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Nigerian govt mum after Egyptian policemen framed citizen for sexual assault in Cairo

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Many weeks after Egyptian policemen harassed and framed Nigerian cleric Rev Dr Israel Kristilere for sexual assault at Cairo International Airport, neither the government nor its concerned agencies has deemed it necessary to speak on the dehumanising development.

The silence of the Nigerian authorities according to observers of the incident goes a long way to show the value the government places on its citizens. For the observers, the choice of the Nigerian government to ignore the Egyptian officials’ condemnable action could make other countries mete out worse treatment to the citizens.

As of the time of filing this report, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry is yet to comment on the development.

The Nigeria In Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) which was quick to jump on the case of the citizens trafficked to Ghana has also not seen any good reason to comment on the incident probably because it hasn’t generated so much public attention it could latch on to to win cheap applause from the public.

The predicament of the Nigerian cleric is narrated below:

Rev Dr Israel Kristilere, the Senior Pastor of SheperdHill Baptist Church Obanikoro Lagos and CEO of Oasis of Faith Intercontinental Limited, a private Christian pilgrimage company in a viral video in a viral video last week told about how Egyptian policemen framed him up for sexual assault at Cairo International Airport while waiting to board a plane to Amman.

Reliving his experience in the viral video, Reverend Kristilere said:

“I had a very traumatic experience at Cairo International Airport on April 30, 2024. I left Lagos for Amman through Egypt Airlines with a group of 28 pilgrims and we had a stopover for four hours in Cairo before we boarded the second leg from Cairo to Amman,” he said as he began reliving hi ordeal in the video.

“I took all our pilgrims o our connecting Gate H2 around 9pm. And having sent them there, myself and another woman on the trip who are flying business class left for the business class lounge. We were in that lounge until one hour before our next flight when I told her to let us go back to the gate since I saw the notification that the gate of our connecting flight was open.

On getting there, Rev Kristilere said, “I saw the pilgrims seated and not going through the gate’s security checks. I asked them why and they replied that they tried to but were asked to go back and sit down and allow others to go through the check first. I then went to the counter and asked a young man I saw there if they were not attending to Amman passengers yet and he confirmed that they were already doing that.

“So, I told all the pilgrims to rise up and let us go through the gate formalities to board our next flight. As we lined up to go through the formalities, I saw some policemen and some airport staff discussing. I wondered what they were talking about and initially I thought it was about our documentation or visa that they wanted to confirm.”

Police whisk cleric away

In the course of trying to get his people to be attended to, a team of police officers asked the reverend to step aside and allow others to go through the security check. “At that time, I told the other woman to wait for me while others can go through their security checks. So the policemen asked me to follow them to their office. At this time I still assumed that it had to do with our documentation. I had to bring out all the documents relating to our trip.

“They then took me to the office of the head of the police of the airport. Three police officers entered with me while about 12 others waited outside looking at us through the door which was left open.”

To his chagrin, the chief police officer asked “if I knew what offence I had committed. I wondered what the offence was and replied ‘I had not committed any offence.’ Then they brought a man in as an interpreter who told me in English that a lady had just accused me of sexual assault and that the punishment was a jail term and that I should be ready to go to jail.”

Shocked by the allegation, Rev Kristilere retorted “who, where, when and how? Then they pointed at a lady who decided to hide her face behind another lady when I tried to look at her direction. I told the interpreter ‘I’d never seen the lady talkless of talking with her. The police chief then said ‘in our country we belief the world of any woman as true and that means with or without evidence you are guilty’. He then said there was a video evidence. When I heard that there was a video evidence, I was relieved and I requested for the video evidence.

“He later said there was no need for video evidence because it will make me miss my flight unless I agreed to their offered solution. I made it clear that if they had any video evidence , they would not find me there because I had been at the business class lounge for three hours and I had an alibi among my pilgrims who was there with me in the lounge till we left for the gate.

“Then they said there was a witness and immediately, a young man came forward and stated that he was a witness to the assault. I asked where and when but there was no answer. The police chief then said since there was a witness, I would only go if I accepted the solution he would offer.”

Continuing, he said: “I asked what was the solution, he then said I must apologise to the lady in a way that she must accept. I then asked, how do I apologise for what I had not done. He insisted if I did not apologise I shall be charged to court. I then tried to look in the direction of the lady who was still hiding her face behind another lady and said ‘lady, I have never met you. I have no idea of what you are talking about but possibly someone else has attacked you and you mistook me for the person, nevertheless, sorry to you if you are offended anyway. But let it be known that I have no idea of what you are saying. The police chief then turned to a man who was said to be her boss if my apology was accepted and he said it was okay.”

