As the rising cost of living continues to bite, many in northern Nigeria are turning to rice grains that millers normally reject after processing or sell to farmers to feed their fish.

These are referred to in the Hausa language, widely spoken in the north, as afafata, which means "battling" because they are literally a battle to cook and eat as the grains are so hard.

"A few years ago, people didn't care about this type of rice, and we usually threw it away along with the rice hulls, but times have changed," Isah Hamisu, a rice mill worker in the northern city of Kano, told the BBC.

Despite the grains being broken, dirty and tough, afafata's cheaper price has made it more attractive for humans and helped poorer families to be able to afford to eat one of the staple foods in the country.

Fish farm owner Fatima Abdullahi said her fish love it but because people are now eating afafata, its price has risen.

Prices in Nigeria are increasing at their fastest rate for nearly 30 years. On top of global pressures, President Bola Tinubu's cancellation of the fuel subsidy plus the devaluation of the currency, the naira, have added to inflation.

A standard 50kg (110lb) bag of rice, which could help feed a household of between eight and 10 for about a month, now costs 77,000 naira ($53; £41). This is an increase of more than 70% since the middle of last year and exceeds the monthly income of a majority of Nigerians.

In the face of this many are struggling to cope and in some states there have been cost-of-living protests.

Earlier this month in Niger state, central Nigeria, protesters blocked roads and held placards saying that they were being suffocated by the rising prices.

A few days later there was a similar demonstration in Kano in the north-west. In the aftermath, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf admitted there was starvation in his state and said a solution must be found.

The solution, for now, for some is found in afafata.

Hajiya Rabi Isah, based in Kano state, told the BBC that if it were not for this type of rice her children would go hungry as she cannot afford the normal kind.

"Normal rice is 4,000 naira ($2.70) per bowl which is beyond my means, I can only afford afafata which is 2,500 naira ($1.69) now," she said. One bowl of rice from the market can feed an average family in Kano for a day.

"Without afafata, feeding my family would be a major issue for me."

Market sellers have also noticed a difference.

Saminu Uba, who works in Kano's Medile market, said the afafata side of his business is booming.

"Most people can no longer afford normal rice and they come for this which is cheaper even though it tastes less good," he told the BBC.

One of his customers, Hashimu Dahiru, admits people are having to find ways of adapting.

"The cost of goods is alarming - in just two months the price of everything has doubled,'' he said.

"Our wives spend hours removing stones and dirt from the rice before cooking and even then it ends up tasting not nice, but we have to eat to survive."

The presidency has said it is doing all it can about the situation, including the distribution of more than 100 tonnes of grains such as rice, millet and maize in the hope that it would cushion the effects of inflation and help lower the market price.

But the president's aide Bayo Onanuga upset many recently when he said that Nigeria still had one of the lowest costs of living in Africa.

The increasing price of rice is not a new problem though.

Tinubu's predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, banned the importation of rice to encourage more Nigerian farmers to grow the crop, but local producers have been unable to meet the demand.

Before then Nigerian markets were filled with rice from Thailand at an affordable price for many.

Tinubu has lifted import restrictions, but now the shortage of foreign currency and the falling value of the naira has made bringing in rice trickier.

BBC

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 29.9 percent in January 2024 — up from 28.92 percent in the previous month.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its CPI report for January, released on Thursday.

According to the bureau, food inflation also surged to 35.4 percent in the month under review.

The bureau said the January 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of “0.98% points when compared to the December 2023 headline inflation rate”.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.08% points higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2023, which was 21.82%,” the report reads.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in January 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., January 2023).

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in January 2024 was 2.64%, which was 0.35% higher than the rate recorded in December 2023 (2.29%).”

According to the NBS, this means that in January 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is more than the rate of increase in the average price level in December 2023.

FOOD INFLATION RATE ROSE TO 35.4 PERCENT

The NBS report also said the food inflation rate in January 2024 was 35.41 percent on a year-on-year basis — 11.1 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2023 (24.32 percent).

According to the bureau, the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, meat, and fruit.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in January 2024 was 3.21%, this was 0.49% higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2023 (2.72%),” the report said.

“The rise in the Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by a rise in the rate of increase in the average prices of Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers, Bread and Cereals, Fish, Meat, Tobacco, and Vegetable.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending January 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 28.91%, which was a 7.38% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in January 2023(21.53%).

