Africa News

Taofeek Lamidi murder: Wanted

man appeal over 2017 New Year’s Eve killing

Police investigating the murder of Taofeek Lamidi who was stabbed on New Year’s Eve in 2017 are trying to trace his suspected killer five years on.

Ahmed Mohamed, 25, is wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of Mr Lamidi in Memorial Avenue, West Ham in east London.

The Met believe Mr Mohamed fled to Kenya after the stabbing.

Officers are appealing for anyone with information about the attack or Mr Mohamed’s whereabouts to come forward.

Det Ch Insp Wayne Jolley said: “Almost five years have passed since this horrific incident that took a young man from his family and our investigation very much remains ongoing.

“Taofeek’s family deserve justice and we will not rest until we locate those responsible and bring them before the courts.”

Mr Lamidi was repeatedly stabbed and was found lying in the street at 19:37 GMT on 31 December 2017, and died at the scene at 20:22, police said.

Det Ch Insp Jolley added: “Violent incidents such as this have no place on London’s streets, and we are following up a number of lines of enquiry to locate Mohamed.”

Police say Taofeek Lamidi’s family deserve justice after he was fatally stabbed on New Year’s Eve 2017

Nigerians have been complaining about the environmental damage caused by the oil industry for many years

Shell to pay $16m to Nigerian farmers over oil damage

Shell has agreed to pay $16m (£13m) to four Nigerian farmers and their communities to compensate for damage allegedly caused by pollution coming from leaks in its oil pipelines.

The sum was agreed in negotiations between the oil company and campaign group Friends of the Earth.

But it is being given on the basis of “no admission of liability”, a joint statement says.

Nigeria’s oil industry has been a major source of environmental damage.

The oil spills in this case happened from 2004 to 2007 and the pay out follows a decision last year by a Dutch court that the Nigerian branch of Shell was responsible for the damage.

Shell had argued that the leaks were a result of sabotage.

Shell’s headquarters were in the Netherlands until early this year. Campaigners hailed the 2021 court decision as the first time a multinational had been deemed legally responsible for what a subsidiary did.

“Thanks to this compensation we can build up our community once again. We can start to re-invest in our living environment,” Eric Dooh, the son of one of the farmers who launched the case in 2008 alongside the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth, said.

The money will be going to communities in Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo.

Although the amount of compensation is not huge, this development is seen as a milestone for rural communities across the Niger Delta region and environmental activists, the BBC’s Ishaq Khalid reports.

Oil pollution continues to damage the health and livelihoods of many in the area.

The four farmers who began the case - Barizaa Dooh, Elder Friday Alfred Akpan, Chief Fidelis A Oguru and Alali Efanga - said the leaks from underground oil pipelines had cost them their livelihoods by contaminating land and waterways.

Mr Efanga and Mr Dooh have died since the case was first filed so their sons pursued the case instead.

As well as compensation, last year’s court ruling ordered Shell to set up a leak early detection system. This has now been installed, the joint statement by Shell and Friends of the Earth said.

Seán Rooney: Arrest made after Irish soldier killed in Lebanon

At least one arrest has been made in Lebanon after an Irish soldier died while on a UN peacekeeping mission.

Pte Seán Rooney was in an armoured UN vehicle which came under fire while travelling to Beirut on 14 December.

Several arrests were made, the influential pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reports.

According to AFP news agency, quoting an unnamed security source, the prime suspect was handed over by the powerful Hezbollah militant group.

“The main shooter has been arrested by security forces after Hezbollah handed him over hours ago,” the source said.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the shooting. It is not clear whether the suspect is a member of the militant group.

The village where Pte Rooney was killed is a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement.

Three separate investigations are being conducted into the incident by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities led by a military prosecutor and the Irish Defence Forces. Both the Irish and UN flags were used to cover Pte Rooney’s coffin

It is understood the vehicle was surrounded by a mob and fired on while travelling to Beirut at about 21:00 on 14 December.

Pte Rooney was repatriated to Ireland last Monday following a UN ceremony to honour him in Beirut the previous day.

Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar were among mourners present at Pte Rooney’s funeral service in County Louth on Thursday.

Another soldier who was seriously injured in the same attack was returned home to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.

Trooper Shane Kearney, who suffered a head injury, was flown by a medical aircraft from Beirut Airport to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, then taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Brazilian held over alleged bomb plot to stop inauguration • Published • 6 hours ago

The bomb squad deployed a robot near the airport in Brasilia where the fuel truck was parked

Police in Brazil have arrested a man they say had tried to detonate an explosive device to “sow chaos” ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 1 January.

The man had planted the bomb in a fuel truck near the airport in Brasilia, but it failed to go off, police said.

The suspect told officers he had hatched the plan with other supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.

Police are trying to find his possible coconspirators.

The 54-year-old suspect told investigators he had come to Brasilia on 12 November to take part in protests outside the army’s headquarters.

Supporters of President Bolsonaro have been demonstrating there for weeks, demanding that the security forces intervene to prevent his elected successor, Lula, from taking up office.

These hardcore supporters of the farright president believe that the presidential election, which Lula won by a narrow margin against Mr Bolsonaro, was fraudulent, even though there is no evidence to support their claim.

Mr Bolsonaro himself had repeatedly sown doubt about Brazil’s electronic voting system in the run-up to the election, thereby fuelling his supporters’ mistrust of the result.

His allegations have been dismissed as baseless by Brazil’s electoral court and a challenge by his party against the election result was also rejected, but many of his supporters remain convinced the election was “stolen” from him.

Police said the suspect had told them that he and fellow protesters outside the army headquarters had decided “to try to provoke an armed forces intervention” to prevent “communism from taking hold in Brazil”.

They had planned to detonate a number of bombs across the capital to force the army to declare a state of emergency, in the hope of stopping the swearing-in ceremony from taking place.

Brasilia Police Chief Robson Cândido told journalists at a news conference that the group had set off the explosive device it had planted on a fuel truck parked at the city’s airport, but that it had failed to go off.

The device was spotted by the truck’s driver, who alerted police.

Officers managed to track the suspect to an apartment, where he was storing “an arsenal of weapons”, according to Mr Cândido.

Brazil’s justice minister designate, Flávio Dino, said security measures for Lula’s swearing-in on 1 January would be “re-evaluated and reinforced” following the incident. “Democracy won and will win,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the election and the handover of power.

Source: BBC