LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s military said on Saturday it had killed 10 insurgents and arrested 65 more as part of an offensive meant to wrest back control of parts of its remote northeast from an Islamist group seen as the main security threat to Africa’s top oil producer.

President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had been accused of not taking seriously enough the violence in the largely Muslim north where some fear Islamist insurgents allied to al Qaeda could take over large swathes of territory as they did in Mali before French-led troops ejected them this year.

BAGA, Nigeria (Reuters) – After a crackdown pushed them out of Nigeria’s northern cities, Islamist militant group Boko Haram have regrouped, rearmed and are staging a bold comeback that has already allowed them to seize control over parts of the northeast.

Using porous borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the desolate scrubland around Lake Chad, they are smuggling bigger weapons, staging cross-border raids, killing and kidnapping in an escalation of violence that could further draw Nigeria’s neighbours into its counter-insurgency fight, security officials say.

BAGA, Nigeria (Reuters) – After a crackdown pushed them out of Nigeria’s northern cities, Islamist militant group Boko Haram have regrouped, rearmed and are staging a bold comeback that has already allowed them to seize control over parts of the northeast.

Using porous borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the desolate scrubland around Lake Chad, they are smuggling bigger weapons, staging cross-border raids, killing and kidnapping in an escalation of violence that could further draw Nigeria’s neighbors into its counter-insurgency fight, security officials say.

LAGOS, May 3 (Reuters) – Nigerian lawmakers said that next
week they will investigate deals in which the state-oil firm
gave two local firms with no previous operating experience the
rights to make potentially billions of dollars from oilfields
without competitive bidding.

Local activists raised the issue with the parliament last
week, while Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
denied any wrongdoing.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of around $3.15 million by French and Cameroonian negotiators before freeing seven French hostages this month, a confidential Nigerian government report obtained by Reuters said.

The memo does not say who paid the ransom for the family of seven, who were all released on April 19, although it says Cameroon freed some Boko Haram detainees as part of the deal.

ABUJA (Reuters) – A bloody gun battle against Islamist insurgents in Nigeria last week involved forces from neighboring Chad and Niger, officials said on Tuesday, as West African countries increasingly view jihadist groups as a cross-border threat.

A joint force of more than 100 was assembled after an intelligence report said militants from the Boko Haram militant group had moved into Baga, a fishing town in northeast Nigeria on the shores of Lake Chad, two Nigerian military sources, a senior officer from Niger and a Chadian military official said.

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian authorities said on Monday there had been heavy fighting between security forces and Islamist militants in a remote part of the northeast, but there was no confirmation of reports from a local official that 185 people had been killed.

Fighting erupted on Thursday in Baga, a fishing town in Borno state on the shores of Lake Chad, by the Chadian border — an area officials say is a stronghold for Islamist fighters and a smuggling point for weapons from across the Sahara.

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian authorities said on Monday there had been heavy fighting between security forces and Islamist militants in a remote part of the northeast, but there was no confirmation of reports from a local official that 185 people had been killed.

Fighting erupted on Thursday in Baga, a fishing town in Borno state on the shores of Lake Chad, by the Chadian border — an area officials say is a stronghold for Islamist fighters and a smuggling point for weapons from across the Sahara.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian oil firm Oando (OANDO.LG: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is close to securing funds to buy ConocoPhillips’ (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Nigerian assets, the company’s chief executive said on Wednesday, as he looked to allay fears it is struggling to raise finance for the $1.79 billion deal.

Wale Tinubu told Reuters in an interview in Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos that the firm, having already raised the additional equity needed in February with a rights issue, now also has agreed in principle the necessary debt.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, plans to invest up to $8 billion to build a Nigerian oil refinery with a capacity of around 400,000 barrels a day by late 2016, the tycoon told Reuters on Tuesday, almost doubling Nigeria’s refining capacity.

“This will really help not only Nigeria but sub-Saharan Africa. There has not been a new refinery for a long time in sub-Saharan Africa,” Dangote said in a telephone interview.