Category World

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• April 23, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

Government ready for Rwanda legal challenges after bill passed, says minister

The government is prepared for a “whole range of legal challenges” after Parliament passed the Rwanda bill, the illegal migration minister has said.

Parliament approved plans to send some asylum seekers to the African country late on Monday night.

But illegal channel crossings will not stop until regular flights to Rwanda “kick in”, Michael Tomlinson said.

The bill is key to the government’s “moral mission” to small boat crossings, he added.

Mr Tomlinson’s comments came as news emerged that five people had died attempting to cross the Channel on Tuesday.

More than 6,000 migrants and refugees have already made the journey so far this year – a rise of about a quarter on the same period last year.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, which had just showed live footage of people climbing on board a small boat on the French coast, Mr Tomlinson said the bill is not deterring migrants because it is “not yet in force”.

“We need to get the flights off the ground, and that is when we will see the deterrent effect kick in,” he added.

Source: BBC

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• April 23, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Chinese supermarket in Abuja shut for allegedly barring Nigerians

A Chinese-owned supermarket in Nigeria’s capital has been shut by the authorities over allegations that it denies entry to African shoppers.

The supermarket in Abuja allegedly “exclusively permits individuals of Chinese descent to enter”, Nigeria’s consumer protection watchdog said on X.

It has summoned the supermarket’s owner. The Chinese chamber of commerce in Nigeria has denied the racism allegations.

The supermarket is a tenant in a building run by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC).

Boladale Adeyinka, an official at Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), said that the watchdog had launched an investigation into the allegations.

This follows widespread outrage on social media after some Nigerians shared their experiences of allegedly being turned away by security when they attempted to go to the supermarket.

In one of the videos, a man said he had discovered the supermarket online but was blocked from entering the complex where it is located.

“At the gate, the security people told me that the supermarket is strictly for Chinese people. If you are a Nigerian, you can’t go inside or buy anything,” he said in the clip posted on X, formerly Twitter.

In another video on X, a group of Nigerians are seen visiting a building to verify the reports that non-Chinese shoppers were being turned away.

A security guard outside the entrance appears to tell them that the supermarket had cut off access to Nigerians since January.

Several Nigerians have demanded the closure of the supermarket, including former senator Shehu Sani, who said that any store in Nigeria that was not accessible to citizens “should be forcibly opened or be pulled down”.

In a statement quoted by local media, the CGCC said it stood for “equality and inclusiveness”.

“Our principles are to enhance friendship between the people of both countries and promote economic development,” it added.

The FCCPC quoted an administrator at the building, Sanusi Shuabiu, as saying that the supermarket mainly sold Chinese groceries and that while it was initially opened to serve the building’s tenants, it permitted entry to outside shoppers, including non-Chinese visitors. The supermarket’s owner has not yet commented.

She has been summoned to appear before the consumer protection agency by Wednesday. The watchdog says that the supermarket will remain closed until she complies with the summons. Nigeria has a Chinese population of less than 10,000, according to the Statista website.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 3 minutes Read

US agrees to withdraw troops from Niger amid Sahel region’s pivot to Russia

The US Department of State agreed to pull out about 1,000 troops from the country that has been under military rule since July 2023, US media reported late on Friday.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine met on Friday, the reports said, with Washington committing to begin planning an “orderly and responsible” withdrawal of its troops from the country.

The US built a military base in Niger to combat armed groups that pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the Sahel region, which also includes Burkina Faso and Mali.

The major airbase in Agadez, some 920km (572 miles) from the capital Niamey was used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations.

Known as Air Base 201, it was built at a cost of more than $100m. Since 2018, it has been used to target ISIL fighters and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate.

While maintaining a line of communication with the military government in Niger, the US military had started preparing for the possibility of having to withdraw, with US General James Hecker saying last year that Washington is probing “several locations” elsewhere in West Africa to station its drones.

Nigerien state television reported that US officials would visit next week. There was no public announcement from the State Department on the withdrawal and officials said no timeline had yet been set.

