Nigeria, Syria, China.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jan 09, 2023

Nigeria

Nigerian security forces today rescued six of 32 people who were kidnapped by armed men at a train station in the south of the country, local officials said. Station staff and passengers were snatched on Saturday by a large group of men carrying AK-47s who then took them into a nearby forest. Nigeria has seen a spate of such kidnappings in recent years, most often for ransom, but they usually take place in the northwest. The attack will be latest to pile pressure on the government ahead of a presidential election next month in which spiralling insecurity across the country will be a major issue. Nigeria is grappling with Boko Haram and ISIS-affiliated armed groups in the northeast, rampant criminal gangs in the northwest, separatists in the southeast, and often deadly clashes between farmers and nomadic herders in the central states.

Syria

As mentioned in Proximities a few days ago, the future of the only aid route into the last opposition-held parts of Syria was hanging in the balance ahead of a vote at the UN Security Council. Today, good news. The Council voted unanimously to keep the route open for another six months. The ease with which the vote passed surprised many because Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, supported it. Moscow has in the past abstained or vetoed resolutions on the cross-border aid deliveries. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia described the decision to support the resolution as “difficult” and said the opposition territory was “inundated with terrorists.”

China

A staggering statistic out of China. Nearly 90% of people in the Henan province, which amounts to about 88.5 million people, have been infected with Covid-19. The figures were revealed by a provincial official at a news conference and contrast starkly with statistics released by the central government, which appear to have significantly downplayed the number of infections. China abandoned its strict “zero-Covid” policies in December after protests against lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing erupted across the country, and it has been battling a surge in cases since.