In a relatively positive development for Nigeria’s socio-economic (and public health) trajectory, telecommunications operator MTN provided Nigeria with an initial 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine. As per reports on 22 March, the initial vaccine consignment forms part of a wider 1.4 million vaccine donation by the telecommunications company, which has secured its largest market in Nigeria. The donation adds to the nearly 4 million vaccine doses Nigeria has received since the beginning of March as part of its membership in the global COVAX vaccine initiative. Despite the accessing of these vaccine doses, Nigeria has only inoculated around 200,000 citizens as of 25 March. At the current rate, it is expected that the country will fall well short of its stated ambitions to vaccinate around 70 percent of its estimated 200 million population by the end of 2022. This will render the country at a continued risk of facing a pervasive outbreak of coronavirus.
Apart from coronavirus, incidents of armed banditry continued to occur with regularity in north-western Nigeria over the review period. In a video message released on 13 March, armed bandits demanded USD 1.2 million for the release of a group of 39 student hostages. This comes after bandits attacked the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, located in the Igabi local government area of Kaduna state, on the evening of 11 March; the bandits abducted the students, who have since been transported to an undisclosed location. The incident marks the latest of its kind in which bandit groups have targeted school facilities in Kaduna, and the wider north-west region of Nigeria, in mass kidnappings. Hostages have been exchanged for significant ransom payments to these criminal organisations. In addition to school-going children, armed bandit groups are also thought to be behind the abductions of travellers and expatriates working and residing in north-western Nigeria.
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