What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)
I think the local picture framer was a bit bemused by the whole thing...!
Bristow Nigeria
Bristow pay is regular as clockwork every month. There was a hitch a few months ago with one of the major banks, but it was their issue, not Bristow's.
As for turnover, it's no more or less than any international helicopter company operating in Nigeria.
P1
As for turnover, it's no more or less than any international helicopter company operating in Nigeria.
P1
Last edited by pohm1; 15th Mar 2013 at 14:32.
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The Beat goes on!
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ACN
Seems to be the fixed wing staff striking at LOS, but the whole company is taking the hit. The 95% walk out is a wild exaggeration according to my contacts, the rest are just doing their best with the (as always) limited liquidity being squeezed out of stones.
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TAIL ROTOR DAMPER INCIDENT
Any news on the recent incident involving an ACN AW 139? Heard that one of the tail rotor dampers flew off in flight. The aircraft landed safely at one of the platforms, near Bonny? Any more details? Anyone?
Saw it at Bonny today, looks grand..... I doubt it was anything other than severe vibration as it is sitting square in the middle of a helipad, so must have been a controlled if not uncomfortable landing 
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Can anyone enlighten me as to the size of fleet and bases operated by Aero in Nigeria?
I understand CHC has yet to start a contract but has machines in PH and Lagos.
Pan-African?? I can find the fleet details but not which bases they are operating these days.
Bristow info I have. Aero I'm not finding online.
Thanks in advance.
I understand CHC has yet to start a contract but has machines in PH and Lagos.
Pan-African?? I can find the fleet details but not which bases they are operating these days.
Bristow info I have. Aero I'm not finding online.
Thanks in advance.
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The Increasing Threat of AQIM in Nigeria
As previously mentioned, Boko Haram started fragmenting into other organisations, which are losely grouped under the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The deadliest of these at the moment is Ansaru, whose new stated tactics could prove far more worrying to expatriates working in West Africa, as they plan to kidnap and kill more foreigners.
New Threat in Nigeria as Militants Split Off
Nearly four years into Nigeria’s bloody struggle with Islamists in its impoverished north, a new threat has emerged with deadly implications, this time for Westerners as well as Nigerians: local militants who openly claim to be inspired and trained by Al Qaeda and its affiliate in the region.
Having split off from Boko Haram — the dominant Nigerian extremist group responsible for weekly shootings and bombings — this new group, Ansaru, says it eschews the killing of fellow Nigerians.
“Too reckless,” said a young member of Ansaru. His group evidently prefers a more calculated approach: kidnapping and killing foreigners.
Just days before, his group had methodically killed seven foreign construction workers deep in Nigeria’s semidesert north. The seven had been helping to build a road; their bodies were shown in a grainy video, lying on the ground.
The West, which has often regarded the Islamist uprising here as a Nigerian domestic issue, has been explicitly put on notice by Ansaru, adding an international dynamic to a conflict that has already cost more than 3,000 lives.
Ansaru is believed to be responsible for the December kidnapping of a French engineer, who is still missing, and for the abduction of an Italian and a Briton, both construction workers, who were later killed by their captors as a rescue attempt began last year.
It is also likely that the group was involved in the February kidnapping of a French family on the Cameroon-Nigeria border — they were released on Friday, under conditions that are unclear — as well as the kidnapping of a German engineer in Kano killed during a rescue effort last year.
“Any white man who is working with them” — meaning “Zionists,” — “we can kidnap them, everywhere,” said the young man from Ansaru, who called himself Mujahid Abu Nasir.
He had slipped into Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, with a bodyguard, traveling hundreds of miles from Ansaru’s secret headquarters in the north, getting past a major military base here. He said he had come under the authorization of Ansaru’s leader, Khalid al-Barnawi, who the United States says has close ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and has designated a global terrorist.
For three hours, with chilling precision, Abu Nasir, in a neatly pressed shirt and polished shoes, laid out Ansaru’s philosophy, after reciting a verse from the Koran promising “hellfire” for nonbelievers: opponents would be killed; Qaeda sympathizers were everywhere in Nigeria; and Westerners would be kidnapped.
He said Ansaru had been motivated by Al Qaeda itself, trained by its affiliate in the region — Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — and was now following in both their footsteps.
Before speaking or touching anything, Abu Nasir carefully put on black gloves and examined a reporter’s pen to make sure there was no camera hidden in it. He said he was the son of a Nigerian aristocrat, and he spoke Arabic, which he said he had perfected at a university in Khartoum, Sudan. He understood English perfectly but would not speak it, on principle.
“By taking these hostages, we are sending a message that they should be careful about giving bad advice to our leaders,” he said of Nigeria’s government, which he called a “puppet” of the West.
Veteran observers of Nigeria’s struggle with Islamists say Ansaru has closer ties to Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, in terms of both training and ideology, than any other extremist group in Nigeria.
“They are as dangerous as Al Qaeda,” said Maikaramba Sadiq of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organization. “They have the same training as Al Qaeda. They have the same approach as Al Qaeda.”
Nigeria’s top counterterrorism official, Maj. Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello, agreed. “They have the same objective, to Islamize the Sahel,” he said, referring to the belt of African countries immediately south of the Sahara.
In General Bello’s view, Ansaru is a more sophisticated version of Boko Haram, the group that spawned it: “They speak Arabic better, and they have more international connections.”
Analysts at the United Nations and elsewhere have long suggested links between Boko Haram — which fought a particularly bloody battle with Nigerian security forces in recent days — and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Moreover, Boko Haram is not strictly focused on attacking Nigerians: in 2011, it blew up the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, a rare strike by the group on an international target.
Ansaru began to distance itself from Boko Haram early in 2012, after a Boko Haram attack left dozens dead. A local newspaper reported that Ansaru, in a statement announcing its formation, had expressed displeasure with the death toll.
The clash between Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces last week was even deadlier. Much of a fishing town was destroyed, with more than 180 people killed and almost 2,000 homes burned, the governor there said. Some residents were killed in the fierce gun battle and others died in a fire when their homes were set alight, underscoring the ruthlessness of Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces alike.
Still, the two militant groups, Ansaru and Boko Haram, retain ties. “They are with us now,” Abu Nasir said. “Whenever we hear of oppression, we do operations together.”
