Agence France-Presse
A screengrab captured in November, from a Boko Haram video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group.The Islamic militant group Boko Haram reportedly seized a military camp in northeastern Nigeria.
Nigeria is weeks away from a national election in which incumbent Jonathan Goodluck is being challenged by the former military head of state Muhammadu Buhari. The Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF (NGE) was down 1.8% in recent trading; the Nile Pan Africa Fund (NAFAX) is down 0.3%. Broader measures of emerging markets are lower today, with the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) down 1.2%.
Update: Nigeria is dependent on oil exports and is struggling with the dropping price of oil: the U.S. price dipped below $50 per barrel Monday, while the international Brent oil-price fell more, off by 5.6%, to $53.28 in recent trading.
The Economist reports that the group seized a base used by a multinational task force near Baga, a town in Northeast Nigeria, and attacked the town and others nearby. The Economist reports that Nigerians fled to nearby Chad.
The Guardian reports that 300 Nigerians may be missing:
“They came, many hundreds of them, with guns, trucks and grenades,” said a Baga resident who gave only his first name, Amosun. “They burned all the houses they could reach and set the military base on fire.”
See our recent post on Africa investing, which mentions exchange-traded funds and a handful of mutual funds and stocks to play frontier markets in Africa.
