NEWS

Niger’s military government has banned many local and foreign reporters since seizing power in 2023.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned Niger’s suspension of nine French media publications as the military government continues to crack down on journalists.

Niger announced the suspension on Friday, citing “repeated dissemination of content likely to seriously jeopardise public order, national unity, social cohesion, and the stability of the institutions of the Republic”.

The suspended organisations are France 24, RFI (Radio France Internationale), France Afrique Media, LSI Africa, AFP (Agence France-Presse), TV5 Monde, TF1 Info, Jeune Afrique and Mediapart, according to a TV statement from the National Communication Observatory (ONC).

It added that the decision was “immediate” and it included “satellite packages, cable networks, digital platforms, websites and mobile applications”.

RSF described the decision as “abusive”.

“RSF condemns a coordinated strategy to repress press freedom within the AES [Alliance of Sahel States] and calls for the immediate reversal of this abusive decision,” said a statement posted on X, referring to Niger and allies Mali and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military governments.

Niger’s military seized power in July 2023, toppling the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum and detaining him.

The government has since targeted local and foreign media outlets, particularly those critical of its policies, by issuing bans or suspensions.

RFI and France 24 were suspended a few days after the coup, and the BBC from Britain was suspended in December 2024.

The targeting of French and other foreign media comes as Niger’s military government has largely severed ties with its former colonial power, France, and turned away from Western allies.

In late 2023, Niger asked leaders in Paris to withdraw thousands of troops involved in missions against armed groups operating in Niger, neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.

The three AES states have since secured defence partnerships with other countries, notably Russia.

All three have regularly denounced France’s “imperialism”, saying they want to assert their “sovereignty”. French media and other foreign outlets have similarly been suspended or banned by the governments in Bamako and Ouagadougou.

Local journalists have also been affected. Two Nigerien journalists, Gazali Abdou, a correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Hassane Zada, a regional newspaper editor, were released this week after being detained for months.

In 2024, leaders in the capital Niamey strengthened a law that criminalises the digital dissemination of “data likely to disturb public order”.

The United Nations said in November that 13 journalists were arrested in Niger and urged the government to release them. Local media organisations say six journalists are detained for allegedly “undermining national defence” and for “conspiracy against the authority of the state”.

According to AFP, Niger suspended nearly 3,000 local and foreign NGOs in 2025, accusing them of lacking transparency and supporting “terrorists” and armed groups.

Niger dropped 37 places in this year’s RSF World Press Freedom Index and now ranks 120th out of 180 countries. RSF and Amnesty International have repeatedly voiced concerns about the “decline” in press freedom in Niger.

Russia held a scaled-back Victory Day parade on May 9 due to concerns over potential attacks from Ukraine. This parade, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany and honors the 27 million Soviet citizens who died, saw no military equipment displayed, unlike in previous years. Instead, images of advanced military weapons, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and fighter jets, were shown on giant screens.

President Vladimir Putin attended the event, seated next to veterans, and gave a speech claiming that Russian soldiers are inspired by the past victories against aggressive forces, despite the support Ukraine receives from NATO. He declared his belief in eventual victory in the ongoing conflict, referred to by the Kremlin as a “special military operation. “

In the backdrop of the parade, U. S. President Donald Trump announced a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, aiming to reduce hostilities. Both sides had earlier accused each other of violating ceasefires. Trump expressed a desire for a lengthy ceasefire, noting the severe loss of life since the conflict began, which he described as significant since World War Two. During this period, both Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners.

Prior to the parade, Russia had warned of severe retaliation if Ukraine tried to disrupt the event, leading to heightened security in Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy humorously acknowledged the parade but stated that Ukrainian forces would not target Red Square.

The atmosphere in Moscow during the parade was marked by anxiety about the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has resulted in catastrophic loss of life, widespread destruction in Ukraine, and significant impacts on the Russian economy. Critics within Russia, including pro-war nationalists, expressed concerns about the government’s handling of the war and the possibility of economic collapse.

Reports also suggested increased security measures around Putin due to fears of a coup or assassination, although Kremlin officials dismissed these claims. Amidst the celebration, the shadow of the war loomed large, reflecting the deepening crisis within Russia as it struggles with the outcomes of its military actions in Ukraine.

With information from Reuters

Iran’s presence at the tournament has been shrouded in uncertainty since the US and Israel launched a war on the country in February.

Iran’s football federation has said the men’s national team will take part in the 2026 World Cup that begins in June, but demanded that joint hosts the United States, Mexico and Canada agree to its conditions amid the Middle East war.

The call on Saturday comes after Canada refused entry to the federation’s chief last month before the FIFA Congress because of his alleged links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of Iran’s military, which it designated as a “terrorist group” in 2024.

Iran’s presence at the tournament, which will take place between June 11 and July 19, has been shrouded in uncertainty since the US and Israel launched a war on the Middle East country in February.

“We will definitely participate in the 2026 World Cup, but the hosts must take our concerns into account,” the Iranian federation said on its official website.

“We will participate in the World Cup tournament, but without any retreat from our beliefs, culture, and convictions.”

The Iranian football federation (FFIRI) President Mehdi Taj told state TV on Friday that Tehran has 10 conditions for attending the global spectacle, seeking assurances over the country’s treatment.

The conditions include visas being granted and respect for the national team staff, the team’s flag and its national anthem during the tournament, as well as demands for high security at airports, hotels and routes to the stadiums where they will play.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that Iran’s footballers would be welcome at the tournament.

But he warned that the US may yet bar entry to members of the Iranian delegation with ties to the IRGC, which it also designates as a terrorist organisation.

“All players and technical staff, especially those who have served their military service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC, such as Mehdi Taremi and Ehsan Hajsafi, should be granted visas without any problems,” said Iranian football chief Taj.

FIFA chief Gianni Infantino has reiterated that Iran will play their World Cup games in the US as scheduled.

Iran, who are due to be based in Tucson, Arizona, during the World Cup, face New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in Group G.

The Iranians open their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.

“No external power can deprive Iran of its participation in a cup to which it has qualified with merit,” the Iranian federation said on Saturday.

A Labour MP said: “Not sure voters in Wigan, Wandsworth, Salford or Sunderland voted Reform because they thought we needed more advisers from a different era of Labour politics. I think this shows that Keir doesn’t even understand the problem, never mind the solution.”

I am a journalist; storytelling is my craft.

Words are the tools I turn to, again and again, to make sense of events and shape them into narratives that do them justice. And yet, when it comes to the genocide in Gaza, my birthplace, language feels wholly inadequate.

There is a limit to what words can say. At a certain point, the instinct to describe, to explain and to make sense of what has unfolded begins to break down under the sheer scale of devastation and pain.

One scene from the start of the war has lingered in my mind: A bulldozer burying 111 unidentified bodies, wrapped in bright blue bags, in a mass grave. It appeared briefly in the endless scroll of social media before it disappeared again, replaced by yet another shocking scene. And another.