At the slightest hint of rescue, mistaken or otherwise, Ansaru appears ready to kill its hostages. The seven construction workers — a Briton, a Greek, an Italian and four from Lebanon and Syria — had been building roads and bridges in northern Nigeria for Setraco, a Lebanese construction company, helping to develop the country’s poorest region. The British contractor who was killed, Brendan Vaughan, a burly man in his mid-50s described by his family as a “lovable rogue,” was expecting his first grandchild.
Late on the night of Feb. 16, Ansaru gunmen stormed the compound where Mr. Vaughan and the others were living. They first attacked the local police station and prison in Jama’are to clear the way. Then they blew up the Setraco compound’s wall to gain access to the foreigners’ housing, killing a security guard.
“We were terrified by the blast,” said a Setraco construction worker who gave his name as Hussain. “We heard gunshots everywhere.”
In the morning, when it was all over, Hussain’s supervisor assembled the Nigerian workers. “Our bosses are no longer at work,” he recalled the supervisor’s telling them. Ansaru had taken them away in a coordinated, well-planned assault.
Three weeks later the hostages were dead, shot by their Ansaru captors, who mistakenly believed after reading erroneous Nigerian newspaper reports that they themselves were about to be raided.
To Abu Nasir, Mr. Vaughan was not an earthy, fun-loving, construction worker, but a dangerous spy.
“Among the hostages, the British man had something on his body that would lead the drone to them,” he said. “That is why the group was given orders to eliminate them.”
Abu Nasir said he considered Abu Zeid, a top commander of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to be a personal mentor and “a wise somebody.” Abu Zeid, whose death France says it has confirmed, is said to have been killed by Chadian or French forces in the campaign to uproot Islamist militants in northern Mali.
Abu Nasir spoke of his early recruitment by Al Qaeda, rigorous training in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s desert camps, his leaders’ contacts with Osama bin Laden and the current leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, and disagreements with Boko Haram’s indiscriminate methods.
Underlying Abu Nasir’s words was a Robin Hood version of anticapitalism — “We just hate oppression,” he said — that helped explain the penetration of radical Islamist groups like his in the impoverished cities of Nigeria’s north.
He said he had attended an Islamic college in the northern metropolis of Kano, which has since become a hotbed of Boko Haram radicalism. Then, “for the zeal of seeking knowledge,” he went to Khartoum, he said, where it was “Al Qaeda propagators who initiated me into the clique.”
The recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and then to Mauritania for a rigorous training course by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. For six months, he said, he trained directly under Abu Zeid. Of five who came with him from Sudan, he said, two died during training. “Everything the security forces get, we get double that,” he said of Ansaru’s training regimen.
Returning to Nigeria in 2008, Abu Nasir said, he went underground in Lagos. “Thousands” are like him, he said, “some who work in government, some businessmen, some teachers.”
“Any leader who does not listen to the warnings of his people, he is going to pay a heavy price,” Abu Nasir said. “We are not going to take one step back.”
Meanwhile, rescue workers are struggling to gain access to the destroyed town of Baga because the military are restricting access, possibly to try and cover up exactly how much of the killing was initiated by their own troops who have a poor record of killing innocent civilians and are certainly not conducting anything of a hearts and minds campaign in the areas where support for Boko Haram and Ansaru are strongest
Rescue workers on Tuesday struggled to reach a remote Nigerian town where the military was restricting access after fierce clashes that killed 187 people, as a regional governor ordered a massive relief effort following the "barbaric" violence.
The bloodshed in Baga on Lake Chad in northeast Nigeria could mark the deadliest episode in the insurgency of Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group blamed for scores of attacks since 2009.
Gun battles between troops and Islamist fighters caused a "barbaric destruction of lives and properties", Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said in a statement.
Baga residents have accused the military of firing indiscriminately on civilians and setting fire to much of the fishing town.
In addition to the 187 people killed, 77 others were injured while more than 300 homes were destroyed, according to the Red Cross.
The military has disputed those figures, while Nigeria's president has ordered a probe into reports of widespread civilian deaths.
Red Cross national co-ordinator Umar Mariaga told AFP his staff were still struggling to reach Baga, where the security situation remains uncertain.
"We are making efforts to get clearance from the security agents to get in and assist the victims of the violence," he said.
Much of the town remains deserted after the fighting on Friday, which forced thousands of people to flee, said a resident who asked that his name be withheld.
"Baga is still under military siege," he told AFP. "The town is at a standstill with little food and water, which has forced even those of us that stayed behind to start leaving."
Major setback
The governor, who toured Baga on Sunday, called for emergency funds to rebuild the destroyed homes as well as the immediate provision of food and clothes to the survivors.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement he was "shocked and saddened at the reports of high numbers of civilians killed".
Washington also condemned the violence and the deaths of many civilians.
Nigeria's military has been accused by leading rights groups of widespread atrocities in the campaign against Boko Haram, including killing scores of civilians.
The details of the alleged military atrocities in Baga are still emerging, but it could mark a major setback in Nigeria's effort to end the insurgency.
Baga's location near Chad and Niger is problematic for Nigeria's security forces as people from all three countries move freely through porous borders, said Shehu Sani, an expert on religious violence in Nigeria.
The security forces struggle to identify the insurgent and criminal groups migrating in the region, a confusing and lawless environment that has led to the reckless targeting of innocent civilians, said Sani.
"The security agents are very much confused as to who is an insurgent and who is not," he said.
Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. The southern half of the country, Africa's most populous and top oil producer, is mostly Christian.
The insurgency is estimated to have left 3 000 people dead, including killings by the security forces.
Before the violence in Baga, the deadliest day in the Boko Haram crisis came in January last year, when at least 185 people were killed in coordinated attacks in the city of Kano.
It's obviously a time where all expatriates working in Nigeria need to make sure they have good security, maintain a low profile and keep their eues open for the unexpected as some kind of reprisal for the Baga attack seems almost inevitable.
New Threat in Nigeria as Militants Split Off
Nearly four years into Nigeria’s bloody struggle with Islamists in its impoverished north, a new threat has emerged with deadly implications, this time for Westerners as well as Nigerians: local militants who openly claim to be inspired and trained by Al Qaeda and its affiliate in the region.
Having split off from Boko Haram — the dominant Nigerian extremist group responsible for weekly shootings and bombings — this new group, Ansaru, says it eschews the killing of fellow Nigerians.