Police demand signature on weird document

The plot to nail the reverend didn’t stop at asking him for apology. Thereafter, the police chief said he should follow him to another office and leave his hand luggage behind. “I objected to that idea by saying ‘I cannot leave my bag behind because the rule of every airport is that passengers must always be with their luggage. I cannot leave my luggage behind’.

Around this time, I began to discern that they were up to something. They were trying to look for every means to se me up. When we got to the other office, I was asked to wait outside when the police chief and other officers entered. At this time, I told myself that if these people should succeed, there was no way to free myself.

“I was totally isolated from my pilgrims who were supposed to be boarding the next flight. I could not understand their conversation which they were making in Arabic. I then picked up my phone, pressed the record button and kept the phone back in my pocket at least that would be my only evidence in the future. After a while, they invited me to the office and was asked to come and sign a document they had prepared in Arabic. I refused to sign because I told them ‘I did not know what they had written. That would be stupid of me as an educated person. They said if I did not sign, I would go to jail. They said it did not matter, that what they just wrote was a settlement. I still said no.

“To the glory of God, I have spent over 25 years of my life studying up to PhD level. I cannot sign what I do not know. The police chief then got angry and shouted me down and said ‘you will miss your flight and I will detain you and will charge you to court. I then said to him, if God says I will go to jail for an offence I did not commit, so be it but I will not sign unless I know what was written. Then the so called interpreter offered to read the content to my hearing and I told him I could not trust his reading. I insisted that I could only sign if they rewrite it in English.”

When they began to mount pressure on him, Rev Kristilere said: “I took the biro and wrote below the Arabic write up ‘ I do not know. I planned to write ‘I do not know what is written above but I am compelled to sign this document, therefore, I am not aware of the contents above’. But when the saw me writing, ‘I do not in English’ one of the officers snatched the biro from me and shouted me down. The police chief then insisted that if I didn’t sign I will miss my flight which should have taken off and they will detain me and charge me to court the following morning. Then, an idea came to my mind. Since I had succeeded in writing ‘I do not below the Arabic, it speaks volumes. I picked the biro again and wrote my surname. While doing that, a desk manager of the check in counter came in and talked to them in Arabic.

“After a long Like magic, they handed over my passport to me and asked him to take me to the aircraft. I did not understand the magic words that effected my release until I got to the tarmac. At the foot of the aircraft, I saw all my 27 pilgrims standing at the entrance of the aircraft. They had refused to board the plane unless their leader was released against all pleas and threats even from the pilot who told them he will take off without them. They refused to enter the aircraft unless their leader was released. Now I know that was my saving grace.

The refusal of the 27 persons who had already checked in to enter the plane frustrated their plot. That was the reporter that the desk manager brought to this syndicate at their airport. They would have succeeded if I were travelling alone. I wonder what they would have achieved if there were no people that I was travelling with. The would have succeeded in making me miss my flight and extorted me, I am still traumatised by that event, wondering what would have happened. What else would have happened if there were no other passenger with me. No doubt, this could have happened gto many other persons who would have been charged to court for wrong accusations or ending up being extorted by this syndicate in that airport.

Aside from his experience, the clergyman said: “Many people have also relived their experiences in some of these airports but I wouldn’t want to talk about that since I haven’t personally.

“In Cairo, they have done that to many people. A woman went with three children and the following dsy when she woke up they told her she had two children. They asked where she got the third one because they only had record of two children. The woman said I submitted passports of myself and my three children yesterday. They said no that she smuggled the third child. You can imagine all manners of schemes that these do just to extort. The Nigerian government should do something to stem the tide. They should let the Egyptians know we are not inferior to them.”

Following the incident, the reverend said: “Many of us who are private tour operators have decided to steer clear of Egypt Air going to Israel. We just had a conference here in Tel Aviv where the Lord Bishop Stephen Adegbite and other stakeholders have decided that none of us should take Egypt Air to Jordan or Israel.”

More than a month after the incident, he said the Egyptian authorities have not deemed it necessary to apologise for the despicable conduct of its officials.

“They have not apologised. Egypt Air has also not reached out. There is no way Egypt Air will say that they are not aware of what happened. They all acted as if nothing happened.

—

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Global powers fuel war as civilians die under drones, barrel bombs

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The question in Sudan is no longer whether the war has crossed every red line. It crossed them long ago.