A hundred and eleven souls about whom we knew nothing; not their names, not their dreams or what their final moments were. A New York Times headline read: More Than 100 Bodies Are Delivered to a Mass Grave in Southern Gaza. Omission of the perpetrator aside, could that possibly capture the magnitude of such an event?

Every attempt to describe in words what Israel has inflicted on Gaza and its people has felt reductive, compressing something vast, ongoing and staggeringly lethal into language that cannot possibly hold it. What remains is a tension at the heart of the act of telling itself; knowing no account will ever be enough, how do you tell stories of such unspeakable horrors?

This tension lies at the heart of the Gaza Genocide Tapestry, which I am co-curating and which will be displayed at this year’s Venice Biennale. It is an art project that brings together Palestinian women in occupied Palestine and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan to document Gaza’s destruction in real time. They tell these stories in the way they know best: Needle and thread.

Through 100 embroidered panels, each composed of 55,000 stitches, these women have created a testimonial that refuses to let the world forget what has been done and to whom.

Each panel tells a fragment of what has happened: A journalist weeping over his child’s dead body; young girls with empty pots being crushed at a soup kitchen; a child crying as her world crumbles around her.

Some of these images forced themselves into the public consciousness, if only for a moment; Khalid Nabhan hugging his dead granddaughter, the “soul of his soul”, for the last time before joining her a year later, or Dr Hussam Abu Safia walking towards a tank on the orders of Israeli soldiers, to then never be seen again.

But most images from Gaza are not granted that pause. They pass without names, context or farewell.

The tapestry defies this. To embroider is to decide something is worth the effort – hours, days and weeks of labour. This is to insist it is not lost to the sheer volume of images that pass briefly before our eyes.

A national archive in thread

The Gaza Genocide Tapestry is a new chapter of the award-winning Palestine History Tapestry Project, which I co-chair alongside Gaza-born designer Ibrahim Muhtadi. Following in the tradition of the famous Bayeux Tapestry and the Great Tapestry of Scotland, it is the largest body of Palestinian embroidery narrating the history of Palestine and its people.

The tapestry was started in 2011 in Oxford by Jan Chalmers, a British nurse who lived and worked in Gaza for two years in the 1960s. An avid embroiderer, Jan was previously involved with the Keiskamma History Tapestry, which chronicles the history of South Africa’s Xhosa people and now hangs in the South African parliament.

Recognising the centuries-old embroidery tradition of Palestinians, tatreez, Jan believed a Palestinian history tapestry was in order. I met Jan in 2013 in Oxford during my postgraduate studies. That is when I first joined this invaluable effort.

Tatreez, recognised by UNESCO in 2021, has long expressed Palestinian heritage and belonging. Its motifs encoded identity, place and social status. After the 1948 Nakba, it became a means of preserving Palestinian culture in the face of attempted erasure. Today it is something else again: Testimony.

Not long after Israel unleashed its devastating military assault on Gaza in 2023, the tapestry found new momentum by merging with the Palestine Museum US, an independent institution founded and led by Palestinian American entrepreneur Faisal Saleh. The tapestry is now housed at the museum in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and travels from there for exhibits worldwide.

It was within this expanded framework that the Gaza Genocide Tapestry took shape. Jan, Ibrahim, Faisal, and I came together to discuss how best to document the genocide. We initially created two panels to mark this dark moment in Palestinian history – Gaza on Fire and The Palestinian Phoenix. Faisal then proposed we do 100 panels focused solely on Gaza.

The challenge of producing in a single year what had previously taken a decade was formidable, but it was an urgency dictated by an unfolding genocide and made possible by the scale, visibility and global reach the museum provided.

United in pain

Women in Gaza were initially among the most active contributors to the Palestine History Tapestry. Their work was vibrant and meticulous, and offered them a means of support. But as bombardment intensified, most became unreachable, often displaced multiple times. Materials could not enter Gaza, and finished panels could not leave.

Gaza’s women became the subjects of the story, rather than its narrators.

But the tapestry, at its core, is a kind of “lam shamel” (Arabic for family reunion), as one embroiderer put it. Despite borders and forced displacement, the labour of Palestinian women everywhere converges into a single visual record of the Palestinian experience.

For Iman Shehabi, Basma Natour and the dozen women in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, embroidery is how they make a living. But the tapestry project, they said, “restored” a part of their “dignity”.

“It was a space where heritage pulsed, and where our needles stitched both our pains and our hopes,” they wrote to us in a letter upon completion of their panels.

And it is not only the embroiderers who contributed. One of the panels in the Gaza Genocide Tapestry, embroidered by Shahla Mahareeq in Ramallah, was based on an image of Hind Rajab illustrated by London-based artist Khadija Said.

A panel of blindfolded men, arbitrarily detained by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, was painted by Haifa-based lawyer and rights activist Janan Abdu, a Palestinian citizen of Israel. It was embroidered by Bothaina Youssef in Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp.

Another artwork by Gaza-based artist Mohammed Alhaj, depicting displacement in Gaza, was also embroidered in Lebanon by Kifah Kurdieh, before a million people in southern Lebanon were themselves displaced.

The process of putting together the Gaza Genocide Tapestry has been painstaking. For more than a year, Faisal, Jan, Ibrahim and I held weekly meetings to research and select representative panels across various themes and coordinate the work. Each panel had to be translated by Ibrahim into a format that could be embroidered, then sent to a woman to stitch through field coordinators in each location.

There were constant questions, both ethical and practical. What do we choose to include, and what is left out? What does it mean to translate suffering into a stitched pattern?

At the Venice Biennale

Starting May 9, the Gaza Genocide Tapestry will be exhibited publicly at Palazzo Mora under the title:
“- – – – – – – – – – -” *
*Gaza – No Words – See The Exhibit

It will be available for viewing through November.

When we were informed in November last year that our biennale submission was selected, I felt a complicated kind of recognition. On one hand, it is an honour and a chance for this work, and the women behind it, to be seen on one of the world’s most prominent cultural stages.

On the other hand, it captured the paradox of a world increasingly willing to name what is happening in Gaza, to look it in the eye, call it a genocide, and yet remain unable or unwilling to stop it. What does it say about humanity when art becomes a primary site of real-time testimony because political systems have failed?

I have no simple answer. What I know is this: Palestinian women continue to tell these stories and demand accountability. Theirs is a collective response to my late mentor Refaat Alareer’s final instruction before he was killed: “If I must die, you must live to tell my story.”

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

This week’s caption reads:

Soldiers with Bravo Company, Task Force Guardian, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, secure a bunker in an enemy fortified entrenchment during the initial phase of combat operations as part of an exercise during the Joint ReadinessTraining Center (JRTC) rotation 24-09 at Fort Johnson, La., July 18, 2024. Task Force Guardian is comprised of personnel from 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry; 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry; and the 141st Brigade Support Battalion. The JRTC goal is to create realistic environments that help prepare units for complex operations. (Oregon Army National Guard photo by 1st Sgt. Zachary Holden, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

Prime Directives:

• If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you. 
• If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
• No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like. 
• Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.  
• So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on. 
• Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.