The report also said Kogi, Kwara, and Rivers states spent more on food in January.

“In January 2024, Food inflation on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Kogi (44.18%), Kwara (40.87%), and Rivers (40.08%),” the NBS said.

On the other hand, Bauchi (28.83 percent), Adamawa (29.80 percent), and Kano (30.08 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on year-on-year basis.

The Cable

Mohammed Idris, minister of information, says the federal government may adopt state police to check the rising insecurity in the country.

Idris spoke on Thursday, after a meeting between President Bola Tinubu and the state governors, at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Addressing the press alongside Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau; Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna; and Sheriff Oborevwori, Delta governor; Idris said the president and governors have agreed on working out modalities for the concept.

The minister added that a series of meetings would take place to determine the workability of a decentralised police force.

He also said a committee has been set up to synthesise all that was discussed at the meeting.

RECURRING CONVERSATION

For decades, the idea of state policing in Nigeria has elicited mixed reactions from leaders and experts.

Nigeria runs a unitary, centralised police force with exclusive jurisdiction across the country — which is headed by an inspector-general of police (IGP).

State police would mean police units that are controlled by state governments and whose jurisdictions do not exceed state boundaries.

During his tenure, former President Muhammadu Buhari ruled out the state police option as solution to the country’s endemic security challenges.

Buhari said Nigerians should question why governors, who are at the forefront of the clamour for state police, have not given powers to local governments.

The former president said Nigeria can revert to the traditional rulers for recommendations, and approved N13.3 billion for the commencement of community policing instead.

However, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, said Nigeria needs state police to tackle insecurity.

Sani who has also been at the forefront of the clamour for the creation of state police, had said the country’s security challenges would not be solved without a decentralised police force.

The Cable

Central Bank of Nigeria has set a limit on foreign currency transfers from crude export proceeds by international oil companies to their parent firms, in its latest measure to improve dollar supply in the local currency market.

In a circular dated Feb. 14, the CBN said banks could in the first instance transfer a maximum of 50% of crude export proceeds to oil companies abroad.

They could then transfer the balance after 90 days of the deposit of the proceeds.

However, because international companies lend and borrow between themselves in a process known as "cash pooling", analysts expect the impact of the new rule to be marginal.

Africa's largest economy has been experiencing crippling dollar shortages that has pushed its currency to record lows, although central bank governor Olayemi Cardoso has said that dollar liquidity was improving.

The latest move is part of a series of central bank reforms aimed at boosting dollar liquidity which dried up in the aftermath of a previously low oil price in 2016 and then disruptions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, the naira fell to a record low of 1,606 to the dollar after the circular was made public. It later recovered to close at 1,476 naira, around the level on the unofficial parallel market.

The central bank said it wanted to ensure that foreign transfers are done with minimal impact on liquidity in the currency market while supporting oil firms to have easy access to their crude proceeds.

Cardoso has said the currency will adjust once rules for market participants are made clear.

Last week, the central bank hiked open market rates to draw investors to bills as inflation climbed to a nearly three-decade high and lagged behind the benchmark policy rate.

The bank has also scrapped caps on forex spreads on the interbank market.

Reuters

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will no longer allow cash for Business Travel Allowance (BTA) and Personal Travel Allowance (PTA).

All such allowances are to be issued in cards, the bank has announced.

It said that the new measure was part of efforts towards making such that only genuine travellers obtained BTA and PTA, going forward.

Vanguard

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has adjusted the foreign exchange rate for its tariffs and duties to N1,515 to a dollar.

The new rates were reflected on the single window trade portal of the federal government.

According to information on the portal, the NCS exchange rate has gone up by 59.15 percent or N563.15 to N1,515.09/$, as of Thursday — from the N951.94/$ it started February with.

On February 2, 2024, Customs had adjusted the exchange rate for calculating import duties from N951.941/$ to N1,356.883/$ — on February 3, it was raised to N1, 413.62/$.

Also, on February 10, 2024, the rate was increased to N1,417.635/$; on February 12, it was reviewed to N1, 444.56/$; and on February 14, the rate was raised to N1, 481.482/$.

According to the data, the latest adjustment is the sixth in February.

The import duties are being set according to the value of the dollar.

