Niger-Delta region seeks quick implementation of developmental projects

Attackers shot dead at least 36 people and destroyed buildings in a night raid on a village near the central Nigerian city of Jos, officials said on Wednesday (August 25), in an area hit by repeated ethnic clashes. The gunmen went house to house killing residents in Yelwa Zangam late on Tuesday (August 24), a military spokesman said. Troops struggled to get to the area as a bridge had been destroyed, he added.

In this week's edition, we explore what the turmoil in Afghanistan could mean for the wider region, from emboldened extremist groups to political realignment. To understand what's at stake, we talk to Michael Kugelman, deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at The Wilson Center think tank.

The attack on a remote village in the northwest of the country comes days after bandits released 90 pupils they had held captive. Police are searching for the perpetrators of the latest crime.

Nigerian army has announced that around 6000 extremists have defected in recent weeks, AP is reporting an increasing number of allegations of atrocities against Tigrayan forces, and we meet the Chadian artist turning bullets into brushstrokes.

Authorities in Amhara accuse rebels from the neighbouring Ethiopian region of Tigray of having killed dozens of civilians after a military loss. Also, Moroccans turn out to the polls for legislative and regional elections that are likely to be a close race. Finally, a woman in Uganda gives coding classes to children in her garden in a bid to encourage more young people to discover maths and science.

Seventy-five children who were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria's northwestern state of Zamfara were freed after their abductors came under pressure from a military crackdown, a state official said on Sunday (September 12). Gunmen took the students from the village of Kaya on Sept. 1, the latest in a spate of mass kidnappings from schools across the region. More than 1,100 children have been abducted since December last year. Authorities say heavily armed gangs of bandits, seeking ransom payments, are behind the abductions.

Officials in Nigeria have said the students were freed with the help of several of their captors who had been pressured by a military crackdown to work with authorities.

Nigerian security forces have arrested three men accused of taking part in a mass abduction on Bethel Baptist High School in July. Gunmen kidnapped 121 students who were asleep in their dorm rooms. The attack took place just outside the city of Kaduna in the north-west of the country. One hundred teens have since managed to escape or were freed, but twenty-one are still unaccounted for.

The fundamentalist group, which now rules Afghanistan, put the bodies on display to deter others. The move comes after a Taliban founder said executions and amputations will return.

Gunmen have killed dozens of people in two separate attacks in Nigeria. Villagers in Kaduna and security forces in Sokoto state have fallen victim to suspected islamists and criminal gangs. Also on the show: In an industry dominated by men, we bring you a report on the women workers changing the landscape of the Central African Republic. Finally, we take a look at one of Libya's cultural jewels: Leptis Magna. An archeological site shunned by tourists due to the country's insecurity.

Residents of Ethiopia's southern Kaffa zone have faced what many see as over a century of underinvestment by authorities in Addis Ababa. But Kaffa's leaders plan to fix it with a referendum that, if successful, would carve out a new South West region, Ethiopia's 11th, and funnel more federal cash their way, as well as control over how it is spent.

Heavily armed gangs have been stepping up raids on schools and villages in northwestern Nigeria, often taking hostages for ransom.