Zawiya refinery shut down in ‘precautionary measure’ as emergency declared following explosions and gunfire nearby.

Libya’s largest operational oil refinery at Zawiya has been shut down and ‌an emergency declared following fighting between armed groups nearby.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Zawiya Refining Company announced a “precautionary halt” to operations and evacuated employees from the oil complex and port.

NOC confirmed the safety of all employees and added that fuel supplies would continue as normal.

A Facebook statement said alarm sirens were activated “following armed clashes involving heavy weapons that erupted around the oil complex in the early hours of Friday”.

“These clashes resulted in several heavy weapons projectiles landing in various locations within the oil complex,” adding that no significant damage had been reported.

“However, the clashes have intensified and reached the residential area adjacent to the refinery, making the area a direct target for heavy shelling and significantly increasing the risk of further damage,” it said.

Authorities in Zawiya, west of the capital Tripoli, said they had launched a “large-scale operation” against criminal groups, as fighting and explosions were heard, the AFP news agency reported.

The operation targeted “criminal hideouts and wanted individuals” who were “involved in serious acts”, the authorities said, citing “murder and attempted murder, kidnapping and extortion, drug, arms and human trafficking and illegal migration”.

Videos verified by Al Jazeera showed explosions and gunfire, as well as damage to several cars and facilities inside the refinery. The sound of sirens was audible after shells fell inside operational sites.

The Zawiya Refining Company called on all parties to cease fire immediately and for the Libyan authorities to intervene to protect lives and key facilities.

The refinery, around 40km (25 miles) west of Tripoli, has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. It is connected to the 300,000 ⁠bpd Sharara oilfield.

Since Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in 2011, Libya has been plagued by violence between the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and the eastern-based government, led by military leader Khalifa Haftar which is not internationally recognised.

It is unclear what caused the fighting, but local media said it started following a security operation against armed groups.

Preah Vihear/Siem Reap provinces – When asked how she spends her day, 11-year-old Sokna rattled off a list of chores.

She first fetches water, then washes dishes and sweeps the leaves and dust from around the blue tarpaulin tent her family now calls home, in the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda in northwestern Cambodia.

Sokna and her sister have stopped attending school, their mother Puth Reen said, since moving to this camp for people displaced by the recent rounds of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.

The two sisters are among more than 34,440 people who remain in displacement camps in Cambodia – 11,355 of whom are children – as of this month, according to the country’s Ministry of Interior.

“I tried to tell them to go to school, but they don’t go,” Puth Reen told Al Jazeera, explaining how precarious life had become since returning to live in Cambodia after fleeing neighbouring Thailand, where she had worked for many years, as the fighting started.

Like Puth Reen and her family, the future looks murky for the tens of thousands of Cambodians – including many schoolchildren – who are still in displacement camps, and their lives remain disrupted months after the last outbreak of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.

Forced to flee their homes in areas where local troops are now stationed and on high alert, or in areas occupied by opposing Thai forces, Cambodia’s internally displaced say they are surviving off aid donations, while those more fortunate are transitioning from emergency tents into wooden stilted houses provided by the Cambodian government.

But with tension still evident between the leadership in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, the tenuous ceasefire along the Thai-Cambodia border means life cannot yet return to normality.

Some areas on the Cambodian border, such as the villages of Chouk Chey and Prey Chan in Banteay Meanchey province, have become rallying points for nationalists who post on social media about the Thai occupation of Cambodian territory. Their anger is directed at the large shipping containers and barbed wire that Thai forces have used to block access to villages once inhabited by Cambodians and occupied during fighting.

The Thai military-installed containers now form a sort of new frontier between the two countries.

The Cambodian military has also prevented people, such as local farmer Sun Reth, 67, from returning to their homes in front-line areas, which are still highly militarised zones, with troops ready at any moment for a new round of fighting.

“Now the Cambodian military base is just next to [my house],” Sun Reth said, adding that she was not allowed by authorities to sleep in her modest home or pick cashew nuts from her farm to sell for a little income.

Cambodian children more focused on ‘rumours’ of war

The long-held border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia erupted into two rounds of conflict last year, over five days in July and almost three weeks in December.

Dozens were reported killed on both sides, and hundreds of thousands of civilians fled their homes as both countries’ armed forces fired artillery, rockets, and, in the case of Thailand, conducted air strikes deep into Cambodian territory. Thailand has a modern air force, a military capability not possessed by its smaller neighbour.

Cambodian and Thai officials reached a ceasefire on December 27, but the situation remains tense five months on.

For families who fled the fighting, school continues for most children in the displacement camps, but parents say education is fragmented while their lives are still so unsettled.

Mothers at the Wat Bak Kam camp for the displaced in Preah Vihear province told Al Jazeera that primary school students can join classes at a local school, but high school students need to travel daily to the provincial capital, about 15km (9 miles) away.

Now the rising cost of petrol, due to the US-Israel war on Iran, has made it even harder for teenaged students, who have access to motorcycles, to make the journey to school.

Kinmai Phum, technical lead for WorldVision’s education programme, which is providing support to the camps, said school dropout rates and children skipping classes have increased substantially among students from the displaced border regions.

Kinmai Phum said the situation is a perfect storm of problems: Displaced families have been forced to move around for shelters, schools and temporary learning spaces lack facilities, and some students have psychological trauma due to the conflict.

“Local authorities [are] concerned that many children may not return to school at all if displacement and economic hardship persist,” Kinmai Phum said.

Yuon Phally, a mother of two, said she had noticed the impact of the war on her daughter and son, who are in their first and third years in primary school.

When they return from school, Yuon Phally said, they tell her about rumours they had heard about Cambodia and Thailand resuming fighting.

“Their feeling is not fully focused on school; they focus more on these rumours,” she said.

Her children’s world was more impacted by the conflict because their father is a soldier stationed in the Mom Bei area of the border.

During the fighting in December, Yuon Phally said she could not convince her children to go to school because they all waited to see if their father would call on a mobile phone from the front line.

“I couldn’t hold back my tears, and that added more pressure onto my kids,” she said.

“They would ask about their dad and how he is doing now. Then they told me to eat rice. They understood my feelings.”

She said her children’s focus on their studies only improved after their father returned from fighting to the camp where they are staying, to rest and recover from sickness and injuries sustained in battle.

‘Who doesn’t want to have peace?’

Soeum Sokhem, a deputy village chief, told Al Jazeera how his home is located in the militarised “danger zone” along the border, but he feels compelled to return every few days to check on his house, tend crops, sleep an occasional night, and check in with other neighbours doing the same.

“I can’t just stay here”, he said of camp life.

“I have to go back.”

When asked how he felt about the border war, Soeum Sokhem said he had experienced so much war in Cambodia that he did not know how to describe his “inner feeling like I really want to”.

He then listed off all the conflicts he had lived through in Cambodia since the 1960s: The spill over into Cambodia from the US war in neighbouring Vietnam; the US bombing campaign in Cambodia; the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, and the civil war that followed after Vietnam’s intervention to topple the regime’s leader Pol Pot in 1979, and which lasted until the mid-1990s.

