News & Announcements

Libyan delegates meet Monday for UN-backed talks in Geneva to choose a new temporary executive to lead the war-scarred country through a transition until scheduled December elections.

The 75 participants at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum have until Friday to select a prime minister and a three-member presidency council from a list of 45 candidates, Libya’s UN mission Unsmil said in a statement.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a The nato-backed uprising led to the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The country is now split between the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and its rival, the eastern-based House of Representatives backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

A fragile ceasefire agreed in Geneva last October has largely held despite threats by Haftar to resume fighting.

The list of candidates unveiled Saturday by the UN includes 21 names for the position of the prime minister and 24 for the presidency council.

“This new interim, unified executive authority will be primarily tasked to lead Libya to national elections set for 24 December 2021 and to reunify state institutions,” an Unsmil statement said. 

The list of candidates was approved in political talks held in November between the 75 delegates selected by the UN to represent a broad cross-section of Libyan society.

Among the names for the premiership are Fathi Bashagha, the powerful GNA interior minister, and the current deputy prime minister of the Tripoli-based presidential council, Ahmad Meitig.

Nominations for the presidency council include GNA Defence Minister Salahuddin al-Namroush and the head of the Tripoli-based High Council of State, Khalid al-Mishri.

Council candidates from the east include key powerbroker Aguila Saleh, the current speaker of the Tobruk-based parliament, and Mohammed al-Bargathi, Libya’s ambassador to Jordan.

The political talks kicked off in mid-November in Tunisia, where the 75 delegates were tasked with laying out a roadmap towards elections.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 19 hailed the “tangible progress” made in recent months to restore stability in Libya.

His comments came in a report to the Security Council in which he demanded that all foreign troops and mercenaries involved in Libya conflict leave the country by January 23.

But foreign forces — 20,000 troops and mercenaries by UN estimates — have ignored the deadline to pull out of Libya.

Satellite images broadcast by CNN showed a trench running tens of kilometres dug by “Russian mercenaries” near the frontline the coastal city of Sirte, as main foreign protagonists Ankara and Moscow appear intent on defending their interests under any final settlement.

An unidentified US intelligence official quoted by The American news network said there was “no intent or movement by either Turkish or Russian forces to abide by the UN-brokered agreement”.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is set to complete a 470.8-million-kilometre next month as it is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18.

Launched on July 30 last year, the rover is currently closing that distance at 2.5 kilometres per second, NASA said.

Once at the top of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent awaits — complete with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the Sun, supersonic parachute inflation, and the first ever autonomous guided landing on Mars.

Only then can the rover search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.

“NASA has been exploring Mars since Mariner 4 performed a flyby in July of 1965, with two more flybys, seven successful orbiters, and eight landers since then,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington,” said in a statement.

“Perseverance, which was built from the collective knowledge gleaned from such trailblazers, has the opportunity to not only expand our knowledge of the Red Planet, but to investigate one of the most important and exciting questions of humanity about the origin of life both on Earth and also on other planets.”

Jezero Crater is believed to be the perfect place to search for signs of ancient microbial life.

Billions of years ago, the now-bone-dry 45-kilometre-wide basin was home to an actively-forming river delta and lake filled with water.

The rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) that Perseverance’s Sample Caching System collects from Jezero could help answer fundamental questions about the existence of life beyond Earth.

Two future missions currently in the planning stages by NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will work together to bring the samples back to Earth, where they will undergo in-depth analysis by scientists around the world using equipment far too large and complex to send to the Red Planet.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger programme that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Ethiopia’s Tigray region may be facing a new chapter of starvation and deaths, the aftermath of a conflict that began last November, to crackdown on an erstwhile ruling party.

Multiple sources from the restive region have confirmed food shortages, forcing many displaced people to go days without eating.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) who recently fled to the regional capital Mekelle, from war zones in western Tigray, said people, mainly women and children, are dying of malnutrition and disease, suffering severe food and water shortages and lacking medical care.

“Food and non-food items or other necessities and personal properties have been looted or destroyed” said one IDP who fled her home town in Shire, western Tigray.

Abrehet, a mother of two, owned a shop before the conflict erupted and now has nothing left to support her family.

“I have lost everything. All my properties in the shop and in my home were looted. I had to run for my life” She told the Nation on phone.

“I came to Mekelle alongside a group of Shire residents looking for food aid as there is no humanitarian aid in and around our town” she added.

Abrehet’s story reflects that of most people in Tigray as thousands were displaced by the conflict.