The real question now is brutal and urgent: How many more crimes, how many more bodies must the world see before Sudanese blood is worth an independent international investigation?

The Chemical Bombs Dossier That Shook The World

In September 2026, the most damning case yet exploded into the open.

The Washington Post revealed it had reviewed about 150 documents, photographs, videos and audio recordings, plus thousands of messages, detailing alleged chemical weapons use by the Sudanese army.

The newspaper did not act alone. It enlisted more than 20 former intelligence officials and experts in chemical weapons and human rights to assess the material.

According to PMNewsnigeria.com, what they found was chilling: a programme to assemble chlorine-filled bombs, tests conducted in remote desert areas, a stockpile that reportedly reached 290 chemical munitions, messages referring to hundreds of bombs stored at Merowe Air Base and 106 of them already used.

Experts who examined the cache said the indications were strongly consistent with a chemical weapons programme, while stressing that definitive proof requires independent investigators to gain access to sites and witnesses.

That is precisely where international action should have started, not where the debate ended.

Sudan has been a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1999. Developing, stockpiling or using such weapons is not a footnote in a civil war. It is a violation of one of the clearest prohibitions in international law.

If the allegations are false, an investigation will expose that. If they are true, the Sudanese people and the world have the right to know who ordered, who manufactured, who stockpiled and who dropped these bombs.

Why has evidence of this scale not immediately triggered an independent international investigation under the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and other relevant institutions?

Why the silence?

El Fasher Is Not Beyond Justice

But chemical weapons are not the only horror demanding answers reports PMNewsnigeria.com.

El Fasher and Darfur have become the graveyard of civilian protection.

The region is under sustained, indiscriminate aerial bombardment involving advanced Turkish drones and barrel bombs dropped by Sudanese army transport aircraft on civilians without distinction.

These crimes cannot be mitigated or justified under any circumstances or by any party to the conflict.

The Sudanese Armed Forces themselves have used aircraft, aerial bombardment and drones in civilian areas, while human rights organisations have documented the bombing of residential and commercial areas in Darfur with unguided aerial bombs.

Sudan has witnessed a massive escalation in drone warfare. According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 civilians were killed by drone strikes between January and May 2026 alone, making such strikes one of the largest sources of civilian deaths in the war.

In Darfur, Antonov aircraft have been used in aerial bombardment operations, while UN and human rights documents reveal widespread use of weapons and barrel bombs in populated areas.

Drones have fundamentally altered the nature of the war. Research reports indicate that the Sudanese army possesses Iranian and Turkish systems, including the Iranian Mohajer-6 and Ababil, as well as Turkish Bayraktar systems, in addition to Turkish-Pakistani types, allowing air operations to extend over greater distances.

The problem is not the nationality of the weapon alone, but how it is used and who bears the cost of its continued flow.

A bomb is still a war crime when it falls on a market, whether it was built in Ankara or Tehran.

Who Is Arming This War?

Here, international silence becomes even more perplexing, even criminal.

The Sudanese war is no longer a purely Sudanese war. It has become an arena where regional and international networks of support and arms supplies intersect, fueling the slaughter.

International reports indicate that the army has received military and technical support from countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Iran.

This is not a call to hold one side accountable while exempting the other. Quite the opposite.

If foreign weapons reaching parties to the conflict and being used against civilians warrant investigation and accountability, then the weapons reaching the army must be subject to the same standard, added PMNewsnigeria.com.

There is no morally acceptable bomb because it was dropped by a side we favour, nor is there a legitimate drone because it came from an allied country.

When markets, hospitals and residential neighbourhoods are struck, the legal question is who targeted civilians and who provided them with the capacity to do so, not which political camp they belong to. Justice that pursues one crime while ignoring another is not justice.

A law that criminalises an adversary’s weapon while turning a blind eye to an ally’s weapon loses its meaning.

What Do Cairo, Ankara And Riyadh Know?

This is where the responsibility of countries with close ties to the Sudanese army comes into sharp focus.

Egypt has deep military and security cooperation with the army. Türkiye is linked by reports to the provision of technology and drone systems to it, while Saudi Arabia maintains close ties with the army leadership, although it took a notable position in April 2026 when it asked Pakistan to halt a $1.5 billion arms deal with Sudan and refused to finance it, following what was said to be US advice and warnings to Riyadh.

Does this mean that these countries are legally responsible for the army’s crimes? No.

