing from the Daesh-backed Boko Haram faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
ISWAP then threatened to kill Liman and Loksha, as well as a 15-year-old Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu who was kidnapped from the town of Dapchi, in Yobe state, in February.
The ICRC last weekend appealed for the captives’ release and for the militants to show mercy, as they were “doing nothing but helping communities” in the conflict-riven region.
But Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed announced the latest death as a deadline expired and said the government was “shocked and saddened” at the unjustified killing, calling it “dastardly, inhuman and ungodly.”
He did not initially identify the victim but later added in a tweet that he “commiserated with the family of Hauwa Liman.”
The ICRC said it did not have official confirmation, adding: “We desperately hope not. We will provide an update when we have accurate information.
“This situation is heartbreaking, and our thoughts remain with her family,” it added.
Mohammed said: “It is very unfortunate that it has come to this. Before and after the deadline issued by her abductors, the federal government did everything any responsible government should do to save the aid worker.
“As we have been doing since these young women were abducted, we kept the line of negotiations open all through. In all the negotiations, we acted in the best interest of the women and the country as a whole.
“We are deeply pained by this killing, just like we were by the recent killing of the first aid worker.
“However, we will keep the negotiations open and continue to work to free the innocent women who remain in the custody of their abductors.”
More than 27,000 people have been killed in northeast Nigeria since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, while nearly two million others remain homeless.
Nigeria’s military and government maintain the Islamist rebels are weakened to the point of defeat but fighters from the Daesh-backed faction have conducted repeated raids on military bases in recent months.
ISWAP split from the faction led by long-time Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in August 2016 in protest at the latter’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians in raids and suicide bombings.
Analysts tracing the conflict believe the switch from attacking “hard” government and military targets to killing hostages is the result of a hard-line takeover of the IS-backed faction.
Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war during the conflict, abducting thousands of women and girls, and forcing young men and boys to fight in their ranks.
The mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the Borno state town of Chibok in April 2014 brought global attention to the insurgency and was widely condemned. Some 107 girls have since been released or found.
Boko Haram kills another aid worker in northeast Nigeria
Boko Haram kills another aid worker in northeast Nigeria
- The death came just a month after one of her colleagues was murdered
- More than 27,000 people have been killed in northeast Nigeria since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009
Explosions as Kyiv under missile attack, says mayor
- Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 3 people were injured so far, and said there was reported wreckage falling in two non-residential sites
- Last week, a Russian missile struck a residential area in President Zelensky's home city of Kryvyi Rig, killing 18, including 9 children
KYIV, Ukraine: Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city was under missile attack on Sunday with explosions in the Ukrainian capital, two days after a Russian missile killed 18 people in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown.
Klitschko said paramedics had been sent to two districts in Kyiv, while the Ukrainian air force said missiles had entered the northern Chernihiv region.
“Explosions in the capital. Air defense is in operation,” Klitschko said on Telegram.
“The missile attack on Kyiv continues. Stay in shelters!“
He added that three people were injured so far, and said there was reported wreckage falling in two non-residential sites.
Across Ukraine, air raid alerts were also issued for the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.
The attacks come at a time when US President Donald Trump is pushing for a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, more than three years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, while seeking a thaw in ties with the Kremlin.
On Saturday, Zelensky slammed the US embassy for what he called a “weak” statement that did not blame Russia for the deadly missile strike on his home city Kryvyi Rig. Nine children were among the 18 fatalities.
In one of the deadliest strikes in recent weeks, a Russian missile struck a residential area near a children’s playground in the central Ukrainian city.
Seventy-two people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said after emergency operations ended overnight.
In an emotional statement on social media, Zelensky named each of the children killed in the attack, accusing the US embassy of avoiding referring to Russia as the aggressor.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote.
“They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children.”
The Ukrainian president took aim at the US Ambassador Bridget Brink after she posted a message on X on Friday evening that said: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant.”
Brink, who was appointed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden and has been ambassador since May 2022, added that “this is why the war must end.”
Zelensky wrote on Saturday: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.”
“It is wrong and dangerous to keep silent about the fact that it is Russia that is killing children with ballistic missiles,” Zelensky reiterated in his evening address.
“It only incites the scum in Moscow to continue the war and further ignore diplomacy.”
The Ukrainian leader was born in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rig, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
Zelensky said the children killed by the latest attack ranged in age from a three-year-old boy, Tymofiy, to a 17-year-old teenage boy, Nikita.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, said three days of mourning had been declared on April 7, 8 and 9.
“This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians,” he said.
Pictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
Russia’s defense ministry said it “delivered a precision strike” in the city “where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.”
The General Staff of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was “trying to cover up its cynical crime” and “spreading false information.” It accused Russia of “war crimes.”
Trump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree to a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
Zelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
The president hailed “tangible progress” after meeting British and French military chiefs in Kyiv on Friday to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a “reassurance” force to Ukraine if and when a deal on ending the conflict is reached.
Zelensky wrote on social media that the meeting with British Chief of the Defense Staff Tony Radakin and French counterpart Thierry Burkhard agreed “the first details on how the security contingent of partners can be deployed.”
