World News | Security Forces Fire Tear Gas as Anti-government Protests Break out Across Nigeria

Abuja (Nigeria), Aug 1 (AP) Thousands of mostly young people poured onto the streets across Nigeria on Thursday as they protested against the country's worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters in several places.

In Abuja, where a court granted an order late Wednesday to restrict the protest to a stadium, Nigerian police officers were seen firing tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters that gathered a few kilometers (miles) from the Presidential Villa.

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The police also fired tear gas at protesters in Bauchi and Borno states in the conflict-battered northeast. It was not immediately clear if security forces made any arrests.

Nigeria's public officials, frequently accused of corruption, are among the best paid in Africa, a stark contrast in a country that, despite being one of the continent's top oil producers, also has some of the world's poorest and hungriest people.

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Roads were blocked in parts of the country by either placard-carrying protesters or armed security forces, who were deployed overnight after days of mobilization for protests against the government of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. Some groups also staged protests in support of the Nigerian leader.

Rights groups and activists had raised concerns about a possible clampdown on the protests. Comments in recent days suggest “a troubling readiness to stifle dissent, heightening fears of a violent crackdown,” the international rights group Human Rights Watch said.

Many businesses across the country were also shut on Thursday amid fears the protests could be a replay of the deadly 2020 demonstrations against police brutality in the West African nation — or a wave of violence similar to last month's protests in Kenya, where a tax hike led to chaos in the capital, Nairobi.

Though originally planned for 10 days, Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential aspirant and one of the protest organizers, said they won't back down until their demands are met.

The protesters said they are also aggrieved over the country's deadly security crises in the conflict-battered north, which Tinubu had promised to end when he was campaigning for president.

Fourteen months into office, the country's security and economic crises have persisted, and even worsened in some instances, official statistics show. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)