Nigeria, Ethiopia, Middle East.

Today's three stories you should know.

May 23, 2022

Nigeria

A grisly story out of Nigeria. The severed head of missing state legislator Okechukwu Okoye, who went missing on May 1, has been found in a local park. Okechukwu was a lawmaker in the southeastern state of Anambra, where the government has accused the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra rebel group of carrying out a spate of killings in recent weeks, including beheading two soldiers earlier this month. IPOB has denied the accusations. The situation in the southeast is just one in a series of tough security challenges for the government, which is struggling with a kidnapping crisis in the northwest and an insurgency from Islamist groups in the northeast.

Ethiopia

An Ethiopian media outlet based in the US today said four of its journalists have been arrested in the country and the whereabouts of two others is unclear. Nisir International Broadcasting said its staff were detained in the Amhara region, which is the focus of its reporting. Five journalists for another Amhara-focused news organization were arrested last Thursday, according to colleagues. Ethiopia has been rocked by a brutal civil war for more than 18 months, and forces from the Amhara region have played a key part in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s battle against rebels in the neighboring Tigray region. Some Amhara leaders, though, have recently criticised Abiy’s handling of the conflict and a local general was arrested last week.

Middle East

Huge dust storms today descended on several countries in the Middle East - including Iraq, Kuwait, Syria and Iran - covering them in thick orange clouds that put hundreds of people in hospital with respiratory problems. Terrifying images spread on social media that showed giant walls of sand and grit moving quickly into cities and towns. While dust storms are not uncommon in the region, there has been a deluge of back-to-back storms in recent months, alarming experts who blame it on climate change.