Checks by TheCable showed the average rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aligned with the duty rate displayed on the customs’ trade portal at the time of filing this report.

Customs had on February 4, 2024, said its exchange rates for cargo clearing are based on the recommendation of the CBN.

NCS said it does not engage in arbitrary increases or decreases in exchange rates.

Meanwhile, with the latest adjustment, importers and manufacturers who rely on the country’s seaport to bring in essential production materials will be required to pay a higher amount to facilitate clearance of their goods by customs.

The Cable

Israeli forces storm the main hospital in southern Gaza, saying hostages were likely held there

Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex. The Israeli army said it was seeking the remains of hostages taken by Hamas.

The raid on Nasser Hospital came after troops had besieged the facility for nearly a week, with hundreds of staff, patients and others inside struggling under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, including food and water. A day earlier, the army ordered thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter there to leave the hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the focus of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in recent weeks.

The war shows no sign of ending, and the risk of a broader conflict grew as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group stepped up attacks after a particularly deadly exchange on Wednesday.

The military said it had “credible intelligence” that Hamas had held hostages at Nasser Hospital and that the hostages’ remains might still be inside. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said forces were conducting a “precise and limited” operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.

A released hostage told The Associated Press last month that she and over two dozen other captives had been held in Nasser Hospital. International law prohibits the targeting of medical facilities; they can lose those protections if they are used for military purposes, though operations against them still must be proportional to any threat.

As troops searched hospital buildings, they ordered the more than 460 staff, patients and their relatives to move into an older building in the compound that isn’t equipped to treat patients, the Gaza Health Ministry said. They were “in harsh conditions with no food or baby formula” and severe water shortages, it said.

Six patients were left in intensive care, along with three infants in incubators with no staff to attend to them. The ministry said fuel for generators would soon run out, endangering their lives.

Separately, Israel launched airstrikes into southern Lebanon for a second day after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded several others.

It was the deadliest exchange of fire along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel and Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas — have traded fire on a daily basis, raising the risks of a broader conflict.

Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket attack. Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior member of the group, said it is “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”

Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, meanwhile, appear to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the militants’ Oct. 7 attack are freed.

SCENES OF PANIC IN HOSPITAL

Nasser Hospital has been the latest focus of Israeli military operations that have gutted Gaza’s health sector as it struggles to treat a constant stream of people wounded in daily bombardments.

Israeli troops, tanks and snipers have surrounded the hospital for at least a week, and fire from outside has recently killed several people inside, according to health officials.

“There’s no water, no food. Garbage is everywhere. Sewage has flooded the emergency ward,” said Raed Abed, a wounded patient who was among those who left Nasser Hospital on Israeli orders Wednesday.

Still suffering from a severe stomach wound, Abed said he initially collapsed as he got out of his hospital bed and tried to leave. He then waited outside for hours as troops made those leaving pass by five at a time, arresting some and making them strip to their underwear, he said. Finally, he walked for miles until he reached the border town of Rafah, where he was put in a hospital. Lying in a bed there, he wheezed in pain from his wound as he spoke.

Overnight, a strike slammed into one of Nasser Hospital’s wards, killing one patient and wounding six others, Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of the remaining surgeons there, told the AP.

Video showed medics scrambling to move patients down a corridor filled with smoke or dust, while in a dark room a wounded man screamed in pain as gunfire echoed outside.

“The situation is escalating every hour and every minute,” Alserr said.

The international aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French language acronym MSF, said its staff had to flee the hospital on Thursday, leaving patients behind, and that one staffer was detained at an Israeli checkpoint just outside the facility.

Hours after troops entered the hospital, military spokesman Hagari said they were still conducting searches. He said dozens of militants were arrested from the hospital grounds, including three who participated in the Oct. 7 attack. He also said troops found grenades and mortar shells, and that Israeli radar determined that militants fired mortars from the hospital grounds a month ago.

NO END IN SIGHT TO THE WAR

The war began when Hamas militants on Oct. 7 burst out of Gaza and attacked several Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. More than 100 captives were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Around 130 captives remain in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be dead. Netanyahu has come under intense pressure from hostages’ families and the wider public to make a deal to secure their freedom, but his far-right coalition partners could bring down his government if he is seen as being too soft on Hamas. Dozens of hostages’ relatives protested and blocked traffic Thursday outside the military’s headquarters, where the War Cabinet also meets.

