American rap superstar Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, popularly known as Nicki Minaj, has lent her voice to the growing international call to end the violence perpetrated by insurgents and bandits in northern Nigeria.

While delivering a keynote address at a United States Mission to the United Nations conference on “Combating Religious Violence and the Killing of Christians in Nigeria,” the Grammy-winning artist demanded that no group should ever be persecuted because of their faith.

Amid calls for urgent global action to address Nigeria’s deepening insecurity crisis, she clarified that her intention is to unite humanity and not to take sides.

“I want to make it very clear, once again, that this isn’t about taking sides. This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for,” she said.

The rapper thanked “President Trump for prioritizing this issue and for his leadership on the global stage in calling for urgent action to defend Christians in Nigeria, to combat extremism, and to bring a stop to violence against those who simply want to exercise their natural right to freedom of religion or belief.”

Some weeks ago, President Donald Trump had raised concerns over what he described as the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria.

He asked the country’s authorities to address the issue and declared Nigeria a country of particular concern (CPC).

Trump later threatened a military action in Nigeria if the killings continued.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now-disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians”.

The Nigerian authorities have, however, denied the allegations, saying it respects people of all faiths.

“Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength. Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion, in concurrence with the rules-based international order,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said in a statement.

The BBC apologised on Monday for editing a speech that gave the impression US President Donald Trump made “a direct call for violent action” just before the 2021 US Capitol assault, calling it “an error of judgment”.

A growing furore around the issue prompted the dramatic resignations on Sunday of two of the broadcaster’s top brass and celebrations — as well as a rebuke — from the White House.

It has also reopened debate in the UK over the BBC, cherished by many but which has faced long-standing accusations of institutional bias, regularly from those on the political right and, more recently, from those on the left as well.

In a letter to MPs on Monday, BBC chairman Samir Shah said it accepted that the way Trump’s speech was edited in a flagship documentary “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action”.

“The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgment,” he added, vowing to reform oversight at the publicly funded broadcaster, among other things.

It came hours after director general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness resigned amid the escalating backlash over the issue.

Trump promptly celebrated, accusing BBC journalists of being “corrupt” and “dishonest”.

His press secretary called the broadcaster “100-per cent fake news”.

But Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman pushed back on Monday.

“The BBC has a vital role in an age of disinformation,” he said, although he stressed, “It’s important that the BBC acts swiftly to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur.”

The controversy comes as the government prepares to begin a politically sensitive review of the BBC’s charter, which outlines the corporation’s governance and funding framework.

The current charter ends in 2027.

The broadcaster, which has faced a prolonged period of stretched finances and cut hundreds of jobs in recent years, is funded by a licence fee paid by anyone who watches live TV in the UK.


Some have welcomed the resignations as a timely reckoning for the British institution, while others fear the influence of right-wing detractors, including in the United States.

Former BBC journalist Karen Fowler-Watt, head of the journalism department at City St George’s University in London, told AFP the institution was “now really in a situation of crisis”.

She noted it was “very difficult not to see this as a right-wing attack, given the media ecosystem in which we all now live”.

Former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson had threatened to stop paying his licence fee, while current Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the resignations following a “catalogue of serious failures”.

But Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, urged Starmer to tell Trump to “keep his hands off” the BBC.

“It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him,” he said.

On the streets of central London, Britons were both critical and sympathetic towards the broadcaster.

Jimmy, who works in construction and declined to give his surname, told AFP the BBC’s reputation had been “tarnished” and it had “shown that they’re not impartial”.

But a 78-year-old writer, Jennifer Kavanagh, said it has “always been attacked from the right and from the left”.

“They can never get it right,” said Kavanagh.

The crisis grew after the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper reported last week that impartiality concerns were raised in an internal memo by Michael Prescott, a former external standards adviser.

Among them was criticism over clips spliced together from sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, when he was accused of fomenting the mob attack on the US Capitol following the 2020 US presidential election.

The edit made it appear that Trump had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and “fight like hell”.

In the original clip, however, the president urged the audience in the intervening period to walk with him and added, “And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.

Earlier this year, the BBC apologised for “serious flaws” in the making of another documentary, about Gaza, which the UK’s media watchdog deemed “materially misleading”.

It also faced criticism for failing to pull a livestream of punk-rap duo Bob Vylan during this year’s Glastonbury festival after its frontman made anti-Israel comments.

Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday called his imprisonment a “nightmare” as prosecutors requested the former French president be released from jail pending an appeals trial over Libyan funding.

A lower court in September found the right-winger — who was head of state from 2007 to 2012 — guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Moamer Kadhafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected, and sentenced him to five years behind bars.

The 70-year-old entered jail on October 21, becoming the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated, and his lawyers swiftly sought his release.

The Paris Appeals Court opened the hearing on Monday, and was expected to make a decision during the day that could see Sarkozy released immediately.

The former leader appeared via video call from prison, wearing a dark blue jacket and flanked by lawyers, saying being incarcerated was “gruelling”.

“It’s hard, very hard, certainly for any prisoner. I would even say it’s gruelling,” he said, however adding that prison staff had made “this nightmare… bearable”.

Prosecutor Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s request for release be granted.

“The risks of collusion and pressure on witnesses justify the request for release under judicial supervision,” he said.

In the courtroom showing their support were his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s sons.

The lower court in late September ordered Sarkozy to go to jail, even if he appealed, due to the “exceptional gravity” of the conviction.

But the appeals case means that Sarkozy is now presumed innocent again, and the court will therefore be evaluating his need for pre-trial detention.

Under French law, he can only be kept behind bars if no other way can be found to safeguard evidence, prevent witness tampering, stop him from escaping or reoffending, or to protect him.

Otherwise, Sarkozy will be allowed out under judicial control, and perhaps put under house arrest with an electronic ankle tag.

The appeals trial is due to take place in March.