What's being done to end the conflict?



With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, the international community long ago concluded that only a political solution could end the conflict. The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique, which envisages a transitional governing body with full executive powers "formed on the basis of mutual consent".

UN-mediated peace talks, known as the Geneva II process, began in early 2014. Nine rounds have now taken place, the latest in January 2018. Delegations have been asked to discuss constitutional reform and holding free and fair elections. However, little progress has been made.

President Assad has appeared increasingly unwilling to negotiate with the opposition, which despite suffering repeated reversals on the battlefield still insists that he must step down as part of any settlement.

Almost 5.6 million people - most of them women and children - have fled Syria, according to the UN. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history.

About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the burden. A further 6.1 million people are internally displaced inside Syria.



The UN estimates it will need $3.5bn to help the 13.1 million people who will require some form of humanitarian assistance inside Syria in 2018. Almost 70% of population is living in extreme poverty. Six million face acute food insecurity amid shortages and inflated prices. In some areas, people are spending 15-20% of their income to secure access to drinking water.

The warring parties have compounded the problems by refusing humanitarian agencies access to many of those in need. Some 2.98 million people live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas.

What impact has the war had?


The UN says at least 250,000 people have been killed. However, the organisation stopped updating its figures in August 2015.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported in December 2017 that it had documented the deaths of more than 346,600 people, including 103,000 civilians. But it noted that the figure did not include 56,900 people who were missing and presumed dead.

In February 2016, a think-tank estimated that the conflict had caused 470,000 deaths, either directly or indirectly.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which is also seeking to counter Iranian influence, has been a major provider of military and financial assistance to the rebels.

Turkey is another staunch supporter of the rebels. However, it has used them to contain the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia that dominates the SDF. Ankara accuses the YPG of being an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades.

In August 2016, Turkish troops backed a rebel offensive to drive IS out of one of the last stretches of the Syrian side of the border not controlled by the Kurds, around Jarablus and al-Bab. In January 2018, another operation was launched to drive the YPG out of the north-western Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

The US, which says President Assad is responsible for widespread atrocities, supports the opposition and once provided military assistance to "moderate" rebels. It has also conducted air strikes on IS in Syria since September 2014, but has only targeted pro-government forces on a few occasions.

In April 2017, President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike on an air base which the US said was behind a deadly chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Washington's key ally on the ground has been an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Since 2015, its fighters have driven IS militants out of most of the territory they controlled in Syria.

In January 2018, the US said it would maintain an open-ended military presence in SDF-controlled territory to ensure the enduring defeat of IS, counter Iranian influence, and help end the civil war.

Mr Assad is Iran's closest Arab ally and Syria is the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support government forces.

Israel has been so concerned by Hezbollah's acquisition of advanced weaponry and what it calls Iran's "entrenchment" in Syria that it has carried out dozens of air strikes seeking to thwart them.

Two months later, President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian forces, but they have continued to conduct air strikes across the country.

Shia power Iran is believed to be spending billions of dollars a year to bolster the Alawite-dominated government, providing military advisers and subsidised weapons, as well as lines of credit and oil transfers. It is also widely reported to have deployed hundreds of combat troops in Syria.

Why are so many outside powers involved?



Russia, for whom President Assad's survival is critical to maintaining its interests in Syria, launched an air campaign in September 2015 with the aim of "stabilising" the government. Moscow stressed that it would target only "terrorists", but activists said its strikes repeatedly hit Western-backed rebel groups and civilian areas.

The intervention has turned the tide of the war in Mr Assad's favour. Intense Russian air and missile strikes were decisive in the battle for rebel-held eastern Aleppo in late 2016, while Russian special forces and mercenaries helped break the long-running IS siege of Deir al-Zour in September 2017.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State (IS) group seized control of large swathes of north-eastern Syria. It now controls only a few isolated pockets of territory after being driven from its urban strongholds by Russian-backed government forces, Turkish-backed rebel brigades, and a Kurdish militia alliance supported by the US.

Thousands of Shia militiamen from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen are fighting alongside the Syrian army, in order, they say, to protect Shia holy sites.

External powers have also been accused of fostering sectarianism in what was a broadly secular state, pitching the country's Sunni majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect. Such divisions have encouraged both sides to commit atrocities that have not only caused loss of life but also torn apart communities, hardened positions and dimmed hopes for a political settlement.