Israel responded to the Hamas attack with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

At least 28,663 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 68,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Some 80% of the population has been driven from their homes, and a quarter are starving amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. Large areas in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, have been completely destroyed.

Israeli media reported that CIA Director William Burns flew to Israel to meet with Netanyahu to discuss efforts for a cease-fire.

Hamas says it will not release all the remaining captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws and frees Palestinian prisoners, including top militants.

Netanyahu has rejected those demands and says Israel will soon expand its offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Over half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere.

Airstrikes late Wednesday in central Gaza killed at least 11 people, including four children and five women, according to hospital records. Relatives gathered around bodies wrapped in white shrouds outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah before the remains were placed in a truck to be taken for burial.

One man struggled to let go, lying down and holding one of the bodies on the truck as he wept.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine withdraws units from parts of Avdiivka, sends in crack brigade

Ukraine said on Thursday it was withdrawing troops from some parts of the eastern town of Avdiivka to better positions after months of heavy fighting, and battle-hardened reserve fighters from a crack brigade have joined the battle.

Russia is trying to encircle and capture Avdiivka nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv's foothold in the town appears increasingly shaky, with its supply lines threatened.

Capturing Avdiivka is key to Russia's aim of securing full control of the two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas region, and could hand President Vladimir Putin a battlefield victory to hold up to voters as he seeks re-election next month.

"In Avdiivka a manoeuvre is underway in some places to withdraw our units to more advantageous positions, in some places to force (the Russians) out of positions," Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said in televised comments.

"Therefore the key announcement with regards to all this is that supplies to Avdiivka and evacuations from there are difficult."

He said the military had activated a "reserve logistics artery" that had been prepared in advance.

"The situation on the front - Avdiivka, the east in general. We are doing everything possible to ensure that our soldiers have sufficient managerial and technological capabilities to preserve as many Ukrainian lives as possible," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

One of Ukraine's most prominent fighting units, the Third Assault Brigade, said it had been rushed to Avdiivka to reinforce Kyiv's troops there.

The brigade, which comprises assault infantry, said the situation in Avdiivkawas "hell" and "threatening and unstable", but that it had conducted a raid against Russian forces in parts of the town and inflicted heavy casualties.

Reuters could not independently verify the statements.

The brigade took part in a counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine last summer and fought in the battle of Bakhmut, another town in eastern Ukraine that held out for many months before being captured last May.

"The enemy is continuing the active rotation of its troops (around Avdiivka) and is deploying new forces and equipment to the town," the brigade said on the Telegram messenger.

"The situation at the moment the brigade was brought in was extremely critical."

The unit's deputy commander, Maksym Zhorin, said the fighting was much fiercer than the battle of Bakhmut and that Kyiv's forces were outnumbered and outgunned in Avdiivka.

UKRAINE FACES MILITARY CHALLENGES

Russian forces have been trying to advance on the town since October and have surrounded it on three sides, leaving limited resupply routes for the Ukrainian troops dug in there.

Lykhoviy said Russia had concentrated around 50,000 troops on the Avdiivka front, and fighting in the city involved Russian tactical assault groups that were small but growing in size.

"Armoured groups in the form of tanks and other armoured vehicles are joining them," he said.

Ukraine's war effort is facing big challenges and uncertainty over the future of U.S. military assistance.

Tired troops, some of whom have been fighting for almost two years and are deployed along a sprawling 1,000-km (620-mile) front, are facing critical shortages of artillery rounds.

Zelenskiy replaced his popular army chief last week and is set this week to visit France and Germany, where he is likely to seek support for urgent new military assistance.

Avdiivka, where fewer than 1,000 residents are left of a pre-war population of 32,000, lies just north of the Russian-held bastion of Donetsk which Ukraine lost control of in 2014 when Moscow's proxies began an uprising.

The town has a vast coking plant that has stopped functioning during the war.

Both sides see Avdiivka as key to Russia gaining full control of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces and as a gateway to Donetsk city, residential areas of which have been shelled by Ukraine, sometimes from Avdiivka, Russian officials say.

** Three civilians killed in Russian airstrike on Kharkiv region - governor

A Russian airstrike killed at least three people and injured two more in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on Thursday, local governor Oleh Sinehubov said.