“Too reckless,” said a young member of Ansaru. His group evidently prefers a more calculated approach: kidnapping and killing foreigners.
Just days before, his group had methodically killed seven foreign construction workers deep in Nigeria’s semidesert north. The seven had been helping to build a road; their bodies were shown in a grainy video, lying on the ground.
The West, which has often regarded the Islamist uprising here as a Nigerian domestic issue, has been explicitly put on notice by Ansaru, adding an international dynamic to a conflict that has already cost more than 3,000 lives.
Ansaru is believed to be responsible for the December kidnapping of a French engineer, who is still missing, and for the abduction of an Italian and a Briton, both construction workers, who were later killed by their captors as a rescue attempt began last year.
It is also likely that the group was involved in the February kidnapping of a French family on the Cameroon-Nigeria border — they were released on Friday, under conditions that are unclear — as well as the kidnapping of a German engineer in Kano killed during a rescue effort last year.
“Any white man who is working with them” — meaning “Zionists,” — “we can kidnap them, everywhere,” said the young man from Ansaru, who called himself Mujahid Abu Nasir.
He had slipped into Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, with a bodyguard, traveling hundreds of miles from Ansaru’s secret headquarters in the north, getting past a major military base here. He said he had come under the authorization of Ansaru’s leader, Khalid al-Barnawi, who the United States says has close ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and has designated a global terrorist.
For three hours, with chilling precision, Abu Nasir, in a neatly pressed shirt and polished shoes, laid out Ansaru’s philosophy, after reciting a verse from the Koran promising “hellfire” for nonbelievers: opponents would be killed; Qaeda sympathizers were everywhere in Nigeria; and Westerners would be kidnapped.
He said Ansaru had been motivated by Al Qaeda itself, trained by its affiliate in the region — Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — and was now following in both their footsteps.
Before speaking or touching anything, Abu Nasir carefully put on black gloves and examined a reporter’s pen to make sure there was no camera hidden in it. He said he was the son of a Nigerian aristocrat, and he spoke Arabic, which he said he had perfected at a university in Khartoum, Sudan. He understood English perfectly but would not speak it, on principle.
“By taking these hostages, we are sending a message that they should be careful about giving bad advice to our leaders,” he said of Nigeria’s government, which he called a “puppet” of the West.
Veteran observers of Nigeria’s struggle with Islamists say Ansaru has closer ties to Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, in terms of both training and ideology, than any other extremist group in Nigeria.
“They are as dangerous as Al Qaeda,” said Maikaramba Sadiq of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organization. “They have the same training as Al Qaeda. They have the same approach as Al Qaeda.”
Nigeria’s top counterterrorism official, Maj. Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello, agreed. “They have the same objective, to Islamize the Sahel,” he said, referring to the belt of African countries immediately south of the Sahara.
In General Bello’s view, Ansaru is a more sophisticated version of Boko Haram, the group that spawned it: “They speak Arabic better, and they have more international connections.”
Analysts at the United Nations and elsewhere have long suggested links between Boko Haram — which fought a particularly bloody battle with Nigerian security forces in recent days — and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Moreover, Boko Haram is not strictly focused on attacking Nigerians: in 2011, it blew up the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, a rare strike by the group on an international target.
Ansaru began to distance itself from Boko Haram early in 2012, after a Boko Haram attack left dozens dead. A local newspaper reported that Ansaru, in a statement announcing its formation, had expressed displeasure with the death toll.
The clash between Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces last week was even deadlier. Much of a fishing town was destroyed, with more than 180 people killed and almost 2,000 homes burned, the governor there said. Some residents were killed in the fierce gun battle and others died in a fire when their homes were set alight, underscoring the ruthlessness of Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces alike.
Still, the two militant groups, Ansaru and Boko Haram, retain ties. “They are with us now,” Abu Nasir said. “Whenever we hear of oppression, we do operations together.”
At the slightest hint of rescue, mistaken or otherwise, Ansaru appears ready to kill its hostages. The seven construction workers — a Briton, a Greek, an Italian and four from Lebanon and Syria — had been building roads and bridges in northern Nigeria for Setraco, a Lebanese construction company, helping to develop the country’s poorest region. The British contractor who was killed, Brendan Vaughan, a burly man in his mid-50s described by his family as a “lovable rogue,” was expecting his first grandchild.
Late on the night of Feb. 16, Ansaru gunmen stormed the compound where Mr. Vaughan and the others were living. They first attacked the local police station and prison in Jama’are to clear the way. Then they blew up the Setraco compound’s wall to gain access to the foreigners’ housing, killing a security guard.
“We were terrified by the blast,” said a Setraco construction worker who gave his name as Hussain. “We heard gunshots everywhere.”
In the morning, when it was all over, Hussain’s supervisor assembled the Nigerian workers. “Our bosses are no longer at work,” he recalled the supervisor’s telling them. Ansaru had taken them away in a coordinated, well-planned assault.
Three weeks later the hostages were dead, shot by their Ansaru captors, who mistakenly believed after reading erroneous Nigerian newspaper reports that they themselves were about to be raided.
To Abu Nasir, Mr. Vaughan was not an earthy, fun-loving, construction worker, but a dangerous spy.
“Among the hostages, the British man had something on his body that would lead the drone to them,” he said. “That is why the group was given orders to eliminate them.”
Abu Nasir said he considered Abu Zeid, a top commander of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to be a personal mentor and “a wise somebody.” Abu Zeid, whose death France says it has confirmed, is said to have been killed by Chadian or French forces in the campaign to uproot Islamist militants in northern Mali.
Abu Nasir spoke of his early recruitment by Al Qaeda, rigorous training in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s desert camps, his leaders’ contacts with Osama bin Laden and the current leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, and disagreements with Boko Haram’s indiscriminate methods.
Underlying Abu Nasir’s words was a Robin Hood version of anticapitalism — “We just hate oppression,” he said — that helped explain the penetration of radical Islamist groups like his in the impoverished cities of Nigeria’s north.
He said he had attended an Islamic college in the northern metropolis of Kano, which has since become a hotbed of Boko Haram radicalism. Then, “for the zeal of seeking knowledge,” he went to Khartoum, he said, where it was “Al Qaeda propagators who initiated me into the clique.”
The recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and then to Mauritania for a rigorous training course by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. For six months, he said, he trained directly under Abu Zeid. Of five who came with him from Sudan, he said, two died during training. “Everything the security forces get, we get double that,” he said of Ansaru’s training regimen.
Returning to Nigeria in 2008, Abu Nasir said, he went underground in Lagos. “Thousands” are like him, he said, “some who work in government, some businessmen, some teachers.”
“Any leader who does not listen to the warnings of his people, he is going to pay a heavy price,” Abu Nasir said. “We are not going to take one step back.”
Rescue workers on Tuesday struggled to reach a remote Nigerian town where the military was restricting access after fierce clashes that killed 187 people, as a regional governor ordered a massive relief effort following the "barbaric" violence.
The bloodshed in Baga on Lake Chad in northeast Nigeria could mark the deadliest episode in the insurgency of Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group blamed for scores of attacks since 2009.
Gun battles between troops and Islamist fighters caused a "barbaric destruction of lives and properties", Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said in a statement.
Baga residents have accused the military of firing indiscriminately on civilians and setting fire to much of the fishing town.
In addition to the 187 people killed, 77 others were injured while more than 300 homes were destroyed, according to the Red Cross.
The military has disputed those figures, while Nigeria's president has ordered a probe into reports of widespread civilian deaths.
Red Cross national co-ordinator Umar Mariaga told AFP his staff were still struggling to reach Baga, where the security situation remains uncertain.
"We are making efforts to get clearance from the security agents to get in and assist the victims of the violence," he said.
Much of the town remains deserted after the fighting on Friday, which forced thousands of people to flee, said a resident who asked that his name be withheld.
"Baga is still under military siege," he told AFP. "The town is at a standstill with little food and water, which has forced even those of us that stayed behind to start leaving."
Major setback
The governor, who toured Baga on Sunday, called for emergency funds to rebuild the destroyed homes as well as the immediate provision of food and clothes to the survivors.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement he was "shocked and saddened at the reports of high numbers of civilians killed".
Washington also condemned the violence and the deaths of many civilians.
Nigeria's military has been accused by leading rights groups of widespread atrocities in the campaign against Boko Haram, including killing scores of civilians.
The details of the alleged military atrocities in Baga are still emerging, but it could mark a major setback in Nigeria's effort to end the insurgency.
Baga's location near Chad and Niger is problematic for Nigeria's security forces as people from all three countries move freely through porous borders, said Shehu Sani, an expert on religious violence in Nigeria.
The security forces struggle to identify the insurgent and criminal groups migrating in the region, a confusing and lawless environment that has led to the reckless targeting of innocent civilians, said Sani.
"The security agents are very much confused as to who is an insurgent and who is not," he said.
Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. The southern half of the country, Africa's most populous and top oil producer, is mostly Christian.
The insurgency is estimated to have left 3 000 people dead, including killings by the security forces.
Before the violence in Baga, the deadliest day in the Boko Haram crisis came in January last year, when at least 185 people were killed in coordinated attacks in the city of Kano.
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p and a,
Aero has very little left in the rotary division. The previous Head of Flight Operations, Patrick Agbonlahor is now deputy Director of Flight Operations for Caverton. I'm not sure if their AW139 is still flying for Total as the last time it went AOG it was on ground for more than 2 months. They still have an old Dauphin at Port Harcourt and their S76C+ scarcely ever flies. They do still have the contract to operate and maintain the 3 NNPC EC135s.
As far as I know CHC has not yet started to operate though they do have a base on Snake Island with their new partner, Atlantic Aviation (which is also part of Niger Dock) and their AW139 seems to be there and they also have at least one (old) S76C+ in country. Rumour has it that they're bringing in at least 1 more S76C+ and up to 5 more AW139s in the next 3 months.
Aero has very little left in the rotary division. The previous Head of Flight Operations, Patrick Agbonlahor is now deputy Director of Flight Operations for Caverton. I'm not sure if their AW139 is still flying for Total as the last time it went AOG it was on ground for more than 2 months. They still have an old Dauphin at Port Harcourt and their S76C+ scarcely ever flies. They do still have the contract to operate and maintain the 3 NNPC EC135s.
As far as I know CHC has not yet started to operate though they do have a base on Snake Island with their new partner, Atlantic Aviation (which is also part of Niger Dock) and their AW139 seems to be there and they also have at least one (old) S76C+ in country. Rumour has it that they're bringing in at least 1 more S76C+ and up to 5 more AW139s in the next 3 months.
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Thanks for the info PW, I actually forgot about Caverton. Good to hear Pato is still doing well. Do you know who is the current Chief Pilot?
The world is becomes less, not more, safe these days. All over.
The world is becomes less, not more, safe these days. All over.
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The CHC 76 is now in the hangar in PH, presumably on ad-hoc or just parked there. The 139 is being added to the AOC which could be a long drawn out procedure if history repeats itself.
It will be nice to have another operator on the ground in Nigeria, regardless of who their partners are.
It will be nice to have another operator on the ground in Nigeria, regardless of who their partners are.
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Outcry over Nigerian Military Tactics in baga
The killing of over 280 people in Baga last week, is causinga larger response than normal when the Nigerian army goes on one of its undisciplined killing and murdering sprees and is likely to attract more militant islamists to join Boko Haram or Ansaru. Reports coming from the area nearly all confirm that the military went on a killing spree, setting fire to houses and murdering many locals. The Nigerian military are trying to play the whole thing down, denying that more than 30 or 40 were killed, but given their reputation for undisciplined troops losing control and murdering civilains when they have little opposition, their statements have little or no credibility.Thet still have a large presence in the area and are trying to stop reports of what actually happened getting out, but given the number of aid workers in the erea, this time they are unable to stop it.
Meanwhile if leaks by government officials are to be believed, Nigeria has signed a deal with an Israeli defence electronics company could give the government the capability of monitoring all e-mails within a couple of years. whilst this could undoubtedly bolster their ability to gain intelligence on violent groups and criminals, it would also give it the ability to spy on and silence government critics and other political dissidents. Given the country's reputation for large numbers of internet fraudsters and hackers I wonder if any monitoring system will remain effective for long 
. The Premium Times has quite a good reputation for reporting little-known stories
Days later, the survivors’ faces tensed at the memory of the grim evening: soldiers dousing thatched-roof homes with gasoline, setting them on fire and shooting residents when they tried to flee. As the village went up in smoke, one said, a soldier threw a child back into the flames.