Jihadist groups have also seized on the divisions, and their rise has added a further dimension to the war. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance formed by what was once the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, controls large parts of the north-west.

Why has the war lasted so long?




In essence, it has become more than just a battle between those for or against Mr Assad.

A key factor has been the intervention of regional and world powers, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Their military, financial and political support for the government and opposition has contributed to the intensification and continuation of the fighting, and turned Syria into a proxy battleground.

In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations inspired by the Arab Spring erupted in the southern city of Deraa. The government's use of deadly force to crush the dissent soon triggered nationwide protests demanding the president's resignation.

As the unrest spread, the crackdown intensified. Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their areas. Mr Assad vowed to crush "foreign-backed terrorism" and restore state control.




The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war as hundreds of rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces.

How did the war begin?

Long before it started, many Syrians complained about high unemployment, widespread corruption, a lack of political freedom and state repression under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000.

What began as a peaceful uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad seven years ago became a full-scale civil war that has left more than 340,000 people dead, devastated the country and drawn in global powers.

wakaman:


Okay, BBC, Al-Jazeera.
I would talk this with a pinch of salt, as there is outside the fire fight war there's also a propaganda war being fuelled by the west, they want to use the" give a dog a bad name so to hang it" like they did in Iraq, Libya.

The west is war mongering.
But thanks to Mr Putin.
The era of taking unilateral actions against sovereign states is over!

what are they fighting for? I really don't understand.

Lightening:


A bull in a China ware shop spotted. You cannever remove this terrible reputation of the Northerners through insult. Facts are sacred.
Btw go get your mate to trade insults.

that man is an igbo man. Lol. Quite a rare breed honestly

ehie:
KEEP IT UP AND YOU WILL GO VERY FAR IN LIFE

Amen, yeah, I am still same person lol Funny enough, they were envying me when I received all the gift, some even wanted to know how much I collected but they forgot when they were almost fighting me for teaching on CDS day which was supposed to be free days for corpers, telling me to stop as it appear like other corpers are lazy blah blah... A lot of people wanna reap where they didn't sow.

Olalan:
Nice gesture from Mirosoft. A lesson to all about doing our duties well even in the face of limitations you never can tell who's observing

I could remember when I was serving for NYSC, I gave my best and even organized free mathematics classes for the students on weekends so much that by the end of that year, I was top on the list of most gifted corper with gifts flying from all section of the school, both in cash and material gift. One woman gave me clean towel, white. It is good to be selfless, IMO.

I don't even know whether it is the luck that is following me since then because I gave the children freely. But some people will go to serve and be condemning the program, calling it all sort of things. Most do not even carry out their duties but would be at the front line during clearance for alloweeeee

QuotaSystem:


What silly achievements recognised by whom? They don't even meet your specifications talk more of meeting mine...besides what "south" are you talking about because from this thread all we have down there is east and the better west.

Meanwhile focus because your pipe dream of SU is being blown to pieces on the daily, if you weren't so naive you should have known your mission was DOA. No wonder you were hiding from the thread on the Kano-Lagos Economic Summit

Like I said, good luck

Kano Lagos what? like I don't have something else to chase abi? I am not your kind of regular Nairalander, if you expect me to follow every thread on Nairaland. I saw the thread but didn't read it as I have more important things offline to attend when the thread popped up.

At the end of the day, the North still has the highest illiterates in Nigeria, The highest poverty stricken populace in Nigeria

Andela, a tech training and development outsourcer for African coders, raises $40M

[img]https://tctechcrunch2011.files./2015/06/andela2.jpg?w=738[/img]
Andela, a startup that trains developers in Africa and hires them out to global tech companies, has raised $40 million in Series C funding.

The financing came from CRE Venture Capital, a pan-African venture firm, with additional participation from DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and Africa-focused TLcom Capital.

Previous investors, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, and Spark Capital, also joined in funding what is now one of the most highly funded African company not based in Africa.

Andela says it will use the money to fund aggressive expansion plans — including the launch of two additional offices in other African countries.

But the financing comes as some local entrepreneurs have told us they worry about Andela taking money and attention away from other startups which are actually based on the ground in the continent.