This is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree on a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.
Pakistan vows to promote merit in selection of athletes on International Day of Sports
- International Day of Sport and Development for Peace calls for recognizing power of sport in fostering positive change
- Pakistani sports federations have been criticized for involvement in politics and poor infrastructure, training programs
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday promised to promote merit in the selection of athletes and institutional discipline across the country’s sports federations, state-run media said, as the world marked the International Day of Sport and Development for Peace (IDSDP).
The IDSDP is annually celebrated on Apr. 6 to recognize the power of sport in fostering positive change, bridging barriers, and transcending boundaries.
This year, the IDSDP will focus on the theme of ‘Social Inclusion,’ which aims to challenge stereotypes, promote equal opportunities and enable inclusive sport for all.
“The government is introducing reforms to ensure transparency, accountability and professionalism in national sports federations to improve institutional governance, prioritize merit in the selection of athletes and promote ethical values in the field of sports,” Sharif was quoted as saying, according to a statement from his office.
Pakistan’s sports federations have been heavily criticized for lack of improvements in infrastructure, training programs, or scouting systems for youth. Media reports have alleged that some sports federations are still heavily influenced by political connections due to which they do not select athletes on merit.
The Pakistani premier noted that sports were an effective way to further national progress, empower youth and highlight Pakistan’s identity at the international level. He said this was the reason that the government had declared sports a central pillar of its development agenda.
Sharif said Pakistan was determined to become the “center of excellence” in sports and tourism in the region by holding countrywide training camps and the 14th South Asian Games in 2026.
He appealed to all the stakeholders, including civil society and development partners to prominently include sports in policies and programs related to education, health, development and peace.
“Let us together strengthen our system of sports and create an all-encompassing, empowered and sustainable society,” Sharif concluded.
Artificial glaciers boost water supply in northern Pakistan
- Water is piped from streams into villages, and sprayed into air during freezing winter temperatures
- Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers—more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions
Hussainabad, Pakistan: At the foot of Pakistan’s impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers grappling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers.
Warmer winters as a result of climate change have reduced the snowfall and subsequent seasonal snowmelt that feeds the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, a remote region home to K2, the world’s second-highest peak.
Farmers in the Skardu valley, at an altitude of up to 2,600 meters (8,200 feet) in the shadow of the Karakoram mountain range, searched online for help in how to irrigate their apple and apricot orchards.
“We discovered artificial glaciers on YouTube,” Ghulam Haider Hashmi told AFP.
They watched the videos of Sonam Wangchuk, an environmental activist and engineer in the Indian region of Ladakh, less than 200 kilometers away across a heavily patrolled border, who developed the technique about 10 years ago.
Water is piped from streams into the village, and sprayed into the air during the freezing winter temperatures.
“The water must be propelled so that it freezes in the air when temperatures drop below zero, creating ice towers,” said Zakir Hussain Zakir, a professor at the University of Baltistan.
The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas and act as a storage system — steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.
Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers — more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.
Their beauty has made the region one of the country’s top tourist destinations — towering peaks loom over the Old Silk Road, still visible from a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers and ice-blue lakes.
Sher Muhammad, a specialist in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range that stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, however said most of the region’s water supply comes from snow melt in spring, with a fraction from annual glacial melt in summers.
“From late October until early April, we were receiving heavy snowfall. But in the past few years, it’s quite dry,” Muhammad, a researcher at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told AFP.
The first “ice stupas” in Gilgit-Baltistan were created in 2018.
Now, more than 20 villages make them every winter, and “more than 16,000 residents have access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks,” said Rashid-ud-Din, provincial head of GLOF-2, a UN-Pakistan plan to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Farmer Muhammad Raza told AFP that eight stupas were built in his village of Hussainabad this winter, trapping approximately 20 million liters of water in the ice.
“We no longer have water shortages during planting,” he said, since the open-air reservoirs appeared on the slopes of the valley.
“Before, we had to wait for the glaciers to melt in June to get water, but the stupas saved our fields,” said Ali Kazim, also a farmer in the valley.
Before the stupas, “we planted our crops in May,” said 26-year-old Bashir Ahmed who grows potatoes, wheat and barley in nearby Pari village which has also adopted the method.
And “we only had one growing season, whereas now we can plant two or three times” a year.
Temperatures in Pakistan rose twice as fast between 1981 and 2005 compared to the global average, putting the country on the front line of climate change impacts, including water scarcity.
Its 240 million inhabitants live in a territory that is 80 percent arid or semi-arid and depends on rivers and streams originating in neighboring countries for more than three-quarters of its water.
Glaciers are melting rapidly in Pakistan and across the world, with a few exceptions, including the Karakoram mountain range, increasing the risk of flooding and reducing water supply over the long term.
“Faced with climate change, there are neither rich nor poor, neither urban nor rural; the whole world has become vulnerable,” said 24-year-old Yasir Parvi.
“In our village, with the ice stupas, we decided to take a chance.”
