News stories by Sam Olukoya

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Dec 17 (IPS) - Miriam* hoped for a better life in Europe. Instead, her journey ended in Libya. This story of the sexual abuse she experienced when double-crossed by traffickers. Raped and abused she fell pregnant and gave birth to a son. She has returned to Nigeria. This is her personal story as told to Sam Oluoka.

LAGOS, NIGERIA, Aug 05 (IPS) - Bassey Etim Ironbar is a rare example of an Olympian that transformed from an athlete to a volunteer who does menial jobs like sweeping the streets and clearing debris from open sewers.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Apr 16 (IPS) - In this video Sam Olukoya interviews a young woman who was trafficked from her home in Nigeria after recruiters promised her a better life in Europe. Instead she was abandoned in Libya and sexually assaulted and abused.

LAGOS, Nigeria, Sep 14 (IPS) - "I need help, right now I cannot walk properly," trafficking victim Nkiru Obasi pleaded from her hospital bed in a video she posted online.

The young Nigerian woman had been injured in the Aug. 4 Beirut blast, which ripped through the Lebanese capital, killing 190 people injuring a further 6,500 and damaging 40 percent of the city. However, it's not her injuries keeping her in Lebanon but a restrictive and abusive system of migrants laws.

MAUDUGURI, Borno State, Nigeria, Dec 13 (IPS) - In this edition of Voices from the Global South, Sam Olukoya goes to Maiduguri, Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, and reports on how climate change is fuelling Boko Haram's insurgency.

Experts say climate change is a key factor fuelling the insurgency of the armed group Boko Haram. The insurgency, which is aimed at creating an Islamic State in North East Nigeria, is responsible for one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Apr 25 (IPS) - This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Riana Group.

"They forcefully took us away and kept us like prisoners," Lydia Musa, a former Boko Haram captive who was abducted at the age of 14 during an attack on her village in Gwoza, in Nigeria's north eastern Borno State, tells IPS. Musa and two other underaged girls were abducted and forced to marry Boko Haram fighters in spite of their protests that they were too young to marry.

LAGOS, Nigeria, Mar 11 (IPS) - Nigeria is mourning along with the rest of the world after the downing of Ethiopian Airlines Flight, which claimed all of the 157 lives onboard. The fatalities included people from 35 countries, 19 United Nations officials and two Nigerians, one of whom was regarded as Africa's leading academic and labelled a genius by many. 

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Feb 01 (IPS) - "Don't assume if you attempt the journey your fortune will change for the better," a woman says over the public address system in the crowded Uselu market in Benin City, the capital of Nigeria's Edo State. "Many embarked on the journey and never made it. Many people are dying in the Sahara Desert." 

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Jan 17 (IPS) - The International Organization For Migration (IOM) has taken its campaign against irregular migration to schools in Nigeria. The school campaigns are meant to educate children who are among victims of human traffickers.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Dec 21 (IPS) - The International Organization for Migration has taken its campaign against irregular migration to the airwaves in Nigeria. Working in conjunction with some Nigerian radio stations, the United Nations Migration Agency has launched a radio series on safe migration.