The company was launched in 2014 to train African software developers and place them in jobs at some of the world’s top technology firms. The idea was to take an underutilized talent pool to help alleviate a global shortage of software developers. As the company notes, roughly 1.3 million software jobs went unfilled in the U.S. in 2016 alone.

Andela has built up campuses in Lagos, Nigeria, Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda to train coders and then put them to work on projects for companies such as Mastercard Labs, Viacom, GitHub, and Gusto.

[img]https://tctechcrunch2011.files./2015/06/andela1.jpg?w=1024&h=683[/img]

To date, the company has hired 500 developers — which it calls the 0.7% — from its applicant pool of more than 70,000 candidates.

Andela pays its employees a minimal salary for the first six months after they join but gives them each a laptop, provides subsidized housing, and offers two meals per-day. That’s in addition to technical and professional skills development, leadership training, and mentorship. The company says it invests $15,000 in each developer during this period.

After the six months, once developers are promoted and begin client work, Andela says it pays a salary that is competitive within their local tech ecosystem. That goes up to around $2,500/pm in Lagos and around $3,000/pm in Nairobi.

Andela co-founder Jeremy Johnson calls the business a “mission-driven, for-profit company”. Indeed, he says Andela has “become a poster-child for that — that you can actually build businesses that create real impact”.

A slew of U.S. tech titans from Mark Zuckerberg to Steve Case have praised the company for just that but the feeling from some local African entrepreneurs is that Andela may actually be slowing the pace of the tech industry’s development on the continent. They argue it is taking badly needed tech talent away from the local ecosystem just as it’s getting started.

In a statement published earlier today on Medium, Seni Sulyman, Andela’s country director for Nigeria, rejected that criticism — claiming it is bringing benefits to the local tech industry:

“From their experiences building world-class tech products for our partner companies, they are preparing to elevate technology products built in Africa. While doing this, they are already contributing locally, through initiatives like TeenCode, which supports schools in preparing teenagers for tech-enabled futures. Our developers are the heart and soul of our organization, and they are the future of our continent. We’ve always believed in them; we’re glad the world increasingly does so too.”

To further head off the criticism that’s coming from more than a few corners of the African tech world, Andela is touting its partnerships with organizations like Google and Pluralsight to provide mentorship to developers — and also the open sourcing of its curriculum.

The company says the skills it provides to developers working at global companies will also make them better leaders of their local tech communities when they finish their two-year contracts.

“Over the past three years, we’ve helped prove to the world that brilliance is evenly distributed. It’s now time to prove that our model of investing in extraordinary people isn’t just viable but revolutionary,” adds Johnson in a statement. “Increasingly, African technologists will be launching high-impact companies and solving some of the world’s most pressing problems, and this round will help that happen faster.”

Johnson is right but the African technologists that he speaks of are launching their companies right now. Witness startups such as Pagatech and Jumia that could be, or already are, billion dollar businesses that started locally.

Competition to the Andela model is also coming in the form of the Moringa School, which places developers in local tech companies after they complete their training.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/10/andela-a-tech-training-and-development-outsourcer-for-african-coders-raises-40m/

This is the company that made Mark Zuckerberg step his legs ON THE soil of Nigeria for the FIRST TIME.

How Andela Was Founded – Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

Editor’s note: You probably already know that talent accelerator, Andela raised $24 million in a funding round led by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. What you may not know is that media coverage of the funding sparked a controversy on Nigerian Tech Twitter about its founding narrative. This morning though, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Andela’s co-founder set the record straight with a 5-minute read on his Medium page. Here it is, from the horse’s mouth.

Last week was a huge milestone for African startups.

A company jointly founded in Nigeria and the U.S. is getting a significant investment and attention from Mark Zuckerberg — one of the most important people in Silicon Valley. During such a pivotal moment, it is important for me to share Andela’s history and inspire many other entrepreneurs through my story of failure, success and collaboration.



In 2013, Ian Carnevale, Nadayar, Brice and I started Fora, a distance learning platform for African universities. We reached out to Jeremy Johnson because of the similarities between his company at the time, 2U, and what we were hoping to build in Africa. We met at his office in NYC and then stayed in touch. From time to time, I would ask for feedback and he became my mentor.