But it imposes a question that cannot be evaded: What are these governments doing now that allegations of chemical weapons use have become public, and violations resulting from airstrikes and drone attacks have been internationally documented?

Moral and political responsibility does not begin only when a state’s involvement in a particular crime is proven. It also begins when an ally knows that weapons flowing into a war zone could be used amid civilians, yet support continues without guarantees, oversight or accountability.

If you know your drones may be used to bomb a hospital in Nyala and you keep supplying them, at what point do you share the guilt?

Why Is The World Silent?

This is the real question that haunts every Sudanese today.

How can the world speak of protecting civilians and then allow Sudan to become a laboratory for weapons and drones?

How can evidence on this scale emerge concerning the possible manufacture and use of a chemical weapon, while a comprehensive international investigation remains a demand rather than a reality?

And how can bombs fall on markets, hospitals and residential areas while arms and financing channels and political relationships continue as though nothing has happened?

Sudan does not need another local committee through which the authorities investigate themselves. It has had enough of that theatre.

Nor does it need more statements of concern from Geneva and New York. It needs action.

The Price Of Selective Justice

It needs an independent international investigation into the chemical weapons file, transparent investigations into air attacks, drone strikes and violations against civilians, and accountability for every party proven to be involved, regardless of its name, allies or supporters.

Scrutiny must also extend to the states, companies and intermediary networks supplying the parties to the war with weapons when there is evidence that they may be used in grave violations of international law.

The civilian killed in El Fasher, Nyala or Khartoum does not care whether the drone that killed him was Turkish or Iranian, nor whether the bomb was dropped by an Antonov or launched by another force.

What matters to him is that someone killed him, that someone armed the killer, and that there was a world watching the war expand and knowing the scale of the violations, yet failing to do enough to stop it.

That is justice at a price in Sudan: the problem is not merely the absence of evidence, but that the value of the evidence itself sometimes appears to be tied to the name of the accused, the identity of his allies, and the political cost of holding him accountable.

That is why the investigation must begin now, not against one side, nor in the service of one camp against another, but because the Sudanese person killed by chemical weapons, aerial bombardment or drones deserves the same standard of justice, regardless of the name of the person who pulled the trigger and regardless of the capital from which the aircraft, bomb or money came.

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Les autorités italiennes immobilisent un navire de sauvetage après avoir secouru 20 personnes

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Les autorités italiennes ont immobilisé pendant 15 jours le navire de recherche et de sauvetage Sea Punk I et lui ont infligé une amende de 7 500 euros après le sauvetage de 20 personnes dans les eaux internationales.

L’opération de sauvetage a eu lieu le jeudi 10 septembre 2026, près de la plateforme pétrolière de Bouri. L’équipage du navire a déclaré que l’opération avait été menée en coordination avec les autorités italiennes et conformément aux conventions applicables et aux réglementations internationales.

Les autorités ont invoqué le décret dit Piantedosi et accusé le capitaine de ne pas avoir suivi les instructions des garde-côtes libyens dits « garde-côtes libyens ». Le Sea Punk I est partenaire de l’alliance Justice Fleet, une coalition d’organisations civiles de recherche et de sauvetage et de leurs soutiens.

Selon Justice Fleet, cette immobilisation porte à plus de 310 le nombre total de jours pendant lesquels les autorités italiennes ont bloqué ses navires depuis la création de l’alliance, en novembre 2025. Le Sea Punk I est le 11e navire de Justice Fleet à être immobilisé.

Selon Justice Fleet, les organisations civiles de recherche et de sauvetage ont recensé près de 80 incidents de violences extrêmes commises par des milices libyennes depuis 2016, dont la plupart seraient attribués aux garde-côtes libyens dits « garde-côtes libyens ». Le groupe affirme également que plus de 27 000 personnes ayant fui la Libye y ont été renvoyées de force l’an dernier, en violation du droit international. Il indique que les réfugiés et les migrants présents dans le pays sont confrontés à une recrudescence des violences et à des menaces de mort.

« Alors que des violences extrêmes contre les personnes en déplacement sont actuellement en cours en Libye, les autorités italiennes veulent nous contraindre à coopérer avec les garde-côtes libyens dits “garde-côtes libyens”. Pas question ! », a déclaré Giulia Messmer, porte-parole de Justice Fleet, appelant à mettre fin à la coopération européenne avec cette force.