Then in the 2000s, sporadic border fights with Thailand began, he said.

Cambodia’s contemporary history has been anything but peaceful, a fact which might explain why the current Cambodian government so often speaks of peace. Government buildings and billboards proclaim the government’s unofficial motto: “Thanks for peace.”

“But who doesn’t want to have peace?” Soeum Sokhem said, after charting his life and the many conflicts he had lived through.

Now the 67-year-old said he once again hears gunfire occasionally when he returns to check on his home on the front line.

“Before, when I walked there, it was normal,” he said.

“But nowadays, I walk with fear when going back there.”

Israeli attacks killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Friday, including a rescue worker, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

Britain’s famed natural historian David Attenborough is celebrating his 100th birthday. The broadcaster has made some of the world’s most iconic wildlife documentaries, in a 70-year career that saw him become a global voice for conservation and climate change advocacy.

“We’ve been so used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right, yet what Reform are able to do is to win in areas that have always been Conservative, but equally, we’re proving in a big way that we could win in areas that Labour has dominated since the end of World War I.”

Costa Rica inaugurated right-wing president Laura Fernandez on Friday as supporters gathered in the national stadium. Fernandez promised to confront ‘organised crime’ while in office.

The U.S. carried out new attacks on Iranian targets today, striking several empty oil tankers trying to break the blockade, according to a post on X by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). This latest incident comes as the UAE says it was attacked again by Iran today and hours after the U.S. and Iran exchanged blows in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. forces “disabled M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda, May 8, prior to both vessels entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman in violation of the ongoing U.S. blockade, CENTCOM stated. “A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks, preventing the non-compliant ships from entering Iran.” 

This was the third time that the U.S. has fired on Iranian ships running the blockade. The Navy has used a destroyer’s five-inch gun firing inert rounds to blast the engineering section of one ship to disable it and a Super Hornet’s 20mm Vulcan cannon to disable the rudder on another. So, the use of bombs dropped down a ship’s smokestack to disable but not destroy a ship is new. You can read about these prior instances here.

The weapons used in this latest wave of attacks on blockade runners wasn’t disclosed. 500lb laser-guided bombs are likely what was employed here based on the Super Hornet’s stores options, precision required, and the effects seen. These can utilize high-explosive bomb bodies or inert ones for desired effects, with the latter being most probable in this case.

Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin was the first to report this news.

The blockade on Iranian ports was enforced April 13 to strangle Iran’s economy as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. On Friday, CENTCOM reported that U.S. forces have prevented more than 70 tankers from entering or leaving Iranian ports. 

“These commercial ships have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion-plus,” the command stated on X.

However, “a confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship,” The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing four people familiar with the document.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates claims it was once again attacked by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones on Friday.

“The Ministry of Defense announced that on May 8, 2026, the UAE air defense systems engaged 2 ballistic missiles and 3 UAV’s launched from Iran, resulting in 3 moderate injuries,” the UAE Defense Ministry (MoD) announced on X Friday morning EDT. “Since the beginning of the blatant Iranian attacks on the United Arab Emirates, the air defenses have engaged a total of 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles, and 2,263 UAV’s.”

The UAE, located about 60 miles south of Iran across the Strait, claims these attacks have killed 13 and injured 230.

The MoD “affirmed that it remains fully prepared and ready to deal with any threats and will firmly confront anything that aims to undermine the security of the country, in a manner that ensures the protection of its sovereignty, security and stability and safeguards its interests and national capabilities.”

Tehran did not immediately respond to the claim, which TWZ cannot independently verify.

These incidents follow an exchange of fire last night between the U.S. and Iran. As we reported yesterday, U.S. Central Command said it attacked several locations in Iran after “Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No U.S. assets were struck.”

Iran said it launched the attacks in retaliation for “violation of the ceasefire and the aggression by the terrorist US military against an Iranian oil tanker near the port of Jask.”

IRGC Navy:

Following the violation of the ceasefire and the aggression by the terrorist US military against an Iranian oil tanker near the port of Jask, and the approach of warships belonging to the terrorist US military toward the Strait of Hormuz, a very large-scale and… pic.twitter.com/pmg4IiD15M

— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 7, 2026

The extent of the damage to Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island and the Bandar Kargan naval checkpoint in Minab, targets struck by the U.S. on Thursday in response to the attacks on U.S. Navy ships, remains unclear. No images have emerged and neither Iran nor the U.S. have commented.

Last night, Trump called the exchange a “love tap” and said the ceasefire still held.

President Trump tells me in a phone call the retaliatory strikes against Iranian targets are just a “love tap.”

“It’s just a love tap.”

When I asked if it means the ceasefire is over.

“No, no, the ceasefire is going. It’s in effect.”

— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) May 7, 2026

This is a developing story.

UPDATE: 11:40 AM EDT –

Amid the kinetic activity, diplomacy continues as Trump insists that Iran never develop a nuclear weapon. The status of its ballistic missile arsenal, control of the Strait of Hormuz and support for proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis are also major sticking points.

The U.S. is awaiting to hear back from Iran about its peace proposal, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. 

“We’re expecting a response from them today at some point. We have not received that yet,” he said.

The secretary added that he remained concerned that Iran is still trying to maintain control over the Strait.

“We’ve seen the reporting overnight that Iran is trying to establish some agency that’s going to control traffic in the Strait,” Rubio explained. “That would actually be unacceptable.”

“We’ve seen the reporting overnight that Iran is trying to establish some agency that’s going to control traffic in the Straits… That would actually be unacceptable,” says @SecRubio.

“We’re expecting a response from them today at some point. We have not received that yet.” pic.twitter.com/Wo8IEEWDnI

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 8, 2026

Iran, meanwhile, is accusing the U.S. of moving the goal posts in the negotiating process by using force.

“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on X. “Is it a crude pressure tactic? Or the result of a spoiler once again duping POTUS into another quagmire? Whatever the causes, [the] outcome is the same: Iranians never bow to pressure.”

Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure. Is it a crude pressure tactic? Or the result of a spoiler once again duping POTUS into another quagmire?

Whatever the causes, outcome is the same: Iranians never bow to pressure. pic.twitter.com/ev7dMIebNB

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) May 8, 2026

UPDATE: 11:55 AM EDT –

Iran claims that its “naval commandos carried out a special operation to detain” an oil tanker, “which was attempting to disrupt Iran’s oil exports and national interests.”

“Implementing the decision of the Supreme National Security Council and with a judicial ruling, the Army Navy seized the oil tanker Ocean Koi, which was carrying Iranian oil and tried to take advantage of the situation in the region to harm and disrupt the oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation,” said Iran’s Army Public Relations Office in a statement on Friday.

​“The commandos of the Army Navy “directed the violating oil tanker to the southern coast of Iran and handed it over to the judicial authorities,” according to the statement. “The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran will “vigorously defend the interests and assets of the Iranian nation in the territorial waters of the country and will not tolerate any violator or aggressor.”