Niger announced in March that it had suspended a military agreement with the US and would pursue a withdrawal of its soldiers.

The US is being forced to withdraw from Niger as it is not favoured either by the ruling military or by the population that is rejecting post-colonial forces. Protesters took to the streets in the capital earlier this month to demand the departure of US forces.

Like the military rulers in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, the West African nation had kicked out French and European troops following the military takeover.

All three countries have now turned to Russia for support, with Moscow confirming earlier this month that it has sent military trainers and an air defence system and other military equipment to Niger as it deepens its security ties.

Along with armed groups, the conflict-ridden Sahel region is also becoming an influential route for drug trafficking, with the United Nations saying 1,466kg (3,232 pounds) of cocaine were seized in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger compared with an average of just 13kg (28.7 pounds) between 2013 and 2020.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

Over 50 funeral goers die as ferry sinks in CAR

At least 58 people have died in the Central African Republic after the overcrowded ferry carrying them capsized, say officials.

Most of the 300 people on board were on their way to a funeral on Friday when the vessel sank.

It happened on the Mpoko river near the capital, Bangui.

Footage of the accident on social media shows people falling or jumping into the water trying to reach the banks of the river.

Boat disasters are not uncommon in the Central African Republic.

“What just happened was terrifying,” a witness told French-language broadcaster RFI.

“I know a family who’ve lost seven relatives in this tragedy.”

Speaking to local station Radio Guira on Saturday, civil protection head Thomas Djimasse said rescuers retrieved “58 lifeless bodies” from the water, but added “we don’t know the total number of people who are underwater”.

Dozens of survivors are reported to be receiving treatment in hospitals in Bangui.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Togo approves constitutional reform changing how president is elected

Lawmakers in Togo have approved changes to the constitution linked to presidential term limits and how presidents are elected, which some opposition politicians and civil society groups have denounced as a constitutional coup.

Togo’s parliament had already adopted the amendments on March 25, but the reforms led to an opposition backlash so President Faure Gnassingbe called for further consultations and a second parliamentary vote.

The lawmakers gave final approval to the reform late on Friday, just days before the April 29 legislative elections that had also been pushed back due to the issues around the constitutional amendments.

The second reading was passed with all 87 politicians present agreeing to the new system, under which the president will no longer be elected by universal suffrage, but by members of parliament.

The amendments also introduced a parliamentary system of government and shortened presidential terms to four years from five with a two-term limit.

It does not take into account the time already spent in office, which could enable Gnassingbe to stay in power until 2033 if he is re-elected in 2025, a highly likely scenario as his party controls parliament.

Those opposed to the changes fear they could allow further extensions of the president’s 19-year rule and his family’s grip on power. His father and predecessor Gnassingbe Eyadema seized power in the coastal West African country via a coup in 1967.

In a statement on Saturday, the Dynamique Pour la Majorité du Peuple (DMP) opposition coalition and other signatories said the constitutional changes were a political manoeuvre to allow Gnassingbe to extend his tenure for life.

“What happened at the National Assembly yesterday is a coup d’etat,” they said.

“Large-scale action will be organised over the next few days to say ‘no’ to this constitution.”

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Ethiopia land violence leaves thousands homeless

Fighting over disputed land along borders of Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions has displaced close to 29,000 people, the United Nations says.

Fighting began last week between forces from the two regions in Raya Alamata district, which is claimed by both.

Officials in Amhara have accused forces from Tigray of launching an invasion, but former rebels in Tigray deny this.

A two-year civil war ended in late 2022 in Ethiopia, after central government signed a peace deal with Tigray forces.

However, issues of contested areas, disarmament of ex-combatants, and the fate of hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans forced out of their homes during the war remain unresolved.

The contested district of Raya Alamata had been under Tigray until war broke out in 2020, but the Amhara forces have since seized it.

Following the resurgence of the latest fighting, Tigray forces have reportedly advanced towards some areas in the district.

Life-saving assistance is urgently required, the UN said, adding that some families were sheltering in open areas in nearby Amhara districts of Kobo and Sekota.