In addition to the lack of food, the lack of clothing and hygiene has made life difficult for women temporarily sheltered at school compounds in Mekelle and other areas.

A United Nations situational report said last week some 4.5 million people in the Tigray region are in need of emergency food assistance.

The details of starvation first arose earlier in January after a note from the interim administration official was leaked to the media. He admitted that “hundreds of thousands of people could starve to death in Tigray”.

The government-run Tigray Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) conducted a study on the level of humanitarian need following the conflict in the region.

According to the leaked notes taken by a participant at an ECC meeting, an official from the interim administration of the central part of Tigray said the situation is dire.

“Unless urgent emergency assistance is mobilized, hundreds of thousands might starve to death. People are dying because of starvation. In Adwa town, people are dying in their sleep,” the official was quoted as saying.

“During a visit to various places, our escorts were asked for a single biscuit,” the official added.

In public, this is a story the Ethiopian government has tried to beat down by either downplaying its magnitude or blaming the atrocities on fighters in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said last week that it had delivered 31,000 tons of food and other emergency supplies to civilians since January 1.

“The government is putting in place necessary protocols to protect civilians, stabilise the region and capture the remaining suspects of treasonous crimes,” the office said in a statement on January 25.

Members of the Afar Special Forces prepare their weapons next to a damaged house in the outskirts of the village of Bisober, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, on December 9, 2020.

In November, he authorised the Ethiopian National Defence Forces to go for the fighters after they allegedly attacked a northern command of the national military.

Dr. Abiy declared three weeks later that the “law enforcement operation” had been completed. But fighting has gone on in areas in the mountains, forcing many more civilians to flee. 

“In this complicated and high stakes operation, humanitarian, diplomatic and media agencies will have to endure the inconvenience of heeding to the direction of the government,” the Prime Minister’s Emergency Response Taskforce, headed by Redwan Hussein, said in a statement last week.

It was the same time the head of the UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, toured Makelle with Ethiopian Minister for Peace, Muferihat Kamil.

On January 21, Grandi said in a statement that Tigray was experiencing “major violations of international law at refugee camps”.

According to aid agencies, there are no health care services outside the Mekelle and some people are dying of pneumonia and mishandled childbirth.

Despite efforts to provide medical care, IDPs who spoke to the Nation said there is a severe shortage of medicine.

The IDPs said the pharmacies that exist ere generous enough to provide free medical care and that some hospitals were providing limited services, but also noted shortages of medicines.

Aid workers, who visited rural areas of Adigrat and Axum towns, saw doctors and nurses struggling to keep “starving patients” alive, but the city’s main hospital ambulances were stolen, Reuters reported.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said that there were “severe medical shortages” at clinics in Shire town and that the situation was worsening.

Telephone and internet blackouts in most parts of Tigray, has made it difficult to verify reports outside the regional capital.

Ethiopians, who fled the Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict as refugees, wait to charge their smart phones at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 1, 2020. 

The federal government’s military operation in Tigray ended in late November after the federal forces took control of Mekelle ousting the TPLF, the former regional ruling party.

The security situation in the area remains unstable after more than two months of a confrontation between Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and forces loyal to TPLF.

Although there have been some improvements, there are reports of continued fighting in the central, eastern, northwestern, south and southeastern parts of the region, with some rural areas remaining highly insecure.

According to the UN, access to some areas of Tigray remains limited, but some assistance is being received despite security issues.

Humanitarians keep calling on the government to grant unrestricted and unhindered access to the areas affected by the conflict.

“Although access to the affected region has increased, with food and other humanitarian commodities entering the region, the need still greatly exceeds the assistance provided” said International Medical Corps, one of the few organisations that has been able to access communities in West Tigray.

Electricity, banking and public transport are slowly being restored but remain severely limited and communication networks are still largely cut off.

Seven people were reportedly killed and 28 injured in Angola on Saturday as police quelled protests in Lunda Norte province, 656km north of the capital, Luanda. The incident took place in Cafunfu village, Cuango Municipality.

In a statement, however, the police service said it foiled an armed rebellion, organised by 300 members of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate Movement (LTPM), in self-defence.

The police officers accused the demonstrators of attacking a police station in order to raise the movement’s flag.

LTPM’s head, José Mateus Zecamutchima, rejected the claim of an armed rebellion, saying it was a peaceful and orderly demonstration agitating for talks with the government about the region’s autonomy.

 “The killing of seven demonstrators and the injuring of 28 others is a barbarous and cowardly act,” he said.