Two bombs hit a car carrying civilians and set a residential building on fire, Sinehubov said. He posted several photographs of a badly damaged burning building and a wrecked car.

Reuters could not independently verify the report or images.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched against its neighbour in February 2022.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces strike Ukrainian aircraft engine-, ammo-producing plants over past day

Russian forces delivered a combined strike against Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises rolling out aircraft engines and mortar ammunition over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"In the morning, the Russian Armed Forces delivered a combined strike by airborne and seaborne long-range precision weapons against Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises engaged in the production and repairs of aircraft engines, radio-electronic and communications equipment and mortar ammunition, and also against the factories producing fuel for the Ukrainian army’s military hardware. The goal of the strike was achieved. All the targets were destroyed," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian forces destroy more than 100 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area over past day

Russian forces destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian troops, a multiple rocket launcher and two artillery guns in the Kupyansk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, units of the western battlegroup inflicted damage on enemy manpower and equipment in areas near the settlements of Berestovoye and Peschanoye in the Kharkov Region and Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic and repelled an attack by an assault group of the 30th mechanized brigade near the settlement of Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region. The Ukrainian army’s losses amounted to 105 personnel, three motor vehicles, a Grad multiple launch rocket system, a French-made Caesar self-propelled artillery system and a Gvozdika motorized artillery gun," the ministry said.

Ukraine’s army loses 305 troops in Krasny Liman area over past day

The Ukrainian military lost roughly 305 troops and 15 armored vehicles in the Krasny Liman area over the past day, the ministry reported.

Units of Russia’s battlegroup Center improved their forward edge positions and repulsed two attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 60th and 63rd mechanized brigades near the settlements of Yampolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic in the Krasny Liman direction over the past 24 hours, the ministry specified.

"The enemy’s losses amounted to 305 personnel, 15 armored combat vehicles, including a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, 14 motor vehicles, a Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery gun and a D-30 howitzer," the ministry said.

Russian forces repulse 10 Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk area over past day

Russian forces repulsed ten Ukrainian army attacks and kept improving their positions in the Donetsk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"In the Donetsk direction, units of the southern battlegroup gained more advantageous frontiers and positions, repulsed 10 enemy attacks and inflicted damage on the personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 17th tank, 79th air assault, 72nd mechanized and 112th territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Krasnoye, Kleshcheyevka, Kurdyumovka, Leninskoye, Konstantinovka and Paraskoviyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

Kiev suffers 360 casualties in Donetsk area over past day

Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Donetsk area, killing and wounding roughly 360 enemy troops and destroying a US-made Bradley combat vehicle over the past day, the ministry reported.

"The Ukrainian army lost as many as 360 troops, a tank, three armored combat vehicles, including a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, and also 27 motor vehicles. In counter-battery fire, the following targets were destroyed: a Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system, two US-made M777 artillery systems, an FH70 howitzer and an L119 howitzer of UK manufacture, a Msta-B howitzer, a D-30 howitzer and three D-20 howitzers," the ministry said.

Russian forces strike four Ukrainian army brigades in south Donetsk area over past day

Russian forces struck four Ukrainian army brigades in the south Donetsk area, eliminating roughly 200 enemy troops over the past day, the ministry reported.

"In the south Donetsk direction, units of the battlegroup East inflicted damage on the personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 58th infantry, 72nd mechanized, 128th and 127th territorial defense brigades near the settlements of Vodyanoye, Vladimirovka and Urozhainoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Priyutnoye in the Zaporozhye Region. The Ukrainian army lost as many as 200 personnel, a tank, two infantry fighting vehicles and eight motor vehicles," the ministry said.

In counter-battery fire, Russian forces destroyed a UK-made FH70 howitzer, two US-manufactured M198 howitzers and a Gvozdika motorized artillery system, the ministry specified.

Russian forces strike two Ukrainian army brigades in Kherson area over past day

Russian forces inflicted damage on two Ukrainian army brigades in the Kherson area, eliminating roughly 20 enemy troops and a US-made artillery system over the past day, the ministry reported.

