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African press review 2 March 2015

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According to the Nigerian daily newspaper, Punch, there is a strong indication that the United Kingdom is withholding intelligence information about the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram last April.

According to the report, the British government claimed that revealing details of what it has discovered about the whereabouts of the abducted girls would damage its relationship with Nigeria and other allies.

The UK-based group, Security in Africa, has written to the British Ministry of Defence to request information on the Chibok girls.

One of the main stories in this morning's Nigerian Guardian concerns the shortage of fuel which suddenly hit major cities, especially Lagos and Abuja, at the weekend.

The Guardian blames the recently introduced foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank Nigeria for the shortage, saying that the new rules have prevented petroleum sellers from raising funds to pay for the importation of product.

It is reported that that only tankers belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and multinational companies are being loaded at the depot in Apapa.

The Guardian says petrol is selling for 44 euro cents per litre as against the usual price of 38 euro cents in certain areas of Lagos. Bus fares are also reported to have been hiked considerably.

There's a strange insight into international arms deals of the front page of this morning's Cairo-based Egypt Independent.

The paper reports that the French government loaned Egypt 3.2 billion euros to finance the recent multi billion-euro purchase of French military equipment, this according to Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egypt signed an agreement last month to buy 5.2 billion euros worth of French weapons, including 24 Rafale combat jets made by Dassault Aviation, a multi-mission naval frigate, and air-to-air missiles.

According to the Egypt Independent report, France said at the time the deal was agreed to that more than half the purchase price would be financed by French banks with a state-backed guarantee.

Also in the Independent, news that the British minister for the Middle East urged yesterday that "constitutional elections" be held in Egypt "as soon as possible", in response to reports that Egypt's parliamentary elections, due this month, have been delayed.

The delay follows a decision by the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court that one of the laws regulating parliamentary elections is unconstitutional.

The supreme court's rulings are binding to the state and cannot be appealed.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi immediately called on the government to amend laws related to the election in less than one month.

Two people were killed and five others, including a police conscript, were injured in a blast outside a police station in the upper Egyptian city of Aswan late yesterday, according to the state-run news agency.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the explosion resulted from a bomb planted in an electricity transformer outside the police station.

Militants have escalated attacks targeting security forces in several parts of the country since the military forced Islamist President Mohamed Morsi out of office in July 2013.

The opinion and analysis pages of the South African financial paper, BusinessDay, bring us back to Nigeria. Under the headline "Boko Haram is on the run but can a lasting peace be found?", Philip van Niekerk says the Nigerian military has in recent weeks confounded expectations by recovering much of the territory it lost to Boko Haram last year, and has launched a huge air and ground offensive for the remaining holdouts in Gwoza, Bama and the Sambisa Forest.

Neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and especially Chad have overcome their differences with Nigeria and joined the fight, seeking to close down Boko Haram’s sanctuaries and cut its supply lines.

Operational cells remain in place in some cities, as is tragically proven by the continuing suicide bombings that will likely increase as Nigeria’s 28 March election approaches.

Predatory hit-and-run attacks on villages continue, though these are random acts calculated to show the cult is still in business. No one doubts that this war will continue, at some level, for a long time.

But without rear bases, supply lines or local support, an organisation that not so long ago had grand plans to carve an Islamic State out of the lands surrounding the Lake Chad basin has been severely degraded.

The question is why it has taken six years.

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