Even by the scorched-earth standards of the Nigerian military’s campaign against Islamist insurgents stalking the nation’s north, what happened on the muddy shores of Lake Chad this month appears exceptional.
The village, Baga, found itself in the cross hairs of Nigerian soldiers enraged by the killing of one of their own, said survivors who fled here to the capital of Borno State, 100 miles south. Their home had paid a heavy price: as many as 200 civilians, maybe more, were killed during the military’s rampage, according to refugees, senior relief workers, civilian officials and human rights organizations.
The apparent size of the civilian death toll — staunchly denied by Nigerian military officials, some of whom blame the insurgent group, Boko Haram, for the carnage — has prompted an unusual uproar.
Though heavy civilian casualties are routine in the military’s confrontation with Boko Haram, with dozens dying in poor neighborhoods since 2010 as the army searches for “suspects,” Nigeria’s politicians usually have little to say about them. Past massacres of civilians in retaliation for soldier deaths have passed largely with impunity.
This time, there have been calls in Nigeria’s national assembly for an investigation, and the government has come under harsh criticism at home and abroad, including the United States. The military has said it has begun its own inquiry, and some longstanding observers of the country’s heavy-handed fight against Islamist militants say a tipping point may have been reached.
“This is coming at a time when we have had similar situations” elsewhere, said Kole Shettima, chairman of the Center for Democracy and Development in the capital, Abuja. “People are tired of the excuses the military is giving, and that’s why they are demanding an investigation. This time it’s different. There is a crisis of legitimacy in the military.”
But in a country where corruption abounds and accountability is rare, others wondered whether it would truly become a watershed moment — or get brushed aside as an unfortunate side effect of fighting a dangerous insurgency.
“This Baga is just on a bigger scale, but they have been doing this for ages,” the governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, one of the first officials to reach Baga afterward, said of the military. “They’ve not adhered to the rules of engagement,” said Mr. Shettima, who is not related to the democracy advocate. “When you burn down shops and massacre civilians, you are pushing them to join the camp of Boko Haram.”
Yet, he continued, “we are in a Catch-22 situation.” Boko Haram is a deadly insurgent force that needs to be confronted, the governor said, but not by a military that terrorizes its own people. “We need them to carry out their duties in a civilized manner.”
Some Baga residents who did not perish in the flames drowned while attempting to escape into Lake Chad, refugees here in the state capital said. Others were attacked by hippopotamuses in the shallow waters, officials said. Soldiers shot people as they ran from the burning houses, refugees said.
“Many dead, many dead,” said Mohammed Muhammed, 40, a taxi driver from Baga. “People running into the flames, I saw that. If they didn’t run into the flames, the army will shoot them.” As flames enveloped the houses — “they used petroleum,” he said of the soldiers — he fled into the surrounding desert scrub.
“If you come out” from the flaming houses “they will shoot you,” he said. “Please, sir, charge them in the international court!” he shouted.
Isa Kukulala, 26, a lanky bus driver who had left Baga that morning, gave a similar account: “They poured petrol on the properties. At the same time, they are shooting sporadically, inside the fire. They took a small child from his mother and threw him inside the fire. This is what I have witnessed.”
Hundreds of residents fled into the bush, where they lived for days in harsh conditions, and are only now trickling back into the town. “The aged people, the people that couldn’t run, most of those people were burned,” said Antony Emmanuel, a fish buyer. “Small children, their parents left them, they were burned.”
Borno State officials have said hundreds of houses were destroyed in the blaze.
The army has effectively blocked many journalists from getting to Baga — it is in a zone where Boko Haram exercises partial control — and it kept out relief agencies until the middle of last week. Cellphone service has been cut off. In a brief statement a week after the episode, Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye, the commander of the multinational joint task force — Nigeria shares intelligence with neighboring countries, though its soldiers generally do the shooting — said one soldier was killed “while 30 Boko Haram terrorists lost their lives” and “unfortunately six civilians” were killed. Ten “other civilians were injured in the cross-fire,” he said.
Nigeria’s director of defense information, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, angrily rejected the accounts of residents and others. He said that “the burning, the killing is done by Boko Haram, not by the soldiers. Anybody blaming the soldiers must be a sympathizer with Boko Haram.” He said that “Boko Haram was using the houses to shoot out at soldiers.”
But the picture given by civilian officials in relief agencies and state government, along with the one presented by refugees, was very different, with the vast majority of deaths attributed to the military.
“More than 200 dead, this is what people in the town confirmed,” said a senior relief official who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution by the military. “Actually, my boys told me the number is far higher than the 200 reported,” the relief official said.
A senior official under the governor, Mr. Shettima, who is not affiliated with the governing party, said: “The soldiers went on a rampage. Because, you know, that’s what soldiers do in Nigeria. It’s really crazy here.”
General Olukolade responded angrily to such assertions, saying, “The politicians intend to create a haven for Boko Haram around our state.”
In the accounts of refugees and officials, the killings started after a few gunmen, most likely Boko Haram members, engaged a detachment from Baga’s military post in a firefight on the evening of April 16.
“Two people came, they said they were Jama’atu,” said Mohammed Bella Sani, a fisherman from Baga, using Boko Haram’s name for itself. Boko Haram has a heavy presence in that area of fluid national borders, officials say, and has even chased away all government presence, including officials and police officers, from many rural districts.
In Baga, the soldiers went for reinforcements after one among them was killed, residents said. “A team of soldiers came back shouting, and they started firing indiscriminately,” Mr. Sani said.
“They set my neighbor’s house on fire, and people started running back to save the neighbor,” said Mallam Ali, a bus driver. And the soldiers began shooting into the crowd, he said.
“They were firing from the armored vehicles,” said Alhadji Adamua, a clothing seller at Baga’s market. “I saw them putting fire on people’s houses. They are the security of the state. They have no right to kill anybody. They are supposed to protect the people.”
Even by the scorched-earth standards of the Nigerian military’s campaign against Islamist insurgents stalking the nation’s north, what happened on the muddy shores of Lake Chad this month appears exceptional.