LTPM, a political group set up in 2007, seeks the administrative and financial autonomy of the former Tchokwe Kingdom, which comprises the provinces of Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Moxico and Kuando Kubango.

Angola has extensive diamond reserves (estimated at 180 million carats), especially in the provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul in its north eastern region.

In 2007, the group sent its manifesto to the then President José Eduardo dos Santos asking for discussions on autonomy, but there was no feedback.

In 2017, the US Department of State, in its ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Angola, noted that LTPM members held several protests that year in a demand for autonomy.

It added that the government at times arbitrarily restricted the activities of associations it considered subversive by refusing to grant permits for organised activities.

India will push on with sweeping agriculture reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday, as he criticised last week’s deadly riot in the capital following a long-running protest campaign by farmers.

Thousands flooded New Delhi on Tuesday, driving tractors from border camps where they have been holding sit-ins since November 26; but the rally turned into a rampage which left one person dead and hundreds of police injured.

Modi called the farmers’ assault on a historic fort an “insult” to the national flag.

His government has insisted that the agriculture sector needs to be modernised, but farmers fear the deregulation laws will place them at the mercy of big corporations that already dominate other industries.

In his first public comments on Tuesday’s events, Modi stressed that the government remained “committed to modernising agriculture”.

“The efforts of the government shall also continue in the future,” the Indian leader said in his regular monthly radio address on Sunday.

“On January 26, seeing the insult of our tricolour, the country was very sad,” he added.

The demonstrators swarmed the 400-year-old World Heritage-listed Red Fort on Tuesday, raising religious and farm union flags, though they did not remove the national flag from the top of the monument.

Modi’s comments came as police arrested at least one journalist and filed complaints against others, stoking fears of a media crackdown over the reporting of the protests.

Mandeep Punia, who writes for the English-language Caravan magazine, was detained on Saturday at Singhu, one of the main protest sites.

He was photographed being taken to court on Sunday, where he is expected to be charged on unknown offences, local media reported.

Since Tuesday, at least five complaints have been registered against Indian journalists and an opposition Congress Member of Parliament on several allegations, including sedition and criminal conspiracy.

Global media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Punia and another journalist who was reportedly also detained to be released immediately.

The African Union has secured an additional 400 million doses of coronavirus vaccines for its members, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.

This comes on top of an earlier announcement by the AU that it had secured 270 million vaccine doses.

Most African countries have not begun vaccinating their populations, lacking the financial means to purchase the drugs which have largely been scooped up by developed countries.

“An additional 400 million doses of vaccines have been secured from the Serum Institute” of India, Africa CDC director John Nkengasong told a press conference.

“If you add 400 million doses to the 270 million doses, I think we are beginning to make very, very good progress.”

Added to these figures are doses that are being committed to African countries via Covax, the globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort.

The Serum Institute of India is producing a vaccine using the Oxford-AstraZeneca formula, under the name of Covishield, for India and other developing countries.

The African Union announced in mid-January that at least 50 million vaccines would be available between April and June.

The rest will become available between this year and next year, said Nkengasong.

It is estimated Africa will need 1.5 billion vaccine doses to immunise 60 percent of its 1.3 billion inhabitants, costing between $7 and $10 billion.     

During the virtual 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa lashed “vaccine nationalism,” accusing rich countries of bulk-buying coronavirus vaccines and hoarding them to the detriment of others.

Africa has been relatively spared compared to the rest of the globe, recording 3.4 million cases of Covid-19 and 87,000 deaths, according to Africa CDC.

Nkengasong said Morocco, Egypt, Seychelles and Guinea had begun vaccinations, while Mauritius announced the start of its campaign this week.

Nigeria on Friday criticised Transparency International (TI) following the release of the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index report which ranked it among the world’s most corrupt nations.

The report released Thursday, rated Nigeria as having dropped three places from 146 to 149 out of 180 countries.

Nigerian government officials have accused TI adopting inaccurate facts on the ground.

Mr Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), reacted to the report saying that the administration should be credited for lighting the flame of anti-corruption not only in Nigeria but globally.

“Nigeria deserves credit for diminishing corruption in the public service and will continue to vigorously support prevention, enforcement, public education and enlightenment activities of anti-corruption agencies.’’

He explained that presidency was analysing the sources of data used in arriving at the latest TI report since by their own admission, they don’t gather their own data.

“In the coming days, the government’s Technical Unit on Governance Research (TUGAR) will be providing more detailed information on the sources of the TI data’’ as the one provided by TI is not reflective of the situation on the ground.