"In the Kherson direction, Russian air strikes and artillery fire inflicted damage on the personnel and equipment of the [Ukrainian army’s] 35th marine infantry brigade and 126th territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Tyaginka, Ivanovka and Yantarnoye in the Kherson Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the Kherson direction over the last 24 hours amounted to 20 personnel, two motor vehicles, a US-made M777 artillery system and a D-30 howitzer, the ministry specified.

Russian air defenses down Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet near Kramatorsk

Russian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet near Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Air defense capabilities shot down a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 aircraft near the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

Russian air defenses down 95 Ukrainian UAVs over past day

Russian air defense forces intercepted eight rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and an American JDAM smart bomb and destroyed 95 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Over the last 24 hours, air defense capabilities intercepted eight rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and a JDAM air guided bomb of US manufacture. In addition, they destroyed 95 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Zhitlovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Soledar, Volnovakha and Yelenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lyubimovka, Inzhenernoye, Pologi and Ocheretovatoye in the Zaporozhye Region and Velikiye Kopani in the Kherson Region," the ministry said.

Russian forces strike Ukrainian troops in more than 100 areas over past day

Russian forces inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army’s personnel and military hardware in more than 100 areas over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Operational/tactical aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of Russian groupings of forces struck a command post of the Ukrainian army’s 72nd mechanized brigade, and also manpower and military equipment in 102 areas," the ministry said.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 571 warplanes, 266 helicopters, 12,485 unmanned aerial vehicles, 469 surface-to-air missile systems, 15,056 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,221 multiple rocket launchers, 8,061 field artillery guns and mortars and 18,729 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation, the ministry reported.

Reuters/Tass

I was going through some old files in my closet the other day when I saw some documents and receipts that absolutely cracked me up. Among the browning, time-worn papers was the receipt from a private primary school for the payment of my first daughter’s fees. 

It was a middle-class school that charged N5,000 naira per term. Attached to the fading receipt was a thank you note by the bursar. I rocked with laughter. This was in 1995 when, after nearly seven years of working, my monthly salary was around 60k or so. I will not forget how my mother reacted when she found out how much I was paying for her granddaughter’s termly fees. “Did your university tuition cost that much?”, she asked despairingly. 

Of course, it did, but not by a lot. As I held that rusty receipt in my hand on that day, the shock and despair in my mother’s face about how prices had gone up and how things had changed, for the worse, flooded my mind. 

Yet, within three decades of my mother showing concern, the joke was on me. By this time, it was no longer a laughing matter.

“Ilu le o…!” 

I had somehow managed to find out how much my daughter was paying for my granddaughter’s school fees in a school certainly more upscale than the one she attended, but by my reckoning, unlikely to be among the A-List schools in her part of town. 

What she was paying for my granddaughter’s kindergarten per term was roughly ten times my salary after seven years of working. I couldn’t help wondering what my mother would have said or done if she had lived to see the school fees of her great-granddaughter, a kid enrolled barely out of her diapers! And this was only three years ago.

Many things in the old files in my closet reminded me of how the times are changing. When I think of Victor Olaiya’s famous highlife song, “Ilu le o!” (literally meaning, Country hard!) released over 40 years ago which was supposed to have captured the misery of men and women complaining about the hard times, I wonder exactly what the moaning was about. 

Nuts for the rich

A few days ago, I had a conversation with my local cashew nut seller. I had been buying cashew nuts from her since when a bottle cost N800, which was not up to four years ago. Slowly, but steadily, the price climbed to N1,000, then N1,200, then N1,500 and before you could say, “cashew,” it became N4,000 per bottle – roughly the cost of my daughter’s one-term school fee in the late 1990s.

How do you buy a bottle of nuts for N4,000? Perhaps because I drive a big car – which is a Tokunbo, by the way – the nut seller thought she had me hooked; that I should be able to afford the nut, whatever the price. Well, she was mistaken and I told her so. Of course, she pleaded that it was not her fault that it was – you guessed right – the exchange rate! Dollar or not, I won’t buy cashew nuts now priced as luxury items. 

Of course, I know about the fiber, protein and healthy fats that come from cashew nuts, not to mention blood sugar control, heart health and weight loss. But at 72.5kg, and with the gift of a stature that can eat both pounded yam and mortar without them showing, why should I lose sleep over weight? Whatever cashew nut offers, especially in fiber, I will get from sweet potatoes.