The village, Baga, found itself in the cross hairs of Nigerian soldiers enraged by the killing of one of their own, said survivors who fled here to the capital of Borno State, 100 miles south. Their home had paid a heavy price: as many as 200 civilians, maybe more, were killed during the military’s rampage, according to refugees, senior relief workers, civilian officials and human rights organizations.
The apparent size of the civilian death toll — staunchly denied by Nigerian military officials, some of whom blame the insurgent group, Boko Haram, for the carnage — has prompted an unusual uproar.
Though heavy civilian casualties are routine in the military’s confrontation with Boko Haram, with dozens dying in poor neighborhoods since 2010 as the army searches for “suspects,” Nigeria’s politicians usually have little to say about them. Past massacres of civilians in retaliation for soldier deaths have passed largely with impunity.
This time, there have been calls in Nigeria’s national assembly for an investigation, and the government has come under harsh criticism at home and abroad, including the United States. The military has said it has begun its own inquiry, and some longstanding observers of the country’s heavy-handed fight against Islamist militants say a tipping point may have been reached.
“This is coming at a time when we have had similar situations” elsewhere, said Kole Shettima, chairman of the Center for Democracy and Development in the capital, Abuja. “People are tired of the excuses the military is giving, and that’s why they are demanding an investigation. This time it’s different. There is a crisis of legitimacy in the military.”
But in a country where corruption abounds and accountability is rare, others wondered whether it would truly become a watershed moment — or get brushed aside as an unfortunate side effect of fighting a dangerous insurgency.
“This Baga is just on a bigger scale, but they have been doing this for ages,” the governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, one of the first officials to reach Baga afterward, said of the military. “They’ve not adhered to the rules of engagement,” said Mr. Shettima, who is not related to the democracy advocate. “When you burn down shops and massacre civilians, you are pushing them to join the camp of Boko Haram.”
Yet, he continued, “we are in a Catch-22 situation.” Boko Haram is a deadly insurgent force that needs to be confronted, the governor said, but not by a military that terrorizes its own people. “We need them to carry out their duties in a civilized manner.”
Some Baga residents who did not perish in the flames drowned while attempting to escape into Lake Chad, refugees here in the state capital said. Others were attacked by hippopotamuses in the shallow waters, officials said. Soldiers shot people as they ran from the burning houses, refugees said.
“Many dead, many dead,” said Mohammed Muhammed, 40, a taxi driver from Baga. “People running into the flames, I saw that. If they didn’t run into the flames, the army will shoot them.” As flames enveloped the houses — “they used petroleum,” he said of the soldiers — he fled into the surrounding desert scrub.
“If you come out” from the flaming houses “they will shoot you,” he said. “Please, sir, charge them in the international court!” he shouted.
Isa Kukulala, 26, a lanky bus driver who had left Baga that morning, gave a similar account: “They poured petrol on the properties. At the same time, they are shooting sporadically, inside the fire. They took a small child from his mother and threw him inside the fire. This is what I have witnessed.”
Hundreds of residents fled into the bush, where they lived for days in harsh conditions, and are only now trickling back into the town. “The aged people, the people that couldn’t run, most of those people were burned,” said Antony Emmanuel, a fish buyer. “Small children, their parents left them, they were burned.”
Borno State officials have said hundreds of houses were destroyed in the blaze.
The army has effectively blocked many journalists from getting to Baga — it is in a zone where Boko Haram exercises partial control — and it kept out relief agencies until the middle of last week. Cellphone service has been cut off. In a brief statement a week after the episode, Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye, the commander of the multinational joint task force — Nigeria shares intelligence with neighboring countries, though its soldiers generally do the shooting — said one soldier was killed “while 30 Boko Haram terrorists lost their lives” and “unfortunately six civilians” were killed. Ten “other civilians were injured in the cross-fire,” he said.
Nigeria’s director of defense information, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, angrily rejected the accounts of residents and others. He said that “the burning, the killing is done by Boko Haram, not by the soldiers. Anybody blaming the soldiers must be a sympathizer with Boko Haram.” He said that “Boko Haram was using the houses to shoot out at soldiers.”
But the picture given by civilian officials in relief agencies and state government, along with the one presented by refugees, was very different, with the vast majority of deaths attributed to the military.
“More than 200 dead, this is what people in the town confirmed,” said a senior relief official who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution by the military. “Actually, my boys told me the number is far higher than the 200 reported,” the relief official said.
A senior official under the governor, Mr. Shettima, who is not affiliated with the governing party, said: “The soldiers went on a rampage. Because, you know, that’s what soldiers do in Nigeria. It’s really crazy here.”
General Olukolade responded angrily to such assertions, saying, “The politicians intend to create a haven for Boko Haram around our state.”
In the accounts of refugees and officials, the killings started after a few gunmen, most likely Boko Haram members, engaged a detachment from Baga’s military post in a firefight on the evening of April 16.
“Two people came, they said they were Jama’atu,” said Mohammed Bella Sani, a fisherman from Baga, using Boko Haram’s name for itself. Boko Haram has a heavy presence in that area of fluid national borders, officials say, and has even chased away all government presence, including officials and police officers, from many rural districts.
In Baga, the soldiers went for reinforcements after one among them was killed, residents said. “A team of soldiers came back shouting, and they started firing indiscriminately,” Mr. Sani said.
“They set my neighbor’s house on fire, and people started running back to save the neighbor,” said Mallam Ali, a bus driver. And the soldiers began shooting into the crowd, he said.
“They were firing from the armored vehicles,” said Alhadji Adamua, a clothing seller at Baga’s market. “I saw them putting fire on people’s houses. They are the security of the state. They have no right to kill anybody. They are supposed to protect the people.”
. The Premium Times has quite a good reputation for reporting little-known stories
Government Signing Intelligence Technology Deal With Israeli Company?
A Nigerian newspaper claims to have exposed a controversial new agreement between the country's central government and an Israeli defense electronics company.
Many details remain hazy, and the report is unconfirmed by both the administration and the company. But if the allegations are true, Nigeria is working toward the implementation of a new national intelligence and surveillance system, and concerned citizens worry that their constitutional rights could be at risk.