“While this is being awaited, the examination carried out on their 2019 report showed that 60 percent of their data was collected from businesses and other entities with issues bordering on transparency and the ease of doing business at the ports.

Although this is a government ready to learn from mistakes and make corrections, the economy of this country, in its fullness, is bigger than the seaports we have.’’

Shehu also punched, saying the government was aware of that characters behind the TI in Nigeria were those in opposition to the Buhari’s administration and that they were not hidden. 

“We have repeatedly challenged TI to provide indices and statistics of its own to justify its sensational and baseless rating on Nigeria and the fight against corruption. We expect them to come clean and desist from further rehashing of old tales.’’

He said that recoveries from corrupt persons stood at $3.3 billion between 2009 and 2019 out of which $2.6 billion of that total was recovered between 2015 and 2019 with less than $700 million in the first six years.

These recoveries were made possible by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Additionally, preventative instruments deployed by this administration such as Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) coverage expansion and the removal of 54,000 ghost workers from federal civil service saving us $560 million annually serve as evidence that perception is not reality.

Reality is based on verifiable facts and data. And any evidence-based analysis would prove that whether it is by prevention or punitive measures in recoveries and prosecution, this administration would be rising fast up these rankings rather than standing still.

Organisations should be factual in their analysis and be prepared to rely on inputs outside of sensational media reports and age-old narratives which have not been updated to reflect today’s reality in Nigeria concerning its globally-respected war on corruption.

In the existential fight against this multi-pronged malice and manifestations of corruption, President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that he would take-no-prisoners, guided by respect for the rule of law.

TI’s report is an indicator that corruption is perceived to have worsened in the country within the last year.

The country dropped three places and scored lower in a number of points than in its previous year’s record.

Ugandan police and the army were still deployed at the residence of former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi — popularly known as Bobi Wine — in Magere village, Wakiso District, despite a court earlier ordering them to leave immediately.

Instead, military and police deployments, according to a report on Daily Monitor, had been reinforced and checkpoints on the road to his residence had also been increased from two to four when Daily Monitor went to Magere at about 9.30am.

On Monday evening, there were four roadblocks manned by police and the army on Magere road off Gayaza-Kampala road.

Two cars carrying journalists were stopped at the second roadblock and ordered to go back. Many cars heading to or returning from Magere were thoroughly checked.

On Monday evening, Wine told Daily Monitor by telephone that his home was still under heavy deployment, hours after the court ordered security forces to leave.

“The situation at my place is still the same and police have not left. We know they are still waiting for the order from ‘above’ as they have always waited for Museveni to tell them [what to do,” he said.

After the court ruling Monday, Police Spokesman Fred Enanga said they would abide by the orders and vacate Wine’s home.

The High Court ruled that Wine’s continued confinement at his residence is illegal.

The runner up in the January 14 presidential elections has been under house arrest since voting day. Nobody is allowed to leave or enter his home.

Last week, Wine and his wife Barbara Itungo, through their lawyers, petitioned the High Court to declare the security siege illegal.

In his ruling Monday, Justice Michael Elubu said, “Having found, as I do, that the restrictions imposed on the applicant are unlawful, it is hereby ordered that they are lifted. Consequently, an order for the restoration of the personal liberty of the applicant is hereby issued,” the judge added.

He ordered government to pay Wine the cost of the petition. The court further ordered the government to restore Ms Itungo’s liberty.

“The application states that Barbara Kyagulanyi Itungo (second applicant) is indeed restricted and prays for appropriate orders. The respondent (Attorney-General/government) denies any such restrictions. In view of the above, this court hereby issues an order for the immediate restoration of Barbara Kyagulanyi Itungo’s full personal liberty,” the judge ruled.

The couple had sued the Attorney -General, the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

In response in court, the director of police operations, Mr Edward Ochom, had argued that police was simply giving Wine “necessary protection”.

He also argued that Wine organised processions and addressed gatherings, which could spread Covid-19. The State also claimed the politician was training NUP members to start riots and sustain an insurrection to remove the government.

The judge observed that the above statements were an inadvertent admission that Wine’s movements had indeed been restrained.

Justice Elubu also rejected the State’s argument that Section 24 of the same Act empowers police to arrest any person they suspect is about to commit a crime. 

“It cannot properly be said that Section 24 would apply here as stated by the respondent (AG) in their submissions. Firstly, the third respondent (police) states the applicant is not under arrest. Secondly, if he was, then he would have immediately been dispatched to a police station or produced before a magistrate,” the judge observed

In October 2011, Kasangati Magistrates’ Court ordered security forces to vacate the residence of Dr Kizza Besigye, who had contested against President Museveni in the presidential election.