Meanwhile the embassies of seven Western countries – including the US and the UK – have released a joint statement expressing their concern at the reported violence.

They are calling for de-escalation and have encouraged disarmament and demobilisation.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Zambia negotiating $3.3bn commercial debt restructuring, after bonds deal

Zambia is in talks to restructure $3.3 billion of commercial debt, after reaching a deal with overseas holders of its sovereign bonds last week, an official said on Wednesday, as the country seeks to emerge from a three-year default.

“We have already started negotiations and with some we are almost reaching there,” Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa said at a public meeting, referring to private creditors other than bondholders.

“The $3.3 billion is the money that we have to continue engaging (on) and we are engaging in good faith,” he said.

Zambia reached a deal-in-principle with a group of private commercial bondholders, western asset managers, and hedge funds to rework about $3 billion in international bonds on March 25, bringing it closer to finishing a complex process after multiple delays.

The copper-producing country, which is dealing with a devastating drought, now needs to negotiate restructuring agreements with its other commercial creditors, having also reached a deal with official, bilateral creditors in June 2023.

The remaining commercial lenders include the Chinese state-owned China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the African Export-Import Bank, a regional trade finance provider, and Western banks such as Standard Chartered.

Zambia now needs to sign bilateral agreements with each official creditor and execute the international bond “debt exchange”, International Monetary Fund (IMF) resident representative Eric Lautier said at the same meeting.

Official creditors, of which China is the biggest, have already signed a general “principal agreement,” Nkulukusa said.

Zambia’s external debt was $18.3 billion at the end of 2022, according to the most recent IMF report on the country. About $13.4 billion of that is being restructured.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Kenya to cut 2024/25 spending plan by 12%

Kenya will reduce its spending plan for the financial year starting this July by 12% to 3.7 trillion shillings ($28.35 billion), President William Ruto said, part of efforts to attain a balanced budget in the next three years.

The East African nation’s currency and shares have climbed after it successfully issued a new $1.5 billion Eurobond in February to finance the partial repurchase of another bond maturing in June. That move came in defiance of widespread expectations that it could struggle to access international markets.

“We are reducing our budget from four points, almost 4.2 trillion (shillings) to 3.7 trillion,” Ruto told Kenyans in Ghana in a video seen by Reuters on Wednesday. “We need to live within our means… we are shedding off fat.”

The President was in Ghana on Tuesday for a state visit. During a meeting with chief executives of state-owned companies late last month, Ruto said his government wanted to move to a balanced budget within three years.

Kenya has in the past decade been running wide fiscal deficits to fund a range of ambitious infrastructure projects, but the stance nearly backfired when markets started to question the government’s ability to repay the debts.

Apart from cutting spending and reducing the budget deficit, Ruto’s government, which took office in 2022, has also been introducing new taxes, angering some individuals and groups who have challenged the tax measures in court.

• Christian
• April 21, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 2 minutes Read

Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa declares national disaster over drought

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared a national disaster to tackle the prolonged drought crisis.

Mr Mnangagwa yesterday said the country needs $2bn (£1.6bn) to tackle hunger caused by low rainfall which has wiped out about half of the maize crop.

The grain shortage has pushed up food prices and an estimated 2.7 million people will face hunger.

Neighbouring Zambia and Malawi have also declared states of disaster due to drought recently.

The drought is a result of the El Nino global weather pattern and has triggered a humanitarian crisis in southern Africa.

Zimbabwe now joins the regional scramble to find enough maize on the international market.

Authorities say that the number of people needing food aid will be higher than the initial projection.

Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of southern Africa, but in recent years has suffered bouts of severe drought affecting crops and cattle.

This is Zimbabwe’s worst drought since 2019. At the time, Zambia’s former President, Edgar Lungu, said it was “a stark reminder of what climate change is doing to our environment”.

Not all droughts are due to climate change, but excess heat in the atmosphere is drawing more moisture out of the earth and making droughts worse.

The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.