Justice Fleet a été fondée en novembre 2025 par 13 organisations de recherche et de sauvetage, avec le soutien de groupes de la société civile. L’alliance indique notamment vouloir contester l’immobilisation des navires de sauvetage en Italie et s’opposer à la sous-traitance du contrôle migratoire à des acteurs libyens.

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20 000 enfants arrivent en Europe sans parent ni tuteur

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De nouvelles données de l’ONU révèlent que, sur les 31 100 enfants qui ont atteint l’Europe l’an dernier en empruntant des routes migratoires mixtes, plus de 20 000 sont arrivés sans parent ni tuteur.

La Directrice générale de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), Amy Pope, a appelé à une coopération plus étroite entre les États européens et les pays situés le long des routes migratoires afin de protéger les enfants qui voyagent seuls et de lutter contre les réseaux de passeurs et les réseaux criminels qui s’en prennent à eux.

Les conclusions indiquent que la réduction des possibilités de déplacement sûr et tenant compte des besoins de protection le long de ces routes pourrait pousser les jeunes à entreprendre des voyages plus risqués, à dépendre davantage des passeurs et à être davantage exposés à la violence, à l’exploitation et aux mauvais traitements.

« Des enfants entreprennent des voyages difficiles et dangereux sans parent ni tuteur à leurs côtés, a déclaré Amy Pope, Directrice générale de l’OIM. Ce rapport montre à quel point ils sont exposés à la violence et à l’exploitation lorsque les voies sûres sont limitées et qu’ils doivent compter sur des passeurs. Aucun enfant ne devrait avoir à affronter ces risques seul. Nous avons la responsabilité commune d’agir par-delà les frontières pour les protéger, défendre leurs droits et leur apporter les soins et le soutien dont ils ont besoin. »

Le nombre total d’enfants arrivés par voie maritime ou terrestre en Bulgarie, à Chypre, en Grèce, en Italie, à Malte et en Espagne a diminué de 25 % par rapport à 2024. Parmi les enfants arrivés, 78 % étaient des garçons et 22 % des filles. Toutefois, la proportion d’enfants recensés comme non accompagnés est passée à 67 %, contre 51 % l’année précédente. Les proportions les plus élevées ont été enregistrées en Italie et en Espagne, où 86 % des enfants sont arrivés seuls.

L’Italie a fait exception à la tendance à la baisse. Le nombre total d’arrivées y est resté stable, mais celui des enfants a augmenté de 12 %, pour atteindre près de 14 100. La plupart venaient d’Égypte, d’Érythrée, de Somalie, du Bangladesh et d’Éthiopie.

Ces voyages sont dangereux. L’OIM a interrogé plus de 4 600 adolescents et jeunes adultes âgés de 15 à 24 ans le long des routes de la Méditerranée, de l’Atlantique ouest-africain et des Balkans occidentaux. Près de la moitié des personnes interrogées au sujet de leur expérience ont déclaré avoir subi des violences physiques. Sur la route de la Méditerranée centrale, 28 % ont indiqué avoir été retenues contre leur gré et 17 % avoir été contraintes de travailler. La Libye est restée le pays le plus souvent cité comme lieu de ces mauvais traitements.

Dans le même temps, les solutions de remplacement sûres se sont raréfiées. Les enfants représentaient la moitié des 6 800 personnes engagées dans des procédures de réinstallation de réfugiés vers l’Europe en 2025 : 3 400 enfants, contre 8 900 un an plus tôt. Par ailleurs, seuls 199 enfants ont été relocalisés entre États européens dans le cadre du mécanisme de solidarité volontaire, soit une baisse de 67 %, et aucun n’était non accompagné.

Au total, 214 600 enfants ont demandé une protection internationale en Europe en 2025, dont 79 % étaient des primo-demandeurs. Environ 71 % des premières demandes ont été déposées dans seulement quatre pays : l’Allemagne (30 %), la France (19 %), l’Espagne (15 %) et la Grèce (7 %). Sur les 210 900 décisions rendues en première instance concernant des demandes d’enfants, 56 % étaient positives, tandis que les rejets ont augmenté de 25 %.

L’OIM exhorte les États membres de l’Union européenne à placer l’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant au cœur de chaque décision, à garantir un accès rapide aux services et à ne jamais placer des enfants en détention pour des motifs liés à l’immigration. Les enfants non accompagnés et séparés de leur famille devraient avoir immédiatement accès à une représentation juridique. Les évaluations de l’âge devraient rester rares, être adaptées aux enfants et pouvoir faire l’objet d’un recours.

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