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Nigeria
Yinka Oshiletu, a British-Nigerian hip hop dancer is bringing Afrobeats sounds to Japan's young dancers.
Ten Nigerians who hijacked a Chinese fishing vessel and kidnapped crew members in May last year have been sentenced to 12 years, the first custodial sentence under an anti-piracy law passed in 2019.
A Federal High Court judge also ordered the guilty men to pay a fine of $600 (£435) and said they were "an embarrassment to the nation" that had "impacted the economy negatively", the Reuters news agency reports.
In August last year, a court in southern Nigeria made the first convictions under the new anti-piracy law when it fined three men for hijacking a tanker off the coast of Equatorial Guinea and securing a $200,000 ransom for the crew.
The merchant shipping industry has long pressed Nigeria to take action in the seas in the region, which have been dubbed “pirate alley”.
The area accounts for over 90% of maritime kidnappings globally, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Nigeria has received the first six of 12 military aircraft it bought from the United States, which are expected to boost its efforts in tackling violence by various armed groups.
The A-29 Super Tucano planes landed in the northern city of Kano on Thursday afternoon and were received by Defence Minister Bashir Magashi and other military chiefs.
Nigeria had placed an order for a dozen military planes from the US, which took a few years to manufacture.
The remaining six are expected to arrive in the country in October, Nigeria's Air Force spokesperson Edward Gabkwet told the BBC.
The planes are expected to help in surveillance and airstrikes against insurgents and other criminal gangs.
The country is grappling with an insurgency by Boko Haram that has raged for more than decade killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions of others mainly in the north-east.
Armed criminal gangs have also stepped up violence including killings and kidnappings for ransom across the West African country.
On Sunday bandits shot down a military plane in the north-west, in a rare case of a military jet being brought down by a criminal gang.
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