In early 2014, it became clear that Fora wasn’t working as we had hoped. We were unable to raise the capital we needed and I did not have the political networks to break through various regulatory barriers we faced. After a long dry spell chasing elusive investors in Nigeria, we finally raised a small round from Extreme Startups — now HIGHLINE.VC. (Marcus Daniels, I love you and I owe you forever). This round was small but it gave us some months of runway. I had two options — pivot Fora before the cash ran out or die. Many of you who are entrepreneurs know this moment too well.

At this crossroad, we reached out to Jeremy again to ask for his advice. He had just gotten back from a trip to Nairobi to give a talk for the MasterCard Foundation. He had been invited out by Christina Sass, now one of Andela’s co-founders, and while there, he started thinking of how one might scale high-quality education without charging tuition.

We met up at the Fresh and Co. on 28th and Park in NYC and I told him Fora wasn’t working. We kicked around a few rough ideas and he walked me through one which would eventually become Andela. He promised to personally fund us and join our board if we were willing to consider it. I told Jeremy to give me 24 hours to think about it and talk to my team.

My team was intrigued and inspired by the model, though it was risky. Ultimately, Nad (one of my co-founders at Fora) convinced us that the new model was even more aligned with our mission to empower young Africans to take back the continent through education. The next day, we got on Skype and told Jeremy we were in.

Initially, we figured we would just try to pivot Fora as planned — we even ran the first recruitment and bootcamp as Fora. However, we quickly realized that Andela was actually a totally separate company, so we decided to start anew and wrap up Fora. Around the same time, Jeremy realized that he just couldn’t stop thinking about Andela, and told us that if we were interested, he would leave 2U to co-found the company with us and lead it day-to-day.

I was very excited to have Jeremy join full-time as our CEO. First, I knew I could learn a lot from working with Jeremy. Second, 2U had just gone public and he was (and still is) easily one of the highest profile entrepreneurs in education. Raising capital for a crazy, unproven idea like ours would be a bit easier with him on board. I do not, for a second, regret that decision. As our remarkable success in such a short time has shown, it was the right move.

Shortly thereafter, we convinced Christina Sass, who Jeremy had originally tossed the idea around with in Nairobi, to join us as well and drop out of her PhD program at Harvard. (Crazy eh?)

At this point, we decided to wind down Fora and create a totally separate company, called Andela, with Jeremy, Christina, and the four co-founders of Fora — Ian, Nadayar, Brice and I. Brice and Nadayar were essential to launching Andela. In fact, to begin training the first Andela Fellowship Class, we bought Nad a one-way ticket to Nigeria with a few days notice. He literally up and left his life in Canada on a whim to make this possible.

Despite having to shut down Fora, many of our early investors continued to support us. Some, like Pule Taukobong and Idris Ayodeji Bello, even re-invested in Andela. Today, we joke (not really) that Fora’s early investors have first dibs on investing in my startups for life.

What am I getting at? Andela is a story of people from all over the world coming together to solve a problem. This is one of our primary strengths as a company, and in part why we have attracted investments from great people like Zuckerberg. There would be no Andela without all of these people — two Nigerians (myself and Nadayar), two Americans (Christina and Jeremy), one Canadian (Ian), and one Cameroonian (Brice) — making huge sacrifices to bring it to life.

Andela started in Lagos, Nigeria, in Mrs Titi Adeoye’s (shout-out to her!) vacant duplex in 33c Cameron Road Ikoyi, which she handed us for free for our first two months thanks to a hook up from Yvonne Johnson — an early Fora Investor. The early days were really rocky and we have a lot of people to thank for keeping us alive when it mattered most. I especially need to shout out Bosun Tijani of Co-creation Hub, who gave us free meeting, office and interview spaces, Mr. Oyedotun, who gave us his office in Fadeyi to use, and Mr. Eke, who found us a place to lease for a month on Connal Road, among other early Andela supporters. It is because of all of you, and many others, that we are here today.

Many people have asked why the parent company is based in the U.S. The truth is that while it is possible to build a global company from Nigeria, it is very very difficult. While I have faith that this will improve, Nigeria is still a notoriously difficult place to operate and invest in from a legal point of view. So, since it has always been more important to us to change the world than to make a political point, we incorporated Andela in the U.S.