The report came in the Thursday edition of the Premium Times, which is based in the capital city of Abuja. It followed a Wednesday press release from Elbit Systems (ESLT:TLV) announcing that the company had been awarded a contract worth about $40 million to “supply a country in Africa with the Wise Intelligence Technology (WiT™) System for Intelligence Analysis and Cyber Defense,” adding that the system would be “supplied within two years.”
The Premium Times cited anonymous “multiple and very reliable sources in the administration” of President Goodluck Jonathan as saying that Nigeria was in fact the unnamed country in the press release.
“Our sources say the contract will now help the Jonathan administration access all computers and read all email correspondences of citizens in what is clearly an infringement on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression,” the article noted.
On Monday, an Elbit spokesperson said that the company was aware of the reports but refused to comment on their accuracy. Nigerian officials did not respond to requests for elucidation.
“The Premium Times story is credible, and they have a reputation for breaking uncomfortable but true stories,” said Gbenga Sesan, founder and executive director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, an organization that uses information and communications technology, or ICT, to bring about social change for Nigerian youths.
“The fact that government has not denied this -- which they're [usually] quick to do -- also lends some credibility to the story,” Sesan added.
While silence reigns on both sides of the alleged deal, debates have raged over the accuracy of the report and the true scope of the capabilities of the WiT™ system. Some argue that the technology could be useful to combat terrorism, corruption and cybercrime; others worry that Abuja could use the system to clamp down on the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.
Those citizens have plenty of reasons to mistrust the central government. Modern Nigeria’s democratic system is still young; the country suffered decades of instability under a series of autocratic military rulers until 1999. Still today, a whopping 94 percent of citizens say corruption is widespread, according to a Gallup poll conducted last year.
Nigeria’s crude oil revenues have helped the sub-Saharan country achieve a GDP of about $235 billion, the second-highest in Africa according to World Bank data. But more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is more than 20 percent. Infrastructure, especially in the country's rural areas, is underdeveloped. A pattern of fiscal mismanagement has discouraged international investment and assistance.
The government has failed to invest in the refineries necessary to convert its abundant crude into refined product, so Nigeria actually imports fuel and spends billions of dollars on subsidies so that citizens can purchase it at an affordable price. A parliamentary investigation last year revealed that this import-and-subsidize program is riddled with corruption.
Criticism of the administration is frequent and generally well-tolerated. “There isn’t any concrete or tangible evidence of censorship, blocking Internet material or filtering content,” Mai Truong, an Africa analyst at Freedom House, said. "But many Internet users in Nigeria believe there's some kind of monitoring going on."
There are plenty of signs the government would prefer to silence dissent. The State Security Service, a national intelligence agency that formed during the period of military rule, has a spotty relationship with the press. Agents have detained and harassed media workers. Just this month, four journalists were arrested for reporting on alleged underhanded practices within the administration.
In this environment, there is great concern that a sophisticated system like WiT™ would only enable governmental abuses directed at the rapidly expanding number of Nigerians online.
Online connectivity has ramped up considerably along with a fast-growing and increasingly young population. About 163 million people live in Nigeria, more than in any other African country, and about 70 percent of them are under the age of 30.
More than 11 million Nigerians had Internet access in 2008; only three years later, that number had skyrocketed to 46 million, according to a report from Freedom House. Internet communications are playing an increasingly important role in politics; they are often used by grassroots groups to mobilize young voters or rally support for certain causes.
These rapid changes have surpassed the regulatory capacities of government agencies. Laws to combat online crime and protect content owners are sorely lacking, leaving users and businesses vulnerable. There is no data privacy act. A piece of legislation called the Cyber Security Bill is in the works, but it has stalled in the drafting stages for years.
In the meantime, Nigeria has gained a reputation for spawning Internet frauds, which are often called 419 scams after the Nigerian penal code section addressing these online schemes. They involve criminals who reach out to victims -- typically in Western, English-speaking countries like the United States and the United Kingdom -- via email, dating services or chat forums.
The stereotype is that of the Nigerian prince seeking assistance for a transfer of funds, but scamming methods have evolved over the past several years and can involve a wide variety of conjured scenarios.
According to data from Utrascan AGI, a global network of experts that investigates online crime, worldwide losses to 419 scams exceed $750 million annually.
“We, as a nation, are not very ready to fight cybercrime,” Nigerian Communication Commission Director Sylvanus Ehikioya said to Premium Times last month. “The necessary infrastructure, in terms of legal and technical infrastructure, has not been put in place yet.”
WiT™, once implemented, might help to improve online security. The system has wide-ranging capabilities; it can make use of everything from satellite imagery to email monitoring to phone conversations.
“A highly advanced end-to-end solution, WiT™ supports every stage of the intelligence process, including the collection of the data from multiple sources, databases and sensors, processing of the information, supporting intelligence personnel in the analysis and evaluation of the information and disseminating the intelligence to the intended recipient,” according to last week’s press release.
Elbit’s own descriptions of WiT™ do not necessarily suggest that the system’s capabilities will endanger the rights of law-abiding citizens. It will be up to the government to employ the technology in a legal and transparent manner.
“From my work in ICT Policy, we know that government has not censored content or prevented access -- except a telecom shutdown in May 2011 -- but various legislative proposals have hinted at possible clampdown,” Sesan said.
Better Internet security may well be necessary, but the darkness surrounding the deal with Elbit has left many Nigerians with misgivings. There is a clear risk that the sophisticated system will confer unchecked power to the administration if better regulations are not in place by the time of its alleged implementation.
A Nigerian newspaper claims to have exposed a controversial new agreement between the country's central government and an Israeli defense electronics company.
Many details remain hazy, and the report is unconfirmed by both the administration and the company. But if the allegations are true, Nigeria is working toward the implementation of a new national intelligence and surveillance system, and concerned citizens worry that their constitutional rights could be at risk.
The report came in the Thursday edition of the Premium Times, which is based in the capital city of Abuja. It followed a Wednesday press release from Elbit Systems (ESLT:TLV) announcing that the company had been awarded a contract worth about $40 million to “supply a country in Africa with the Wise Intelligence Technology (WiT™) System for Intelligence Analysis and Cyber Defense,” adding that the system would be “supplied within two years.”
The Premium Times cited anonymous “multiple and very reliable sources in the administration” of President Goodluck Jonathan as saying that Nigeria was in fact the unnamed country in the press release.
