International News Archives - Page 20 of 23

Floods kill 65, displace 330,000 in Niger

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

Three months of pounding rain in Niger have left 65 people dead and affected nearly 330,000, while several areas of the capital Niamey remain under water, the government said. The ministry of humanitarian action and disaster management told AFP on Tuesday that as of September 7, 51 people had died when their home collapsed in the floods, and 14 had drowned. The worst-affected regions are Maradi in the central south of the country, Tahoua and Tillaberi in the west, and Dosso in the southwest. At least 10 of the deaths…

ECOWAS halts single currency launch

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

The Economic Community of West African States has postponed the planned launch of its single currency, the Eco. The body agreed to maintain a gradual approach for the launching of the currency. ECOWAS explained that a new date for the launch would be announced later. This was contained in a communiqu� issued at the end of the 57th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS on Tuesday. The body said the postponement was in order to consolidate its achievements. Consequently, a new road map for the single…

75 stranded Nigerian migrants, others rescued in Sahara desert

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

Seventy-five Nigerian migrants, 41 of them women, including twin four-year-old girls, as well as four Togolese, three Ghanaians, and a Malian, were saved last week after their smugglers abandoned them in the Sahara desert in northern Niger, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. A team from the IOM and Niger�s Civil Protection service found the group of eighty-three 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the crossroads town of Dirkou on September 3, the agency said. They had left the Nigerien town of Agadez, the main stepping-off point for…

Ghana�s President, Akufo-Addo, elected new ECOWAS chairman

September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has been elected as the new Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), at the ongoing 57th ECOWAS Summit, which is being held in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The election of President Akufo-Addo took place at the ongoing 57th ECOWAS Summit in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The summit is being held at the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre, where leaders will be considering reports from the 44th Ordinary Session of the Mediation and Security Council at the Ministerial Level and…

Ousted Mali president Keita suffers stroke

September 3, 2020September 3, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

Former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who has not been seen in public since his August 18 ouster in a coup, has been hospitalised after suffering a brief stroke-like attack, a doctor said Wednesday. Keita, 75, was admitted to a private clinic in the capital Bamako on Tuesday evening, he said. �According to thorough analysis, the president was the victim of a transient ischaemic attack. It is an alert, but he is recovering well at the moment,� a doctor at the facility said. A transient ischaemic attack, also called a…

Mali crisis: Military, ECOWAS talks end in deadlock

August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

Talks between West African nations and Mali�s new junta ended on Monday without a deal on how the country should return to civilian rule following last week�s coup, negotiators said. It would be recalled that soldiers had on August 18, ousted Mali�s government in a coup. The act was strongly condemned by ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). ECOWAS � the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States � sent a high-level delegation to Bamako on Saturday, led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, to press…

Mali Coup: President Keita still in captivity as mutineers release two officials

August 22, 2020August 22, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

About 72 hours after a military coup in Mali overthrew the civilian government, President Ibrahim Keita, who was arrested alongside others, is still in detention. The mutineers have, however, released two of his officials. Since Tuesday when Mr Keita announced his resignation from government and the dissolution of the parliament on television after being held at gunpoint, no news was heard of him until United Nations human rights officials met him and other officials midnight Thursday, the UN mission in Mali tweeted on Friday. There was no further information about…

We must return sanity to Mali, Buhari tasks ECOWAS leaders

August 21, 2020August 21, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has joined ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments in calling for immediate release of President Ibrahim Keita of Mali, and a return to Constitutional order in the country. At a virtual ECOWAS Extraordinary Session on the situation in Mali, the President said that the removal of the Malian leader could spiral into more crises in the country, with devastating consequences for the West African sub-region. A coup d�tat in the already troubled West African country on Tuesday overthrew the democratically elected government of President Boubacar…

Mali Coup: Colonel Goita declares self head of junta

August 20, 2020August 20, 2020 Ishaku Yohanna

Malian army officer Colonel Assimi Goita announced himself on Wednesday as the coup leader who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. �Let me introduce myself, I am Colonel Assimi Goita, chairman of the National Committee for the salvation of the People,� he said after meeting top civil servants. The colonel had appeared among a group of officers seen on television overnight Tuesday-Wednesday to announce the takeover, but did not speak. Coup chiefs meanwhile called on the public to return to normal life, warned against acts of �vandalism� and threatened to punish…