It is important for my story to be told to inspire other Nigerian founders who can multiply this success. As Andela, we can always do a better job of highlighting our roots in Lagos, clarifying the role of our global hub in the U.S., and making sure our story is told correctly. I care very deeply about that, which is also why I am writing this. It is tough to make sure the press, across multiple countries, tells the entire story from our point of view in 500 words or 30-second clips.

Two years ago, who could have thought a crazy twenty-something-year-old Nigerian from a humble middle class family could co-found a global company from Nigeria funded by THE Mark Zuckerberg? There had to be a melding of people, cultures, and circumstance for this to all happen and I am grateful to have built an amazing team, partnered with supportive investors and worked with outstanding colleagues who have made Andela what it is today.

So let’s celebrate the history we have made and then focus on what’s important — building the future of this continent.

We have work to do.

Source: http://techcabal.com/2016/06/20/how-andela-was-founded-iyinoluwa-aboyeji/

QuotaSystem:
Remedick I can only wish you good luck on your mission

bros, na here u come hide after I started posting achievements of the South abi? running with your tails between your legs... keep running

Ayodejioak:
How did he get the money? Seriously? is that your question?

Poverty is so bad that it wont only limit your reason but also force you to think everyone is reasoning the same way as you.

Some of you have just one job - chasing NL frontage allllllll the time.

What makes you think others are doing the same. Everyone is busy planning their future. Yours depend on you!!

Many people dont even know that dude is with UN or so.

HOLYDICK:
Their own choice bro.....
They can drive keke napep e no concern us
As for me am a man of sleeky styles
As long as u can afford it its not a crime


Team benzino or beema or chevy.!

you are black man...

1stladdy:
Jesus! Are You For Real? May God Help You.

When you learn to raise your kids right, you will not see such comments. The parents have already started sexualizing the little girl who is oblivious of what will befall her in the future. This is why I can't just marry any how girl

Bhelamblog:
Her Name is Kourtney Koko And she's one of the cutest kids have ever seen, her fashion sense and posture is just superb..
With Over 30k Followers on Instagram 2yr old Kourtney has made a beautiful name for herself..
And so as i continue to look for Gossip i stumbled upon her page and mehn i was speechless, couldnt help but bring it here..too cute
Her parents must be very proud.. Say something Nice..
See more below!

News from Ebiwali--
https://www.ebiwalismoment.com/2018/02/2yr-old-little-nigerian-girl-breaks.html?m=1

A 2 year old child has fashion sense abi? Or the fashion sense of her mother? instead of building a child to lead a country, they build a child to warm bed of men.

MasterJayJay:
I am still in need of a loan.

You should at least let people know what the loan would be used for. Do you have a skill? When I need to raise money, I depend on my skill to offer a service and raise that money. That is how I work.

GRACEGLORY:
High pile Hand made Centre Rugs U. K and Turkey made

Clean rugs, don't need dry cleaning and never been dry cleaned

Size: 7/6

Location: Sango Ota Lagos


Price: 20k each




0803 054 6462

Bro, take this to properties and family section

thesicilian:
If he's such a hero how come most of us have never heard of him? Don't get me wrong, my point is, we should learn to celebrate our heroes when they are still alive (which actually benefits them more) than when they are dead, which is of no use to them.

don't mind all these guys shouting biafra everywhere. I am sure many of them didn't even knew this man until now.

I think a thread should be created to list men who fought in that war and the roles they actively played.

nikkypearl:
I don't have a boyfriend
I don't have a girlfriend
I don't have a sugar daddy
I don't use sponge on my face
I don't apply cream on my skin..just make up on my face

was hoping you would create a thread to showcase your architectural drawing and works... U never did after the first made front page

obynzo:


I was born and brought up in Lagos and Honestly it's in the best interest of Lagos the FG develop other ports if not this lekki port would spark off a population explosion and traffic congestion never witnessed before.

I wonder why you need to build lekki port when you have Ibaka, portharcourt, calabar and Onne all begging for upgrade. if we had visionary leaders, the combination of all these ports is enough to turn Nigeria to a hub for shipping in Africa

You are a wise man. They keep screaming Lagos traffic Lagos traffic Lagos traffic but have they ask why it is so? Look no amount of maneuver to fight traffic congestion in Lagos will work except other states start experiencing good pace of development so that people can naturally leave Lagos for these states.