But cashew nuts are not the whole story of this cost-of-living crisis. Even potatoes have doubled in price. According to a BBC report, prices in Nigeria are rising at their fastest rates ever in the last 30 years.

This was how the BBC report described it: “A standard 50kg bag of rice, which could help feed a household of between eight and 10 for about a month, now costs N77,000,” that is, about double the price last December. The prices of other staples such as beans, garri, maize and millet have also gone up, costing the average worker two months’ minimum wage for a bag.

Portion control 

Portion control was a frequent point of argument in my house. It’s a problem with men, of course, but it’s worse with African women brought up to believe that the proof of spousal care is in the size of the husband’s weight, measured by the amount of food on his plate. It's considered taboo in many places, especially in the South of Nigeria, for example, for a man’s plate of soup to have only one piece of meat or fish. Or for his dough, famously called swallow, to appear miserly. 

This well-intended culture of culinary excess is captured in Chinua Achebe’s Things fall apart, where the story is told of a wealthy man who gave a feast at which guests on one side of the table did not see those on the other side from morning until night when they managed to level the mountain of food set before them during the new yam festival. 

If, however, Okonkwo’s guests were living in today’s Nigeria, where a sachet of water in a 50cl plastic bag costs N20, more than twice the price last year, they would be lucky to find enough water to drink after a meal of afafata, chaff of rice grain, which is now a staple in parts of Northern Nigeria.

My point about portion control is that after years of struggling to convince my wife, and often the female domestic staff, that measurements and smaller food portions, including far fewer pieces of protein in my meals don’t mean lack of care, the cost-of-living crisis is finally driving the point home! 

As for other things such as the cost of petrol and other energy costs, which increased by 216 percent from N195 per litre after the removal of subsidy last May, I threatened to buy a bicycle to augment my transportation cost before a concerned staff warned me of the risk of cycling nearly 15 kilometres to work across two major highways.

There is, however, one area of adjustment, which after futilely struggling to contain without luck, I have decided to seek “divine intervention”, as we say: my BP medication. In a country where less than five percent of the population have health insurance and the rest pay out-of-pocket for treatment, persons with underlying medical conditions have been badly hit by the current inflation rate of 28.9 percent.

It's not a laughing matter. Last year, for example, a packet of Co-Diovan 80/12.5mgs, my recommended BP management medicine, cost about N8,000. Now, it is N24,000 and still rising for the same packet which lasts 28 days.

Trouble in the world 

Of course, it’s not a uniquely Nigerian problem. From New Zealand to Nepal, countries 

around the world have been battling with a serious cost-of-living crisis. This crisis is a combination of factors ranging from Covid-19 and the supply chain problems that followed, to the war in Ukraine and extreme climate changes across the world. 

In fact, Nigeria is not listed among the 10 African countries with the highest cost of living, a list that features Senegal at the top, with others such as Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cameroon and Kenya, among others. 

Just like economic problems imitate physical diseases, countries with underlying structural problems have been the worst hit. The difference from place to place, however, has been in how leaders repaired trust and mobilised resources in response. 

President Bola Tinubu campaigned for his current job knowing full well there won’t be a honeymoon from day one. I’ll need to file something urgently in my closet that my granddaughter might see someday to show that my vote for him was not a mistake.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Britain’s decline over the past 25 years has been staggeringly rapid. Almost everything is getting worse, and almost nothing is getting better. Our public and private institutions are broken, presided over by an incompetent, selfish and narcissistic ruling class. Living standards, when adjusted properly for living and property costs, are declining.

Even the simplest things don’t work any longer. Queuing, scarcity and congestion are rife, our infrastructure is embarrassingly poor, and the honest and hardworking face endless bureaucratic battles to obtain what they are due. Free riding, crime, disorder, fraud, littering and generalised rule-bending are rife, and all too often tolerated by apathetic citizens and an indifferent state. Britain’s residual virtues, our individualism, independence of mind, tolerance and openness, uniquely appealing features of our national character, are fading. 

Like a frog in boiling water, few saw the full scale of the decline coming until it was too late, and those who did were ridiculed by the bien-pensant. Yet even in 2024, when millions now realise that Britain is on the wrong track, there is no hope of meaningful improvement. The Tories have been abysmal, but Labour will be even worse: Keir Starmer will double down on the social-democratic and culturally nihilistic policies tested to destruction by the Conservatives.

