Dozens kidnapped in northwest Nigeria after bandits invite them to talks

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By Reuters and Posted by TOE Armed bandits in northwest Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting ‌about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on ‌Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security. Police said 39 people were seized on Sunday ​when they went to a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of northwest Zamfara State. Some local residents and officials said the number could be as ‌high as 50. According to ⁠a Zamfara State Police Command statement, the victims were meeting relatives of a bandit leader in ⁠an attempt to broker peace and ease restrictions on movement imposed on the community. Zamfara is at the centre of a long-running security ​crisis in ​which armed groups, locally referred ​to as bandits, carry ‌out mass kidnappings, killings and village raids. The violence has disrupted farming and displaced thousands. Security forces have deployed personnel and...
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Russia says discussing Ukraine security guarantees without Moscow ‘road to nowhere’

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that discussing any Western security guarantees for Ukraine without Russian involvement was a “road to nowhere”.

NATO military chiefs were set Wednesday to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine amid efforts to broker an end to Russia’s offensive.

But Lavrov warned that “seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere.

“We cannot agree that it is now suggested to solve collective security issues without the Russian Federation,” he told reporters.

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the ensuing conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

US President Donald Trump, who spoke Monday with his Russian counterpart, said Putin had agreed to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine.

Lavrov said in their phone call Putin had only told Trump he would “think about raising the level of” talks on Ukraine.

Lavrov said any summit between Putin and Zelensky “must be prepared in the most meticulous way” so the meeting does not lead to a “deterioration” of the situation around the conflict.

Lavrov also accused European leaders — some of whom also visited the White House on Monday — of making “clumsy attempts” to change the US president’s position on Ukraine.

“We have only seen aggressive escalation of the situation and rather clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president,” he said, referring to Monday’s meeting.

“We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there,” Lavrov added.

Lavrov also said the West’s “confrontational position, a position to continue the war, does not find understanding in the current US administration, which… seeks to help eliminate the root causes of the conflict”.

Post-war security is a key concern for Ukraine after more than three years of Russian offensive.

Moscow has long said it will not tolerate Kyiv joining NATO and has been hostile to the idea of Western troops being deployed to the war-torn country.

SOURCE: AFP AND AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/dTiZLWr

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