“Our sources say the contract will now help the Jonathan administration access all computers and read all email correspondences of citizens in what is clearly an infringement on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression,” the article noted.
On Monday, an Elbit spokesperson said that the company was aware of the reports but refused to comment on their accuracy. Nigerian officials did not respond to requests for elucidation.
“The Premium Times story is credible, and they have a reputation for breaking uncomfortable but true stories,” said Gbenga Sesan, founder and executive director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, an organization that uses information and communications technology, or ICT, to bring about social change for Nigerian youths.
“The fact that government has not denied this -- which they're [usually] quick to do -- also lends some credibility to the story,” Sesan added.
While silence reigns on both sides of the alleged deal, debates have raged over the accuracy of the report and the true scope of the capabilities of the WiT™ system. Some argue that the technology could be useful to combat terrorism, corruption and cybercrime; others worry that Abuja could use the system to clamp down on the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.
Those citizens have plenty of reasons to mistrust the central government. Modern Nigeria’s democratic system is still young; the country suffered decades of instability under a series of autocratic military rulers until 1999. Still today, a whopping 94 percent of citizens say corruption is widespread, according to a Gallup poll conducted last year.
Nigeria’s crude oil revenues have helped the sub-Saharan country achieve a GDP of about $235 billion, the second-highest in Africa according to World Bank data. But more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is more than 20 percent. Infrastructure, especially in the country's rural areas, is underdeveloped. A pattern of fiscal mismanagement has discouraged international investment and assistance.
The government has failed to invest in the refineries necessary to convert its abundant crude into refined product, so Nigeria actually imports fuel and spends billions of dollars on subsidies so that citizens can purchase it at an affordable price. A parliamentary investigation last year revealed that this import-and-subsidize program is riddled with corruption.
Criticism of the administration is frequent and generally well-tolerated. “There isn’t any concrete or tangible evidence of censorship, blocking Internet material or filtering content,” Mai Truong, an Africa analyst at Freedom House, said. "But many Internet users in Nigeria believe there's some kind of monitoring going on."
There are plenty of signs the government would prefer to silence dissent. The State Security Service, a national intelligence agency that formed during the period of military rule, has a spotty relationship with the press. Agents have detained and harassed media workers. Just this month, four journalists were arrested for reporting on alleged underhanded practices within the administration.
In this environment, there is great concern that a sophisticated system like WiT™ would only enable governmental abuses directed at the rapidly expanding number of Nigerians online.
Online connectivity has ramped up considerably along with a fast-growing and increasingly young population. About 163 million people live in Nigeria, more than in any other African country, and about 70 percent of them are under the age of 30.
More than 11 million Nigerians had Internet access in 2008; only three years later, that number had skyrocketed to 46 million, according to a report from Freedom House. Internet communications are playing an increasingly important role in politics; they are often used by grassroots groups to mobilize young voters or rally support for certain causes.
These rapid changes have surpassed the regulatory capacities of government agencies. Laws to combat online crime and protect content owners are sorely lacking, leaving users and businesses vulnerable. There is no data privacy act. A piece of legislation called the Cyber Security Bill is in the works, but it has stalled in the drafting stages for years.
In the meantime, Nigeria has gained a reputation for spawning Internet frauds, which are often called 419 scams after the Nigerian penal code section addressing these online schemes. They involve criminals who reach out to victims -- typically in Western, English-speaking countries like the United States and the United Kingdom -- via email, dating services or chat forums.
The stereotype is that of the Nigerian prince seeking assistance for a transfer of funds, but scamming methods have evolved over the past several years and can involve a wide variety of conjured scenarios.
According to data from Utrascan AGI, a global network of experts that investigates online crime, worldwide losses to 419 scams exceed $750 million annually.
“We, as a nation, are not very ready to fight cybercrime,” Nigerian Communication Commission Director Sylvanus Ehikioya said to Premium Times last month. “The necessary infrastructure, in terms of legal and technical infrastructure, has not been put in place yet.”
WiT™, once implemented, might help to improve online security. The system has wide-ranging capabilities; it can make use of everything from satellite imagery to email monitoring to phone conversations.
“A highly advanced end-to-end solution, WiT™ supports every stage of the intelligence process, including the collection of the data from multiple sources, databases and sensors, processing of the information, supporting intelligence personnel in the analysis and evaluation of the information and disseminating the intelligence to the intended recipient,” according to last week’s press release.
Elbit’s own descriptions of WiT™ do not necessarily suggest that the system’s capabilities will endanger the rights of law-abiding citizens. It will be up to the government to employ the technology in a legal and transparent manner.
“From my work in ICT Policy, we know that government has not censored content or prevented access -- except a telecom shutdown in May 2011 -- but various legislative proposals have hinted at possible clampdown,” Sesan said.
Better Internet security may well be necessary, but the darkness surrounding the deal with Elbit has left many Nigerians with misgivings. There is a clear risk that the sophisticated system will confer unchecked power to the administration if better regulations are not in place by the time of its alleged implementation.
OAS Helicopter Services provides offshore helicopter support. We can fly under more varied conditions, IFR as well as VFR, to Rigs, no matter how far offshore!
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OAS Helicopters .
2 fatal accidents in their AS350s, one flying into a set of power lines in bad weather, the other flying into hills in bad weather.
Captain Evarest is a charming man, but operating singles into a heliport in a densely populated area next to a filling station always seems a bit chancy.
They have signed an MOU with Gulf Helicopters, whose Fred Layton is always ready to give his old employer, Bristow a bit of competition.
However, as an indigenous company they do have a commercial advantage over Nigerian and foreign operators. They have been around for quite a few years now and despite the setbacks of the accidents, seem to be expanding as they have little competition in the onshore market in Nigeria as yet.
.2 fatal accidents in their AS350s, one flying into a set of power lines in bad weather, the other flying into hills in bad weather.
Captain Evarest is a charming man, but operating singles into a heliport in a densely populated area next to a filling station always seems a bit chancy.
They have signed an MOU with Gulf Helicopters, whose Fred Layton is always ready to give his old employer, Bristow a bit of competition.
However, as an indigenous company they do have a commercial advantage over Nigerian and foreign operators. They have been around for quite a few years now and despite the setbacks of the accidents, seem to be expanding as they have little competition in the onshore market in Nigeria as yet.