Pocket News Nigeria

 Nigeria Ranked World’s Worst Hunger Crisis in 2026 With More Than 31.8 Million People in Acute Food Insecurity Nigeria has been ranked the worst hunger crisis in the world, according to the newly released “10 Global Hunger Hot Spots 2026” report by Action Against Hunger. The report confirms that 31.8 million Nigerians are facing acute food insecurity classified as IPC Phase 3 and above, the highest number recorded globally. Of that figure, 30.8 million people are in Crisis, while 1 million are in Emergency conditions. Analysts warn that conditions in inaccessible conflict zones could be worse than officially reported. The malnutrition data is severe. Nearly 5.4 million children under five are suffering acute malnutrition. This includes 1.8 million cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition and 3.7 million cases of Moderate Acute Malnutrition. An additional 787,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are severely malnourished. The report links the crisis to prolonged insurgency in...

Culled From AL- JAZEERA  ‘Holding hands’: How Nigeria turned Trump’s threats to military partnership In early November, a social media post by United States President Donald Trump set off alarm bells across Nigeria. The US “Department of War”, he said, was preparing to go into the West African country “guns-a-blazing” over what he claimed was the killing of Christians in Nigeria. Nigeria’s government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu swiftly hit back, rejecting the claims, saying that while the country faced a challenging security situation due to armed groups and banditry, it was untrue that Christians were specifically being targeted, as Muslim communities and traditional believers had also come under attack. But the Trump administration was not appeased. It had placed Nigeria on its “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) watchlist for religious freedom, and soon made threats of sanctions, cuts to financial aid, and punitive measures against Abuja for “failing” to pr...

OTA, Ogun State — In a dramatic departure from his recent period of political neutrality, the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Dr. David Oyedepo, has launched a scathing verbal assault on the President Bola Tinubu administration, declaring point-blank: “You are not doing well.” Speaking to a massive congregation at the Faith Tabernacle in Ota on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, the man popularly known as the “Prophet of Fire” shattered his three-year hiatus from national political commentary.  His outburst marks the first time since the 2023 elections that the cleric has publicly and frontally challenged the current government’s performance. The “You Are Not Doing Well” Verdict Bishop Oyedepo’s remarks were triggered by what he described as an attempt by the political class to “bamboozle” Nigerians into silence despite the biting economic hardship and widespread insecurity. “You are not doing well, you are not doing well. They must tell you that you’re no...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist, Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 84. "Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.” Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that “our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices” and paid tribute to a man who “carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice.” "Reverend Jackson stood wherever dignity was under attack, from apartheid abroad to injustice at home. His voice echoed in boardrooms and in jail cells. His presence shifted rooms. His faith neve...

Reuters The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries. The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold negotiations with Iran on Tuesday in Geneva, with representatives from Oman acting as mediators. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned on Saturday that while Trump's preference was to reach a deal with Tehran, "that’s very hard to do." Meanwhile, Trump has amassed military forces in the region, raising fears of new military action. U.S. officials said on Friday the Pentagon was sending an additional aircraft carrier to the Middle East,...

British investigative journalist for the Daily Mail, David Patrikarakos visits areas affected by Fulani insurgents in Plateau State Driving through the vast, scorched landscape, I hear the words that have followed me all day. ‘They roasted the pastor and his wife alive in the church. We heard their screams." Plateau State stretches to the horizon. Rich black soil that once grew cassava and sugar cane is now ash. Trees are encrusted with soot. Fields of maize that shone gold in the sun are grey and lifeless, stalk after stalk standing in formation like an army frozen in defeat. Bricks lie scattered in the scrub. Concrete blocks jut from the earth like jagged teeth. Roofs have collapsed inward. And then come the churches. Burned-out shell after burned-out shell. Crosses broken. Windows blown through. One has been gutted by fire, another reduced to rubble. It’s as though someone has tried to erase every visible sign of Christianity from this land For more than two decades...