In the 2000s, Britain had a particular idea of itself: a country of post-Thatcherite property-owners which reconciled modernity and tradition, globalisation and national self-determination, low-tax dynamism and fairness, where you didn’t need IDs to vote, where MPs weren’t attacked by screaming mobs, and where, finally, racism was increasingly a thing of the past. We saw ourselves as a socially mobile, law-abiding land of high trust, low corruption, the rule of law, improving race relations and religious toleration: a uniquely open society and a model to the Western world. 

Such a vision is now largely obsolete. An Englishman’s home was his castle, making a huge difference to our national psyche, until our deliberate policy of rationing new housing at a time of mass immigration robbed the under-40s of the chance of owning anything of their own. “This is a free country”, we used to maintain when presented with another idiotic proposal to control us, but that too is over, killed off by the woke war on free speech, the jailing of Christian preachers, the sugar tax, the surveillance society and the Covid lockdowns. 

In narrow GDP growth terms, we continue to outperform the true laggards on the continent, as Brexiteers correctly predicted, but that should be no consolation. Our manufacturing sector is being priced out of global markets by the rush to net zero, our energy policy is a hideous farce, our misregulated City is in decline, and our tax system an absurd conspiracy against hard work and merit, with marginal tax rates back at 1970s levels for some. 

The socialist NHS, despite massive increases in funding, is a horror show, and one of the main reasons not to live in the UK. Some 5.6 million adults are on out-of-work benefits, and yet immigration is running at extraordinary levels. Our Armed Forces have been slashed, and are now being subject to a woke takeover. 

Yet while all of these instances of national enfeeblement are tragic, they pale in comparison with the most terrifying regression of them all. We thought that we had progressed decisively as a society, that we had vanquished racism and religious discrimination, that the institutions of our liberal state would prevent a minority from facing persecution, and that our ruling class would never allow any subset of the population to be openly hated and othered again. 

How wrong we were. That anti-Semitism, the oldest of hatreds, is back on the streets and screens of Britain, is terrifying enough; but the fact that this explosion of prejudice is being treated in such a cavalier fashion by the authorities and the mainstream broadcast media – and in some cases is even being rationalised and normalised – is a catastrophic development that casts doubt about Britain’s very future. 

This is the worst moment for Britain’s Jews since the pogroms that disgraced Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester in the summer of 1947. The double-standards, the never ending “pro-Palestine” marches that are inevitably marred by egregious, open, anti-Semitism and evil slogans, the bullying, the victim blaming, the spreading of fake news, the wilful, blatant lies and denialism of Hamas’s atrocities, the obsessive interest in, and delegitimisation, of Israel, a state that accounts for just 0.25 per cent of the Middle East’s landmass, is its only multi-religious democracy and which is fighting for survival against neighbours that reject its very existence, stink of a replay of the 1930s. 

The return of anti-Semitism is not just an existential threat to Britain’s tiny, 292,000-strong Jewish community, but a damning indictment of a Britain that is regressing into darkness. As Lord Sacks put it in 2016, “the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews … the appearance of anti-Semitism in a culture is the first symptom of a disease, the early warning sign of collective breakdown.” 

Already a non-Jewish MP has resigned out of fear for his own safety. Traditional British democratic norms are being upended by far-Left and Islamist extremists. Cranks, conspiracy theorists and racists appear to have entered mainstream politics in significant numbers, and many seem attracted by the Labour Party. 

Anti-Semites never just target Jews. They are full-service, equal opportunity bigots who oppress and impoverish and destroy all that they touch, and despise freedom and human flourishing. 

Starmer is genuinely committed to fighting anti-Semitism, but he has proved unforgivably slow in his attempts at rooting out prejudice in recent days. He rightly purged the Corbynites, but the rot in his party evidently goes far deeper, having contaminated even “centrist” or “Right-wing” circles. Some in his party are seeking votes among far-Left and Islamist extremists: a morally righteous party would announce that they are not interested in such voters, and terminate all relevant candidates, even if such a stance costs them power.

In the absence of such a step, we face the prospect of many new Labour MPs being, at the very least, soft on anti-Semitism. The Tories have failed, but Labour will be infinitely worse. Britain is hanging on by a thread.

The Telegraph