Though Iranian officials identified this ship as the Ocean Koi, it is also known as the Jin Li. It is part of Iran’s so-called dark fleet and was sanctioned by the U.S. in February for transporting millions of barrels of Iranian oil. It is unclear why Iran made a show of this event, though it could have been for domestic consumption in the wake of yesterday’s attacks on several targets.

You can see video of the claimed boarding below.

According to IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) News, the Iranian Navy had conducted a special operation to seize an “offending tanker” named “OCEAN KOI” for attempting to export Iranian oil.

Her new name is actually JIN LI (9255933), and has been so since 2025-11-30.… pic.twitter.com/3Wv8jJNEAr

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) May 8, 2026

UPDATE: 12:16 PM EDT –

The CIA recruited sources inside Iran, but flawed covert communications reportedly helped Iranian counterintelligence identify and arrest informants, a new report from Reuters stated.

“In interviews with six Iranian former CIA informants, Reuters found that the agency was careless…amid its intense drive to gather intelligence in Iran, putting in peril those risking their lives to help the United States,” the outlet explained.

“Such aggressive steps by the CIA sometimes put average Iranians in danger with little prospect of gaining critical intelligence,” Reuters added. “When these men were caught, the agency provided no assistance to the informants or their families, even years later, the six Iranians said.”

UPDATE: 12:25 PM EDT –

Iranian officials continue to dismiss the notion that the country will cede control of the Strait.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said on Friday Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz is an asset “on the scale of an atomic bomb”, adding that Tehran would not give up the capability it gained through war.”

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said on Friday Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz is an asset “on the scale of an atomic bomb”, adding that Tehran would not give up the capability it gained through war. pic.twitter.com/07vbiRwVPR

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) May 8, 2026

12:43 PM EDT –

Hours after launching another attack on the UAE, an Iranian official says that country will remain a target for supporting the U.S. and Israel.

Iran will not leave the Emirates alone, and they are well aware of that, which is why they are trying to maintain tension between Iran, America, and the Zionist entity,” Ali Khodarian, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, stated on X. “The Americans have realized that their naval blockade parade will henceforth face a military response from the Islamic Republic. No one can now carry out a military operation against our ships without a response.”

عضو لجنة الأمن القومي في البرلمان الإيراني علي خضريان:

⭕إيران لن تترك الإمارات وشأنها وهم يدركون ذلك لذا فهم يحاولون الحفاظ على التوتر بين إيران وأميركا والكيان الصهيوني

⭕ الأميركيون أدركوا أن استعراض حصارهم البحري سيواجه من الآن فصاعدا ردا عسكريا من قبل الجمهورية الإسلامية… pic.twitter.com/qHPE4ZeRsv

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) May 8, 2026

UPDATE: 1:37 PM EDT –

The United States will facilitate two days of intensive talks between the governments of Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15, State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott announced on Friday.

UPDATE: 1:48 PM EDT-

CENTCOM released imagery of the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) operating in the Middle East. “The three destroyers are currently sailing in the Arabian Sea supporting the blockade against Iran,” the command stated on X. “As of today, CENTCOM forces have redirected 57 commercial vessels and disabled 4 to prevent the ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports.”

The three destroyers were in last night’s exchange of fire with Iran.

Photos of USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) operating in the Middle East. The three destroyers are currently sailing in the Arabian Sea supporting the blockade against Iran. As of today, CENTCOM forces have redirected 57 commercial… pic.twitter.com/iFHp1HHMac

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 8, 2026

UPDATE: 3:32 PM EDT –

The U.S. is denying the latest Iranian claim that it successfully carried out an attack on U.S. military assets.

On Friday, the Iranian Army claimed “while the US Navy was attempting to remove three of its destroyers from the Strait of Hormuz towards the Sea of Oman with air support, we carried out a combined missile and drone operation, during which we targeted this naval group with 8 cruise missiles and 24 suicide drones. As a result of this operation, and despite the extensive attempts by the US Navy to repel the attack, one cruise missile and three suicide drones successfully hit the American destroyers, causing fires to break out on them.”

Asked if any U.S. ships were struck today, a U.S. official offered a one-word response.

“No,” the official stated.

BREAKING: IRAN SAYS IT DIRECTLY HIT US DESTROYERS IN THE HORMUZ

The Iranian Army Statement:

On Friday morning, while the US Navy was attempting to remove three of its destroyers from the Strait of Hormuz towards the Sea of Oman with air support, we carried out a combined… pic.twitter.com/FusP0ihHxt

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 8, 2026

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Caracas, May 8, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government reasserted its sovereignty claim over the Essequibo Strip during an International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing aimed at resolving the long-standing territorial dispute with Guyana.

Venezuelan representative Samuel Moncada, defended the country’s “inalienable right” over the 160,000 square kilometer resource-rich territory during his intervention on Wednesday.

The ICJ is holding a week of hearings in The Hague between the two South American nations over the controversy, which in recent years has raised fears of a possible military confrontation. Venezuela has repeatedly stated that it does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction over the matter. However, Guyana unilaterally brought the dispute before the ICJ in 2018.

In this context, Moncada argued that the only valid legal instrument governing the dispute is the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which calls for a practical and mutually satisfactory solution between Caracas and Georgetown.

“Venezuela is here today because it cannot remain silent in the face of a process in which Guyana seeks to use the Court to unilaterally redefine the nature of the controversy,” Moncada said. He added that Venezuelans rejected the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the issue in the December 2023 referendum. 

For his part, Guyanese Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd told the judges that the case has “existential importance for Guyana” because it affects more than 70 percent of the country’s territory.

“For Guyanese people, the very idea that our country could be dismembered is a true tragedy because we would lose the vast majority of our land and population. Guyana would cease to be Guyana without them,” Todd argued during Guyana’s hearing session on Monday.

Moncada responded by saying that Guyana’s position implied that decades of mediation efforts by United Nations officials and Good Offices processes were attempts to “dismember” Guyanese territory, when in reality they sought the negotiated settlement that Guyana is now attempting to avoid.

The Guyanese government intends to have the ICJ uphold an 1899 arbitration ruling that awarded the Essequibo to the United Kingdom. However, in 1962 Venezuela filed a complaint before the United Nations seeking to nullify the award after evidence emerged suggesting that the decision had been reached fraudulently.

As a result, in 1966, while Guyana was negotiating its independence from the United Kingdom, the parties signed the Geneva Agreement, establishing that the Essequibo region would remain administered by Guyana while its sovereignty claim by Venezuela remained unresolved until a mutually agreed settlement could be reached.

The accord effectively superseded the Paris ruling and established a four-year framework to resolve the dispute in a “practical, peaceful and satisfactory” manner for both sides. Although no final resolution has been achieved, the agreement is still considered to be in force.

Tensions between the two countries escalated significantly in 2015 after ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil reserves in the disputed area, giving Guyana access to one of the world’s highest per capita oil reserves. Though the Essequibo is under Guyanese administration, Venezuela includes the territory in its official map and recently established administrative structures for its eventual 24th state.