US interagency delegation to arrive in Islamabad next week to attend Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum
- Pakistan’s landscape is a treasure trove of diverse mineral deposits from huge coal reserves to gold and copper deposits to gemstone mines
- Islamabad has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports
ISLAMABAD: A United States (US) interagency delegation will arrive in Islamabad on Tuesday to participate in the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum, Pakistani state media reported on Saturday.
Pakistan’s landscape is a treasure trove of diverse mineral deposits from huge coal reserves in the southern Sindh province to gold and copper deposits in the southwestern Balochistan province. The northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is home to several gemstone mines, including emerald mines in Swat, Mardan’s pink topaz mines, and peridot mines in Kohistan.
Islamabad has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports and enhance exports. The government has launched a series of reforms and events to attract local and international investment in the sector and will be highlighting the country’s mineral wealth at the high-profile Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025 on April 8-9.
The US delegation will be led by Eric Meyer, a senior official of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Mayer will meet with senior Pakistani officials to expand opportunities for American businesses in Pakistan and promote the deepening of economic ties between our two countries,” the report read. “The delegation will hold wide range of talks to advance United States interests in the critical minerals sector at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum.”
Last month, Pakistan Press Information Department (PID) said Copenhagen-based multinational mining company, FLSmidth, will train 100 Pakistani engineers in mining, amid Islamabad’s efforts to utilize the country’s vast mineral resources.
The statement came after Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik’s meeting with Danish Ambassador to Pakistan Jakob Linulf in Islamabad that focused on bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, particularly in mining and technological collaboration.
“FLSmidth will be launching a training program named BRIMM (Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining) under which hundred Pakistani engineers will be provided training,” the PID said, citing the Danish ambassador.
“FLSmidth has already entered into 5 partnership agreements in minerals sector of Pakistan.”
The South Asian country is currently making efforts to utilize these vast mineral resources through foreign investment and collaboration to stabilize its $350 billion economy.
Petroleum Minister Malik expressed Pakistan’s keen interest in leveraging Danish technology and investment to optimize resource extraction and processing, as the South Asian country has significant mineral reserves, according to the PID statement. He extended his full support and offered the government’s good offices to facilitate Danish investment and technology transfer in Pakistan’s growing mining sector.
Briton Hudson-Smith crowned Grand Slam’s first champion, Bednarek dominates
- The start-up’s super-sized purses have lured some of the sport’s top competitors, including 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
- Ethiopia’s world silver medalist Diribe Welteji surged through the final turn of the 1,500m to win in 4:04.51 and clinch the women’s short distance group
KINGSTON: Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith was crowned Grand Slam Track’s first-ever Grand Slam champion in the men’s long sprints group on Saturday, as he won the 200 meters on day two of the novel circuit’s debut meet in Kingston, Jamaica.
Hudson-Smith was second in the standings after Friday’s 400m and he won the group outright with a total of 20 points after reeling in the field in the back half of the shorter distance on Saturday, crossing the line in 20.77 seconds.
“Great to get the first one, I’m really excited and grateful,” the Paris 400m silver medalist said in televised remarks, as he leaves Kingston $100,000 (77,579.52 pounds) richer.
“I’m getting to the end of my career so it’s time to start saving,” the 30-year-old said.
American Kenny Bednarek, a twice Olympic champion, built up an enormous lead around the turn and stumbled through the tape to win the 200m in 20.07, three-tenths of a second ahead of Briton Zharnel Hughes, and clinch the men’s short sprints slam.
He won Friday’s 100m as well, for a point total of 24.
The new circuit fronted by retired American sprinter Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, off its first of four meets this week with an aim of making Grand Slam Track the “Formula One of athlete racing.”
Athletes in 12 groups — men’s and women’s short sprints, long sprints, short hurdles, long hurdles, short distance and long distance — compete over two races per meet with the point totals from those runs determining the champion of each group.
The start-up’s super-sized purses have lured some of the sport’s top competitors, including 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who each notched wins on the meet’s opening day.
The trickier task, so far, has been filling the stands at Kingston’s National Stadium, as empty seats were abundant on Saturday after online critics slammed Friday’s even more sparsely attended opening night.
Thomas finished first in Friday’s 200m and was crowned the slam champion for the women’s longer sprints after finishing second in the 400m on Saturday in 49.14 behind Bahrain’s Olympic silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser (48.67), for 20 points total.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been more tired in my life,” said Thomas, who nearly let the second-place spot slip through her fingers in the final meters under threat from the Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino (49.35).
“I heard them on the home stretch — ‘$100,000 on the line’ — and so it really motivated me.”
Ethiopia’s world silver medalist Diribe Welteji surged through the final turn of the 1,500m to win in 4:04.51 and clinch the women’s short distance group, after notching a second-place finish in Friday’s 800m race.
Kenya’s 800m Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi provided one of the more entertaining finishes of the night as he held off all three of the men’s 1,500m Paris podium finishers down the final straight in the metric mile in 3:35.18.
Americans Yared Nuguse (3:35.36) and Cole Hocker (3:35.52) will hope to make up ground when they compete in Sunday’s 800m.
The Kingston Grand Slam Track meet ends on Sunday.
