At UN, African leaders say enough is enough: They must be partnered with, not sidelined
At the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, African leaders are relaying a unanimous message, that their continent of more than 1.3 billion people is done being a โvictimโ of a post-world war order and must be recognized and partnered with as a global power in itself.
Sub-Saharan Africa is 'new epicenter' of extremism, says UN
A new report by the U.N.โs international development agency says that sub-Saharan Africa is the new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism and that people are increasingly joining as a result of economic factors and less by religious ones.
Pope prays for liberation of 317 kidnapped Nigerian students
VATICAN CITY โ Pope Francis on Sunday decried the kidnapping of 317 students from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria and prayed for the girls' quick release. Police on Friday in Nigeria said gunmen had abducted the students from their boarding school. โI pray for these girls, so that they may return home soon,'' the pope said. A resident of the area said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction. On Saturday, authorities in Nigeria announced that nearly 40 students, teachers and relatives abducted on Feb. 17 from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed.
Africa CDC: New virus variant appears to emerge in Nigeria
โItโs a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,โ the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would analyze more samples. The new virus variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. โWe believe this mutation will not have an effectโ on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, the Africa CDC director said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.
The Latest: China tests millions in port over virus cluster
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)BEIJING โ Authorities in Chinaโs northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the last 24 hours. It has a deal to secure up to 100 million doses of the potential vaccine produced by AstraZeneca. Koca said the first shipment of three million doses of CoronaVac would be shipped to Turkey on Sunday and arrive Monday. He said Turkey could get 4.5 million doses until the end of March and would have the option buy up to 30 million doses. Indonesia has reported nearly 700,000 COVID-19 cases, the largest caseload in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to Indiaโs 10.1 million confirmed cases.
US citizen kidnapped in Niger rescued in military operation
WASHINGTON โ An American citizen kidnapped in the West African nation of Niger this past week has been rescued in a U.S. military operation in neighboring Nigeria, U.S. officials said Saturday. The man was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger early Tuesday morning by armed kidnappers who demanded a ransom from the manโs father. โThis American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,โ the department said in a statement. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details .
Up to 150 million could join extreme poor, World Bank says
Middle income-countries are expected to have 82% of the new extreme poor, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Most of the new extreme poor, more than 110 million even by the World Bank's baseline estimate, will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly a third of the newly extreme poor are expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, between 26 million and 40 million. The World Bank estimates between 88 million and 115 million people could slip into extreme poverty this year, with another 23 million to 35 million in 2021. The report "offers no simple answers to these major challenges currently confronting the world, because there are not any,โ the World Bank authors write.
Nigerian state says rapists will face surgical castration
LAGOS, Nigeria โ The governor of Nigeriaโs Kaduna state has signed a law saying men convicted of rape will face surgical castration, and anyone raping a child under age 14 will face the death penalty. Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai says the โdrastic penalties are required to help further protect children from a serious crime.โReported cases of rape in Nigeria have risen dramatically during the months of coronavirus restrictions, and womenโs groups have called for tougher measures, including the death penalty. Kadunaโs new measures are the strictest in Nigeria, Africaโs most populous country.
Africa now free of wild poliovirus, but polio threat remains
The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. But sometimes patchy surveillance across the vast continent of 1.3 billion people raises the possibility that scattered cases of the wild poliovirus still remain, undetected. The final push to combat the wild poliovirus focused largely on northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group has carried out a deadly insurgency for more than a decade. Africa's last reported case of the wild poliovirus was in Nigeria in 2016. Cases remain of the so-called vaccine-derived polio virus, which is a rare mutated form of the weakened but live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine.
Uber begins pilot phase of its boat service in Nigeria
CNNMoney(CNN) - As part of its expansion plans into Africa, global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies launched a pilot test of their taxi boat service on Friday in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub. To attract customers who want to avoid the city's frequently congested roads, Uber will operate a two-week pilot phase of the boat service in conjunction with the Lagos State Water Authority (LASWA) and local boat operators, Texas Connection Ferries. The launch of the UberBOAT service comes four months after Uber's global head of business development, Brookes Entwistle, said the company was looking to gain more ground on the continent. The service will be available only on weekdays for the next two weeks and will cost 500 naira ($1.30) per trip. "The last couple of years have seen the Lagos State Government commit to building up infrastructure that supports multi-modal transportation, which includes water transport," he said.
Nigerian police arrest three suspects in 'serial killings' of women
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - Three suspects, linked to a spate of killings targeting women in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers State have been arrested, police said on Wednesday. She was sleeping when she suddenly woke up and saw the man who brought her to the hotel charging at her,"Omoni said. The killings in Port Harcourt bore all the hallmarks of "cultism," police said. A hotel in the city was shut down on Sunday after police found another women murdered in a similar pattern in one of their rooms. 'Abetting murder'Two hotel managers and two receptionists on duty on the days the women were murdered were also arrested.
Man jumps on plane wing as it prepares for takeoff
freeimages.com/krzysiuc(CNN) - A man who climbed onto the wing of a plane as it prepared for takeoff at the airport in Nigeria's Lagos city has been arrested, authorities said. He then jumped onto a wing of the plane and tried to access the cabin, the airline said. The incident happened Friday morning at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International airport in Lagos. A video taken by a passenger on the aircraft shows the man moving around the wing of the plane as frightened passengers called on the crew to open the exit doors. The man has been taken into custody and is being questioned, Nigeria's airport authority said in a statement.
Muslim cleric who hid Christians during attacks honored in the US
(CNN) - The US government is honoring an 83-year-old Muslim cleric who hid 262 Christians in his home and mosque during an attack in central Nigeria. Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, along with four religious leaders from Sudan, Iraq, Brazil and Cyprus, were awarded the 2019 the International Religious Freedom Award, which is given to advocates of religious freedom. The cleric refused to give them up when their attackers asked about their whereabouts, International Religious Freedom Ambassador Sam Brownback said at the awards ceremony in Washington on Wednesday. "His actions bear witness to true courage, true selflessness, and true brotherly love," he said. The State Department, organizers of the award, given to advocates of religious freedom, said the Muslim cleric selflessly risked his own life to save members of another religious community who without his intervention would have been killed.