Abba Kyari, President Muhammadu Buhari's chief of staff, has tested positive for coronavirus following a trip to Germany and Egypt, according to Nigerian media. So, too, have at least three of his staffers. Nigerian media describes Kyari as "very sick," and that he has been removed from Abuja to an infectious disease treatment center in Lagos.

Conflicts in northwest Nigeria over access to minerals—especially gold—are heating up. Illicit mining also causes environmental damage, thus exacerbating land and water shortages that cause further conflict.

The Nigerian police recently rescued some three hundred men and boys, many of them chained, from a purported Islamic school in Kaduna, according to Reuters. Some of the victims said that their parents had brought them to the building thinking it was an Islamic school in the almajiri tradition, but there is apparently no indication that the building ever was, in fact, a school.

This is a guest post by Jim Sanders, a career, now retired, West Africa watcher for various federal agencies. The views expressed below are his personal views and do not reflect those of his former e…