The court at The Hague is scheduled to hold four hearings in total, during which both countries will present their legal arguments.

Guyana presented its first round of arguments on Monday, May 4, while Venezuela did so on Wednesday, May 6. Guyana’s second round took place on Friday, May 8, and Venezuela is scheduled to respond again on Monday, May 11.

Although the hearings will conclude that day, a final ruling could take months or even years. While ICJ rulings are legally binding, the court has no direct mechanism to enforce compliance.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, regardless of the judicial proceedings, “the inevitable outcome will be Guyana’s return to the negotiating table to definitively resolve the territorial controversy under the framework of the 1966 agreement.”

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Prosecutors charge Florida served as central hub in 2021 assassination of Moise, which sparked ongoing political crisis.

Four people have been convicted in the United States in connection with the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages were found guilty on Friday of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moise, whose assassination left a political vacuum in the Caribbean nation that has compounded overlapping security and humanitarian crises.

They were also convicted of providing material support for the plot in violation of US law. All four face possible life sentences.

US prosecutors have said that the south of Florida, the closest US state to Haiti, served as a central hub for planning and funding Moise’s assassination.

During the trial, which began nearly two months ago, the defence argued that the defendants were scapegoats.

They claimed they had instead been involved in a plan to serve Moise an arrest warrant, amid a dispute about whether the president had overstayed his term.

They further maintained that Colombian mercenaries involved in the assassination were meant to accompany Haitian police to execute the warrant, but that Moise was killed by his own security forces before they arrived.

“This is a Haitian plot, and it is ⁠a Haitian conspiracy,” defence lawyer Emmanuel Perez said, as reported by the Miami Herald.

US prosecutors, in turn, charged that the men initially sought to remove and replace Moise, but the plan eventually escalated to assassination.

A fifth defendant, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor who allegedly wanted to be named president after Moise was killed, was set to be tried at a later date due to health issues.

Eight other individuals accepted plea deals as part of the US investigation.

No national elections have been held in Haiti since Moise’s assassination, although a provisional council was appointed in September 2024 to organise new polls.

The council has since been replaced by US-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, who has said elections will be held by the end of the year.

The UN has said a stable government is essential to restoring order in Haiti, which has been beset by a series of natural disasters and rising violence, with criminal gangs controlling large swaths of territory.

At least 8,100 gang killings were documented in 2025, with insecurity displacing about 1.5 million people, according to the UN.

It’s been four years since Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces. In those years, her family has pushed the United States government for one thing: an independent investigation into her killing that leads to real accountability. The Take looks into the push for justice in the US, and why it’s been so difficult to achieve.

This is a story from the archives. This originally aired on September 5, 2022. None of the dates, titles or other references from that time have been changed.

In this episode: 

• Lina Abu Akleh (@LinaAbuAkleh), Niece of Shireen Abu Akleh
• Katherine Gallagher, Human Rights Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Said Arikat (@SMArikat), Journalist

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, Ruby Zaman, Chloe K. Li, Alexandra Locke, and our guest host, Halla Mohieddeen. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.

Players’ union challenge French state’s failure to protect professional footballers from the health and safety risks.

Football players’ union ‌FIFPRO is hailing a “landmark” legal win after a European rights ⁠body agreed to ⁠investigate whether the French state failed to uphold labour standards for professional footballers.

The unanimous decision by the European Committee of Social Rights in March marks the first time a players’ union has successfully advanced a collective complaint under the European Social Charter. It paves the way for ⁠an investigation into whether France has failed to ensure proper working conditions for professional players, including minors.

FIFPRO described the heart of the dispute as the French state’s failure to protect professional footballers from the health and safety risks posed ‌by a congested and expanding international match calendar, which it argues is driven by FIFA’s unilateral decisions on competition formats.

The inaugural edition of a rebranded and expanded FIFA Club World Cup came in for particular criticism from across the game when it was staged last year.

The French government had sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that any alleged labour violations were the responsibility of private sports bodies, such as FIFA or the French Football Federation, rather than the state.

The Committee rejected that objection, ⁠affirming that national governments remain legally responsible for ensuring ⁠fundamental workers’ rights are upheld within their jurisdictions, regardless of whether a private entity manages the industry.

FIFPRO Europe, which is supporting the French National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) in the ⁠case, described the decision as a “signal case” for the industry.

It added that the complaint highlights how global governing ⁠bodies “frequently bypass national labour standards regarding rest periods ⁠and collective bargaining.”

FIFPRO Europe confirmed it would provide full support to the UNFP during the upcoming proceedings and called on other European states to hold football authorities accountable for “systemic failures” that ‌it said prioritise commercial interests over player safety.

“France is not alone: many other states are in a comparable situation, with minimum standards for working time, ‌rest ‌periods, occupational health and collective bargaining structurally undermined by decisions taken at global level,” its statement said.

Khadeejat Mohammed was only two years old when Mokwa’s gully erosion claimed her life in the Eti-Sheshi community of Niger State, North Central Nigeria. Bright, playful, and already piecing sentences together, she had just been registered for creche. “She was very smart,” Isa Sheshi, her grandfather, told HumAngle. “Even at two, she played around and was able to put sentences together. I loved her so much.”

On the day she passed away, Khadeejat had asked her grandfather for money to buy tofu, locally called awara. The tofu seller was just across the same bridge that the family had carved from felled trees. The erosion had long cut through their community, forcing residents to improvise crossings. 

“When the erosion began, we used wood to build a makeshift bridge,” Sheshi said. “But with time it got bigger, so we went to the bush to cut down 15 longer trees to create another bridge.” 

That makeshift bridge became Khadeejat’s final path. On her way back, holding the tofu in a transparent plastic bag with her elder brother, who was three years older, she slipped into the gully. 

“Her head went directly into a hollow hole filled with water in the gully,” Sheshi recounted, holding onto her picture. “She gulped that water before we could rush to the scene. When we brought her out and rushed her to the hospital, we were told she had a fractured skull.” 

She was rushed to the Mokwa General Hospital and later referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Bida. Unfortunately, Khadeejat died before the family could leave the motor park to travel to Bida.

“It’s been four years since the incident, but whenever I pass through that hole caused by gully erosion, my granddaughter’s thoughts always come to mind,” the man said.

Khadeejat’s death in 2022 was not just a family tragedy; it was a warning of what unchecked erosion has continued to do in Mokwa. 

Yet, years later, the gully remains, widening with each rainy season. Although figures of lives lost in these gullies are not publicly available, residents confirmed to HumAngle that a significant number of people have lost their loved ones in them, with some sustaining life-threatening injuries.

Despite the clear threats posed by the widening and deepening gullies, HumAngle’s investigation reveals that state and local authorities have failed to take effective action. The problem worsens with each rainy season, raising concerns among local communities. In 2024, the Niger State government secured World Bank ecological funds, specifically earmarked for erosion control projects. However, these resources have not translated into tangible solutions. 

The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, led by Mohammed Idris from the Mokwa Senatorial District, announced in December 2024 that the Niger State government had secured a $10 million intervention from the World Bank. This funding is aimed at addressing gully erosion in Mokwa, an area increasingly susceptible to environmental disasters.

