Ethiopia
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...
CAF clears Ahmad Ahmad for presidential elections
The Confederation of African Football president Ahmad Ahmad has been cleared to contest the body’s elections, scheduled for March 12. The Malagasy official was handed a five-year ban and fined $200,000 by Fifa in November for breaching its code of conduct. Among the allegations levelled against the 61-year-old were offering and accepting gifts, abuse of office and misappropriation of funds, which he has denied. Ahmad subsequently appealed the decision of the world governing body at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and got a temporary respite last month. Cas restored the Malagasy to his post as president of Caf and explained a final decision will be taken before the Caf elections. Following the ruling, Caf’s Governance Committee met to deliberate on the matter and cleared Ahmad to contest...
DR Congo’s president becomes African Union chairman
The DRC’s President Félix Tshisekedi has now taken over the helm of the African Union to serve as the chairman for one-year. He replaces his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, following the AU’s 34th summit on Saturday. But Tshisekedi faces big challenges this year with the coronavirus pandemic hitting health service and economies hard. The continent has so far been hit less hard than other regions, recording 3.5 percent of global virus cases and 4 percent of global deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). But many African countries are battling damaging second waves while straining to procure sufficient vaccine doses. African leaders are speaking out against hoarding by rich countries at the expense of poorer ones. “There is a vaccin...
Nigeria to conduct 450 coronavirus tests per local council
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 says the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will carry out 450 COVID-19 tests in each local government area of the country. The PTF chairman, Mr Boss Mustapha, also Secretary to the Government of the Federation, made this known at the national briefing on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja. Mustapha said the exercise would start with the states that were in the forefront of resourcing and infrastructure. According to him, the PTF has authorised the NCDC to immediately implement the 450 tests per local government plan nationwide. Mustapha said: “We are aware that states are not on the same pedestal in the area of testing, and we shall begin with the states that are in the forefront of resourcing and infrastructure.” On resumption of schools, Mus...
NDLEA intercepts 21.9kg of cocaine at Abuja airport
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja has intercepted 21.9kg of Cocaine. This contained in a statement signed by the NDLEA airport Commander, Mr Kabir Tsakuwa on Monday in Abuja. The statement signed by the agency’s Spokesman, Deputy Commander of Narcotics (DCN) Jonah Achema, the illicit substance concealed in two suite cases was the largest single seizure by the Command. He noted that the two unaccompanied and unclaimed suit cases were discovered after the arrival of Ethiopian Airline, ET 910 in Abuja from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to him, during the inward clearance of the flight, the vigilant officers of the Command became suspicious upon noticing that the two brief cases were abandoned on the conveyor belt without any...
Indonesian plane crashes after take-off with 62 aboard
A Sriwijaya Air plane crashed into the sea on Saturday minutes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. The plane was on a domestic flight with 62 people on board and their fate was not known. The Boeing 737-500, en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan, disappeared from radar screens after taking off just after 2.30 p.m. (0730 GMT) – 30 minutes after the scheduled time because of heavy rain. Indonesian Transport Minister, Budi Karya, told a news conference that 62 people had been aboard Flight SJ 182, including 12 crew. The detik.com website quoted him as saying the plane crashed near Laki Island, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the airport. Rescue agency Basarnas said in a statement it would send a team to the Thousand Islands area to help in the search for victims “after th...
U.S. senators seek possible sanctions over Ethiopia conflict abuses
Two U.S. senators have called on their government to consider imposing sanctions on any political or military officials found to be responsible for human rights violations during a month of conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. The proposed resolution was introduced on Wednesday by Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, and Senator Jim Risch, a Republican. It was the first such call by U.S. lawmakers since war between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) broke out on Nov. 4. The conflict is thought to have killed thousands and displaced more than 950,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, about 50,000 of them into Sudan. Concern has mounted over reports of civilians targeted by both sides, posing a policy dilemma for the United States, whic...
Ethiopia government admits forces ‘shot at’ UN team in Tigray
An Ethiopian spokesman on Tuesday said that the country’s forces fired on a UN team, claiming they ignored instructions and drove through government checkpoints in the northern region of Tigray. The shooting came as the UN and aid agencies are continuing to seek access to northern Ethiopia, more than a week after fighting there was declared over on November 28. “Some of the UN staff were actually detained and some were shot at,” said Redwan Hussein. “They broke two checkpoints to drive to areas where they were not supposed to go, and that they were told not to go. When they were about to break the third one, they were shot at and detained.” Speaking at a press conference in the capital Addis Ababa, Redwan insisted the UN staffers were to blame for Sunday’s incident close to the town of Shi...
Ethiopia aid pact not good enough – EU official
A senior European Union official said on Friday that an agreement between relief organizations and the Ethiopian government for access to the war-hit Tigray region limits aid to federal-controlled areas only and requires too much bureaucracy. “The agreement … has some important shortcomings,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic told reporters. “Humanitarian aid should also go to areas not under government control in line with the fundamental principles of humanitarian aid. There may be malnourished children on the other side also.” There was no immediate reaction from Ethiopia’s government, which says it is channelling aid already into the northern region, where it has battled rebellious local forces for a month. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money ...
United Nations, Ethiopia reach aid pact for war-hit Tigray
Ethiopia and the United Nations reached an agreement on Wednesday to channel desperately needed humanitarian aid to a northern region where a month of war has killed, wounded and uprooted large numbers of people. The pact, announced by U.N. officials, will allow aid workers access to government-controlled areas of Tigray, where federal troops have been battling the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and captured the regional capital. The war is believed to have killed thousands, sent 45,000 refugees into Sudan, displaced many more within Tigray, and worsened suffering in a region where 600,000 people were already dependent on food aid even before the flare-up from Nov. 4. Aid agencies had sounded the alarm about a growing humanitarian crisis and been pressing for access, after hundred...
South Africa becomes new head of UN Security Council
South Africa on Tuesday assumed the rotating monthly presidency of the United Nations Security Council. During the month, South Africa will focus on strengthening the cooperation between African Union (AU) and United Nations, and emphasising the importance of a proactive approach to the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in the form of drawing greater attention to “preventative diplomacy mechanisms,” Jerry Matjila, permanent representative of South Africa to the UN and president of the Security Council for the month of December, told journalists during a hybrid press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York. This is South Africa’s second presidency during its two-year (2019-2020) elected term on the council. December will also be the country’s final month on t...
Centre: Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases surpass 2.16 million
The number of confirmed Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the African continent has reached 2,163,284 as of Monday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 51,708. A total of 1,831,435 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far, according to the continental disease control and prevention agency. The most COVID-19 affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia, figures from the Africa CDC showed. The southern Africa region is the most COVID-19 affected region both in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases as well as ...
