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Red Cross: Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region ‘largely inaccessible’
Ethiopia’s embattled northern region of Tigray remains largely inaccessible, the International Red Cross said Wednesday. The situation has led to starvation deaths, the organization said. “Eighty percent of the Tigray is unreachable at this particular time,” president of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, Abera Tola, told a press conference. “People in Tigray need everything: food and food items, water and sanitation, medical supplies, and mobile clinics. And humanitarian organizations need access to Tigray to reach the most vulnerable. And this is a call to hold the parties involved: give us safe and unhindered access, respect our teams, respect the medical doctors, respect the health facilities, respect the health workers”, said Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of...
2023: APC’ll win Delta if leaders are less cantankerous – Cairo Ojougboh
Immediate past Interim Executive Director of Project, EDP on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, has said the All Progressives Congress, APC has a better prospect to win Delta State in 2023 if the leaders of the party could cooperate, began to be less cantankerous and do not match their ambition with hostility with other party members. Ojougboh who stated this while speaking on the sidelines of sensitisation of party members in Ika South on the registration/revalidation exercise of the party said the APC remained the most popular party in Delta but lamented that members have not been able to utilise such popularity to win elections over the years because of squabbles among leaders. Hear him: “APC is the most popular party in Delta State for a very ...
DPR to upgrade downstream petroleum sector operations
File Photo The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Tuesday, disclosed that it plans to upgrade operations in the downstream petroleum industry, leveraging on its ongoing automation process. In a statement in Abuja, Director/Chief Executive Officer of the DPR, Engineer Sarki Auwalu, stated that the upgrade would be to global standards and would be driven by its deployment of improved technology. Auwalu, who was speaking at a virtual meeting with members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, in Abuja, noted that the DPR was currently deploying appropriate technology to enhance value for operators and investors alike in the downstream sector . Specifically, Auwalu explained that the DPR had concluded plans to launch the Downstream Remote Monitoring Systems, DRMS, an in...
Archbishop Kaigama: Why Nigerians are afraid to accept coronavirus vaccine
File Photo Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, His Grace Most Revd. Ignatius Kaigama, on Sunday, said many Nigerians are afraid to accept the COVID-19 vaccine because they believe that the health crisis was being manipulated by some people. Kaigama, who stated this in Abuja during his homily at St. Jude’s Parish Zuba, however, urged Nigerians to disregard insinuations that the vaccine was not medically safe and affordable. He said, “Even though many today will seriously question facts about COVID-19 and fear that there is manipulation by some people, we know that the disease is real. “People very dear to us have died of coronavirus disease. There is no doubt that our world is currently sick, ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The fear today is that the menace of Coronavirus will continue to be w...
Nigeria expects 41 million coronavirus vaccine doses from African Union
Nigeria expects to receive 41 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from the African Union, the head of the country’s primary healthcare agency said on Monday, while the health minister said vaccines from Russia and India were being considered. Authorities in Africa’s most populous country, which has 200 million people, plan to inoculate 40% of the population this year and another 30% in 2022. The African Union initially secured 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states. Last week it was announced that the bloc would receive another 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Faisal Shuaib, who heads the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said Nigeria’s previous request for 10 million doses through the AU had been increased four-fold. “We have applied...
Ugandan government withdraws troops from Bobi Wine’s house
Ugandan soldiers stood down their positions around the residence of opposition leader Bobi Wine on Tuesday, a day after a court-ordered an end to the confinement of the presidential runner-up. Wine, a popstar-turned-MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, had been under de-facto house arrest at his home outside the capital Kampala since he returned from voting in January 14’s election. For 11 days heavily armed soldiers and police officers surrounding the property had prevented members of Wine’s household, including his wife Barbie, from leaving their compound, as well as denying access to visitors. But security forces withdrew from around Wine’s house on Tuesday, allowing the opposition leader to convene with newly-elected MPs from his National Unity Platform (NUP) for the first time sin...
Lagos chamber projects positive economic recovery by Q2
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has projected a return to positive growth path for the Nigerian economy in the second quarter of 2021. Mrs Toki Mabogunje, President, LCCI, addressing journalists at the first edition of the chamber’s quarterly news conference, said the projection was subject to the absence of major economic shocks. Mabogunje, however, said that the projected recovery was expected to be subdued within the region of one per cent. “Projections by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund put Nigeria’s annual average growth for year 2021 at 1.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively. “Expectation of slow growth momentum reflects the lingering effects of the pandemic on the Nigerian economy and prospects of stricter containment measures considering th...
PTF: Nigeria records four cases of UK coronavirus variant strain
Mr Boss Mustapha, Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said Nigeria recorded four cases of COVID-19, B117 variant strain, first reported in the UK. The PTF chairman made the disclosure at national briefing on Monday in Abuja. Mustapha said; “over the last few weeks, the PTF had been closely following the rising number of infections reported daily in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions. “Similarly, our scientists have been sequencing the variants of the virus. “There have been reports of cases with the B117 variant strain first reported in the UK, found in Nigeria. Three of these were in travelers out of Nigeria and one in a resident,”. He also stated that the daily statistics for Nigeria as at January 24, 2020 showed that cas...
Rights group urges lifting Ugandan social media ban
Amnesty International is calling for Ugandan officials to lift bans on social media imposed ahead of Thursday’s election. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced on Tuesday that the government had shut down social media. On Jan. 9, Facebook deleted dozens of pro-Ugandan government accounts, saying they were “fake.” Museveni characterized Facebook’s action as arrogant. “It is alarming that the Ugandan authorities have suspended social media networks including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp and restricted people’s right to freedom of expression and access to information,” said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, in a press release. Amnesty International said the move was intended to silence journalists, election o...
Minister: Tests on NYSC members confirm coronavirus is everywhere in Nigeria
The Federal Government says it has further confirmed from results of tests conducted on prospective National Youth Service Corps members confirmed that no part of the country was free of COVID-19. The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja at a briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. “We safely and comfortably drew this conclusion because corps members are mobilised from all the states of the country for each of the orientation camps,”the Minister said while warning that increasing cases of COVID-19 are imposing enormous burden on the nation’s health facilities. He said that the 18,699 active COVID-19 cases were stretching health facilities. “With the increased number of confirmed cases, the number of active cases ha...
AfDB grants $11.26 million for women, girls’ education in Chad
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a grant of $11.26 million to the Government of Chad to finance the Girls’ Education and Women’s Literacy Project – the bank’s first grant exclusively targeting women and girls. The project will be financed from the Bank’s Transition Support Facility and will be implemented over a five-year period by the Chadian Ministry of National Education and Civic Promotion, in coordination with partners involved in the education sector, civil society organisations, and youth organisations. The Chadian government will contribute a non-monetary contribution of $713,000 towards the program. “Through this financing, the African Development Bank is providing support to the Chadian government to reduce inequalities through access to educati...
Poland puts into effect new restrictions on abortion
Poland’s government put into effect on Wednesday a constitutional court decision banning terminations of pregnancies with foetal defects, as conservative policies increasingly take root in one of Europe’s most devout Catholic countries. The Oct. 22 ruling had led to weeks of massive protests, forcing the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government to delay its implementation. Small protests gathered late on Wednesday following an announcement PiS would take the official step to enforce the decision imminently, and abortion rights activists announced more would take place on Thursday. Abortion has emerged as one of the most divisive issues since PiS took power in 2015, promising poorer, older and less educated Poles a return to a traditional society mixed with generous welfare policies. Th...