During his visit to the affected communities in Mokwa, Umar Bago, the state governor, confirmed that the gully erosion had posed serious threats to the communities and that “competent contractors with track records have been identified to handle the project, which will commence soon.”

The state secured World Bank funding after years of neglect to address the root causes of erosion, particularly in communities such as Eti-Sheshi, Kpege, and Anguwan Hausa.

In May 2025, just five months after receiving funding from the World Bank, Mokwa was hit by a devastating flood that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives. This tragedy raised serious questions about why the government had not started the project, especially since they had already identified “competent contractors” for the job.

Once competent contractors have been identified, the process of publishing the contract bid is governed by law. At the state level, this is regulated by procurement laws specific to each state, which are based on the federal Public Procurement Act of 2007. Section 18 (1b and d) of the Niger State Public Procurement Law of 2020 states that, subject to exemptions allowed by this law, all public procurement shall be conducted by open competitive bidding in a manner that is transparent, timely, and equitable, to ensure accountability and conformity with the law. Based on the above, a national invitation to bid shall be advertised on “the notice board of the procuring entity, any official website of the procuring entity, at least two national newspapers, and in the procurement journal,” according to section 27(2b) of the same law. 

HumAngle did not find any instance of the state government publishing any contract bid for the $10 million World Bank ecological funds project in Mokwa regarding the gully erosion project. However, a contract bid was published in May 2025 by the state’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change under the Agro Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project, with the contract title: Construction of Storm Water Drainage Structures for Mokwa and Babban Rami Gully Erosion sites in Niger State.

They invited bidders for two contracts: construction of water-stormwater drainage structures for both Mokwa and Babban Rami, with bid security of ₦150 million and ₦200 million, respectively, for a 28-month construction period.

Further investigations by HumAngle revealed that the ACReSAL project (Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes) is a separate initiative from the World Bank Ecological Funds, which are commonly referred to as the Ecological and Natural Disasters Management Fund in Nigeria. Although both are World Bank projects, they serve different purposes.

While ACReSAL is a targeted World Bank loan facility for northern ecological resilience, the other is a national funding mechanism aimed at addressing nationwide disasters.

HumAngle confirmed, through field visits in February, that both the World Bank and the ACReSAL projects have not been executed. The bridge and culvert along the Mokwa-Jebba axis, damaged by last year’s deadly flood, are currently undergoing reconstruction.

When HumAngle visited the Eti‑Sheshi and Anguwan Hausawa areas in February, two of the three most devastating gully-erosion sites in Mokwa had deepened and widened, some plunging about 15 feet. Houses and even a mosque sat precariously on the edge, half‑collapsed into the earth.

Abbas Idris, the president of the Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON), revealed that communities affected by gullies face the loss of arable land, damage to infrastructure, degradation of water quality, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and displacement. More dangerously, erosion increases the risk of flooding, threatening lives and livelihoods.

“At the end of the day, this could give rise to conflict as a result of scarcity of land and resources, as people will be fighting over the land not affected by gully erosion,” he warned.

In March, after reviewing World Bank records for details on the Mokwa project, HumAngle submitted a request through the Bank’s information platform seeking clarification on the project and its operations.  

The World Bank responded by asking us to provide “a direct link to, or full citation of, the specific document or public reporting you referenced in your request.”  We explained that the inability to locate the specific document on its website—even after conducting a Boolean search—necessitated our request. We nonetheless provided links to public reports that referenced the funding.  

On May 4, a month after its initial response, the World Bank sent what seemed to be a generic status update, stating that the request was still being processed.

“In most cases, we can respond within twenty (20) working days from receipt of a request for information. However, we may need additional time in special circumstances, for example, if the request is complex or voluminous or if it requires review…,” they wrote.

Erosion tears school walls apart

Gully erosion in Mokwa is severely impacting the community by destroying homes and livelihoods and depriving children of the opportunity to attend school. Aisha Muhammad-Kolo, the founder of Gbastif Global Academy, the only affordable private school in the area, witnessed firsthand how erosion stripped the school bare.

“There is nobody in this house, and school is closed due to the impact of the gully erosion that has been affecting our community,” she told HumAngle. Each rainy season brought chaos. When the gullies filled with water, they burst into her compound, flooding classrooms and frightening parents. 

“People were afraid that their children were at risk, so they started removing their children from the school, which affected us greatly but also deprived the students of schooling,” she said. “This is the only private school in our community, and most parents prefer to enrol their children here because it is not only affordable but we ensure quality education as compared to our government schools.”

The collapse of Gbastif Global Academy is emblematic of how erosion has altered schooling in many Mokwa communities. Teachers struggled to keep children safe during storms, sometimes moving them into private rooms until the rains subsided. 

“Whenever it rained, and we were in session, I would have to take all the children inside my room to ensure they were safe. By the time the rain receded, it had washed off a significant part of our structures,” Aisha recounted.  

Although the school was later relocated to a safer site, the arrangement is temporary, and parents are concerned about the distance. Aisha told HumAngle that the landowner could reclaim the property at any time, leaving the school stranded. 

“I believe the impact of the gully erosion is enormous, especially on education. Also, we have been robbed of our source of livelihood and have not been able to recover,” she said. 

Her fears extend beyond the school to her own family. “I also have children, and the rainy season will soon be here. You can’t be everywhere at every time to monitor your kids. They are very young and do not understand the dangers in areas affected by gully erosion. I am afraid to lose any of my children and my house because of gully erosion,” she added.

While there are no publicly available data specific to Mokwa or Niger State, a 2024 UNICEF report reveals the scale of climate‑induced disruptions to education across Nigeria. The report found that 2.2 million Nigerian students experienced interruptions to their schooling due to disasters such as flooding and erosion, underscoring how environmental crises directly undermine learning. 

These disruptions compound existing vulnerabilities, leaving communities like Mokwa even more exposed when erosion destroys classrooms and forces children out of school.  This data situates Mokwa’s erosion crisis within a broader pattern of climate‑driven educational instability, showing that the loss of Gbastif Global Academy is not an isolated tragedy but part of a systemic emergency threatening children’s futures.  

A hospital in ruin

Mokwa General Hospital, intended to serve as an important resource for the community, is collapsing due to gully erosion and inadequate maintenance. The hospital’s buildings show clear signs of decay, including peeling paint, broken windows, and walls damaged by erosion. Some parts of the structures have already collapsed, creating unsafe areas within the compound.

Drainage channels around the hospital have fallen into deep gullies and are now clogged with waste and debris. Instead of carrying water safely away, they have become dumping grounds, worsening waterlogging and exposing patients and staff to health risks.  

The erosion has transformed the hospital environment into a hazardous zone. HumAngle observed that foundations are exposed, certain sections of the compound are unsafe to cross, and the surrounding land has eroded away. What should be a place of healing now mirrors the environmental collapse outside its walls, threatening public health and undermining confidence in essential services.

