For years, villagers who lived near the Alau dam in northeastern Nigeria had told government officials that the structure was broken and the reservoir behind it too full. But in early September, after heavy rains, a half-dozen officials stood overlooking the brimming reservoir, their feet squelching in the mud as …
Read More »How Two Allies Wrestled Over a Crypto Giant and a Prisoner
After eight months in custody in Nigeria, an American working for the cryptocurrency firm Binance is coming home, ailing but alive, in a case that had strained U.S. ties with one of Africa’s most influential countries. Tigran Gambaryan, a compliance officer for Binance, had been held on money-laundering charges as …
Read More »How a TV Hit Sparked Debate About Having Too Many Babies
Old World Young Africa How a TV Hit Sparked Debate About Having Too Many Babies Many African women have far more children than women on other continents do: Women in Nigeria have an average of over five children, while American and European women have about 1.5, and Chinese women even …
Read More »Behind Nigeria’s Deadliest Road Incident in Years, a Quest for Cheap Fuel
The driver of a fuel tanker was transporting 45,000 liters of gasoline on an unlit road in northern Nigeria on Tuesday night when a van carrying tomatoes veered into his lane. The driver lost control of his vehicle as he tried to avoid the van. The tanker capsized. The driver, …
Read More »Fuel Tanker Explosion Leaves at Least 150 Dead in Nigeria
More than 150 people were killed in northern Nigeria on Tuesday after an overturned fuel tanker exploded, according to a police spokesman, in one of the deadliest road disasters ever recorded in Africa’s most populous country. While the death toll was exceptionally high, the episode followed an all-too-common pattern on …
Read More »