The security forces had laid siege on Dr Besigye’s home for a week.

In 2016, Kasangati Grade One Magistrate Jessica Chemery also declared that Dr Besigye’s confinement at his home was unlawful.

Seven children and an adult were kidnapped from an orphanage by unknown criminals outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja, police said Monday.

Aged between nine and 14, the children from the orphanage in Abaji “were plucked away between 1 am and 2 am on Saturday by a group of about 25 men,” Rachel Alaje, owner of Rachel’s Home for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, told AFP by text message. 

Africa’s most populous country has been plagued by kidnappings for years, with criminals largely targeting the wealthy and prominent.

But more recently, the pool of victims has expanded and the vulnerable and poor across the country are now also taken for ransom.

Police spokeswoman Mariam Yusuf confirmed the incident and said police had launched a “strategic operation to ensure the children’s safe rescue.”

Eleven people in total were initially kidnapped, said Alaje, but an adult and two children were released by the criminals and taken back to the orphanage, “because one child was crying and the other one couldn’t walk.”

Alaje said she received a request to pay 10 million naira (USD26,000) for the release of the orphans.

A 2020 report by SB Morgen, a Nigerian geopolitical consulting firm, concluded that over USD18 million (nearly 15 million euros) had been paid in ransoms since 2011.

Janet Yellen won overwhelming Senate confirmation as the first woman to lead the US Treasury on Monday, setting her quickly to work with Congress on coronavirus relief, reviewing US sanctions policy and strengthening financial regulation.

The Senate, according to Reuters, voted 84-15 to confirm Yellen, with all opposition coming from Republicans, several of whom have expressed concerns about President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid plan, tax hikes and other spending initiatives.

Shortly after the vote, House of Representatives Democrats delivered to the Senate a charge of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting insurrection in a speech to supporters before the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. The planned February trial has stoked some partisan divisions in the chamber, but those were largely absent on Monday.

“Secretary Yellen’s confirmation shatters another glass ceiling,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. “In a field dominated by men, it’s refreshing to finally see a woman leading the Treasury Department.”

Yellen, 74, made history in 2014 when she became the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve. A portrait of the economist and daughter of a Brooklyn, New York, a family doctor will join those of 76 other secretaries in Treasury’s hallways, dating back to the first, Alexander Hamilton.

The White House had no immediate comment on when Yellen would be sworn in, or by whom.

She won the votes of 34 Republicans in a strong bipartisan vote, with a number of them pledging to work with her.

“I hope bipartisanship continues & we can work 2gether on commonsense tax/fiscal policy for all Americans,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley wrote on Twitter.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz congratulated Yellen and voiced hope that she could help lead progress on reaching an international agreement on digital taxation. He told Reuters: “Janet Yellen is a very impressive person.”

Yellen will play a key role in working with Congress on Biden’s coronavirus stimulus plans and on his pledges to invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, green energy projects, education and research to boost American competitiveness.

Treasury will oversee Biden’s plans to help finance these initiatives by trying to persuade Congress to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and increase taxes on Americans making over $400 000 a year.

Republicans have expressed concerns over the price tag and increased debt in a return to fiscal conservatism after running up deficits during Trump’s term with 2017 tax cuts and nearly $5 trillion in coronavirus spending.

Yellen told senators at her confirmation hearing last week that they needed to raise the minimum wage and “act big” on stimulus measures or risk a longer, more painful recession brought on by the pandemic.

Yellen also said during her confirmation hearing that she would conduct an immediate review of US financial sanctions policy administered by Treasury to ensure that they were used “strategically and appropriately” after a major ramp-up of such measures under the Trump administration.

Yellen’s confirmation less than a week after Biden took office is quick by recent standards. Her Republican predecessor, Steven Mnuchin, was not confirmed until three weeks after Trump’s 2017 inauguration on a party-line vote.

The Treasury on Monday announced more members of Yellen’s team, bringing back some Obama administration veterans who served at the agency.

The Treasury named Natalie Wyeth Earnest as counsellor to the secretary for strategic communications. Earnest served as assistant secretary for public affairs at Treasury under former Secretary Jack Lew and in various communications roles under former Secretary Tim Geithner.

Mark Mazur, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and a former Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy, was named as deputy assistant secretary for tax policy in Treasury’s Office of Legislative Affairs.