The situation at Mokwa General Hospital shows how unchecked erosion and poor ecological management are crippling critical infrastructure. 

When infrastructure such as roads, schools, and hospitals is destroyed, the consequences become catastrophic, said Abbas Idris, a risk and disaster expert, who also noted that the collapse of a hospital due to erosion could leave communities without access to healthcare, leading to preventable deaths. He stressed the importance of proactive disaster management through risk assessment and hazard categorisation.

“If there are no risk assessments, the coping capacity of the community will be very low when disaster hits them,” he warned. “Without urgent intervention, the hospital risks becoming unusable, leaving thousands of residents without access to healthcare.”  

Mokwa’s deadly deluge

In May 2025, Mokwa experienced a catastrophic flood that devastated the area, displacing over 3,000 people and resulting in more than 160 fatalities. This tragic event became the deadliest flood incident in the country that year. Entire families were wiped out as homes, schools, and farmlands vanished under torrents of muddy water. Hajara Malam Abba is one of those affected by this disastrous flooding.

For Hajara’s family, the devastation was deeply personal. “The things we lost from the flood incident in 2025 can never be recovered because we lost both lives and property,” she said. 

In their family, her elder sister bore the heaviest burden, losing 17 members of her household – 16 grandchildren and her child – in a single night of flooding. Alongside the lives lost, the family’s livelihood was swept away: six refrigerators, five grinding machines, rams, clothes, and appliances all destroyed.  

The aftermath forced them into precarious living conditions. Hajara’s sister rented another place to manage, while other family members who could not afford rent built makeshift tents on the same land where their homes once stood. 

“It’s been almost a year now, but they still sleep there in vulnerable conditions, hoping that the government will eventually intervene,” Hajara said.  “We can’t sleep in peace again because of the fear of the unknown, since the rainy season is almost here again.”

Alhaji Umar Sani, one of the flood victims, vividly remembers the morning the floodwaters came. 

“It was around 6 a.m., after we had just finished praying the Subhi [dawn] prayer, then we heard people shouting,” he recounted. “My son told us he saw people drowning in the massive flood waters sweeping through homes.”

“Before we could act, the water had reached my house. My wife, my children, and I couldn’t take anything. I was only wearing a jalabiya and trousers, while my wife wore a hijab and trousers – everything else was washed away. The water covered my house. I am grateful it didn’t claim any of our lives,” he said.

In the wake of the disaster, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of ₦16.7 billion for the immediate reconstruction of the Mokwa Bridge, which was destroyed by flooding. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, stated this after a meeting with the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi. He said the project would involve constructing a bridge with 10 spans.

As families cling to faith and resilience, scepticism lingers over government efforts as the drainage system under construction is seen as inadequate. “When the floodwater came, it was enormous. How then can this drainage contain the next flood? It ought to be bigger than this,” Hajara said.

Alhaji Umar, another victim of the gully erosion, echoed the same concern, noting that the project underway is “a culvert, not a bridge” and does not match the scale of the destruction. With over 250 people killed in Mokwa alone, residents fear the rainy season could bring another catastrophe. Idris, the risk and disaster expert, criticised the government’s reconstruction of the bridge in Mokwa, which was downgraded to a box culvert without a proper scientific assessment.

“Even in the reconstruction of the said bridge, the government failed to use experts to analyse the risk factors. The facility engineers were supposed to consider the disaster and suggest a suitable bridge model that can manage the floodwater. Instead, it was just constructed haphazardly,” he lamented.

Communities under siege

Each rainy season, the community around Mokwa General Hospital experiences severe erosion, causing families to lose their homes, crops, and peace of mind. Residents report that last year’s floods were particularly destructive, as water surged into the gullies and dangerously approached their homes. Several houses have suffered partial damage due to the erosion.

“We are not happy that this gully erosion has not been fixed,” Isa complained. “When there is heavy rainfall, the water finds its way to fill up these gullies, leaving us and our homes at risk. If the rainy season comes now, we don’t even know what will happen.”  

Ruqayyah Ismail, another resident, described how the rainy season signals fear for her and other families. “When the rain falls, the front of our house turns into a river. Everywhere is filled with water as we have to stay indoors for days with our children without crossing over to the other side of our house,” she said. 

The erosion has already destroyed her gate, and each year the water pushes further inside. Recounting a near-miss ordeal, she added: “An Okada rider had once fallen into the hole. On his way home, he slipped and fell into a ditch. He almost lost his life, but his motorcycle was found at the other end of the gully.”

Muhammed Jibril, whose family moved into their new house in 2006, told HumAngle that the erosion gradually worsened as the population grew. “From about five years ago, it became massive. Last year’s rainy season was the worst of all. We lost everything due to erosion. For more than six months, our neighbours were the ones feeding us,” he said. 

Stored food supplies, including 13 bags of maize, were destroyed alongside clothing, electronic appliances, and money. 

“Till today, we have not recovered from the disaster. I had to sell my motorcycle to build a buffer zone behind my fence to minimise the destruction,” he added.  

Over the years, the persistent erosion has reshaped the community’s daily life. For most communities, the rainy season serves as a source of growth and prosperity, but for this community in Mokwa, it signals fear and disaster.

He described climbing to the overhead tank to monitor water levels, warning his family to evacuate if the flooding became too severe. The erosion even brought down his main gate, forcing him to relocate it onto a neighbour’s property. 

“Fortunately, my neighbours understand that’s why they’ve been patient with us. Until they [government] construct a proper channel for the water to pass through, we have no choice but to remain like this,” he said.  

Jibril told HumAngle that beyond psychological trauma, the financial toll has been staggering. 

“Last year alone, if I recall the losses, it could make me cry. All of my harvests were destroyed, including sesame seeds, which were expensive in the market. In total, we lost about ₦4 million. But we were lucky not to lose any lives,” Jibril noted. 

After every flood incident, residents say people who identify as World Bank officials visited the community to take measurements and collect their details, only to remain silent afterwards. “We need assistance before the rains start. They should fix it so that we can have peace of mind. That is all we ask for now,” Jibril pleaded.  

According to the disaster expert Idris, the absence of adequate land management practices and unchecked deforestation are driving the crisis.

“Addressing gully erosion requires adequate land management practices, and if you look at Mokwa, that is absent,” Idris explained. “Deforestation has been thriving in the environment due to abject poverty, as people cut down trees for charcoal. Also, there has been little to no effort from the government to educate the community on erosion control measures.”

He called for accountability and a shift in leadership priorities.

“Unless we address corruption, unless our leaders change from their personal interests to that of the people, and unless they value the lives of those communities they are governing, we are not going to get it right.”

On April 7, HumAngle submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Niger State government through the Commissioner for Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Alhaji Abubakar Musa. The request sought clarification regarding the $10 million World Bank-assisted fund earmarked for the Mokwa gully erosion control and also some ACReSAL projects in the LGA.  

The government has not responded to that request. This lack of response comes despite the stipulated timeframe (7 days, with an extension of another 7 days) for a reply, as outlined in Nigeria’s FOI Act of 2011.