Category: International News

International News

Mali: AU kicks, seeks UN intervention as soldiers arrest President Keita, PM Cisse

Ishaku Yohanna

The African Union Commission has reacted to the arrest and detention of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse by mutinying soldiers. The African Union Commission kicked against the arrests of Keita, Cisse and other officials which happened on Tuesday. The mutinying soldiers had detained Keita and some members of his cabinet at his residence in Bamako, the country’s capital. Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned any attempt at “anti-constitutional” change while calling on the mutinying soldiers to respect the state’s institutions. Faki…

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FG faults clampdown on Nigerian traders in Ghana, considers retaliatory actions

Ishaku Yohanna

The Federal Government has faulted the closure of the business premises belonging to Nigerians by the Ghanaian authorities, saying it may consider retaliatory actions. The government also said that it may drag Ghana to the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, if found to have breached the sub-region’s Protocol of Free Movement of Peoples. Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this on Monday when he met with officials of the League of Progressive Ambassadors of Nigeria, led by Jasper Emenike, its president. Emenike,…

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Ghana insists Nigerian traders must pay $1million fee

Ishaku Yohanna

The Ghanaian Ministry of Trades has rejected claims of unfair treatment by Nigerian traders in the country during the enforcement of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council regulations. It insisted that the traders must pay the required taxes and other fees imposed on them by the authorities. This is happening despite the intervention of the presidents of Ghana and Nigeria through the Economic Community of West African States. A Nigerian trader whose shop was forcefully locked up by the Ghanaian security officials had recorded a video of the incident in which…

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Four dead in Ivory Coast clashes over President Ouattara’s third term bid

Ishaku Yohanna

At least four people have been killed in clashes in Ivory Coast as hundreds have taken to the streets following President Alassane Ouattara’s decision to run for a third term this October, sources said on Thursday. At least three people were killed on Wednesday in the central town of Daoukro in clashes between Ouattara supporters and backers of rival candidate Henri Konan Bedie, a security source and witnesses said. On Thursday, an 18-year-old died in the southeastern town of Bonoua, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the economic hub Abidjan in…

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94 stranded Nigerian girls return home from Lebanon

Ishaku Yohanna

At least 94 Nigerian girls stranded in Lebanon due to the coronavirus pandemic have returned home, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has said. Announcing via Twitter on Wednesday, NIDCOM said the evacuees arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The returnees, who tested negative for Covid-19 before departure, are expected to self-isolate for 14 days according to the protocol of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. They are also expected to take another Covid-19 test before rejoining society.

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US Presidency: Biden picks black woman, Kamala Harris, as running mate

Ishaku Yohanna

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, making the California senator the first Black woman to run on a major political party’s presidential ticket.  The announcement comes following a search that was conducted under strict secrecy, with most campaign aides, donors and even many longtime Biden friends intentionally kept in the dark.  “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris,” Biden tweeted. He called Harris a “fearless fighter” for the “little guy.” Biden and Harris will formally…

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Many feared dead as Air India plane crashes, breaks in two

Ishaku Yohanna

At least 17 people were killed and more than 100 injured when an Air India Express passenger plane repatriating Indians stranded by the COVID-19 pandemic overshot the runway in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday, officials said. The Boeing-737 flight from Dubai to Calicut International Airport was carrying 190 passengers and crew, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement. Among them were 10 infants. Television footage showed rescue workers moving around the wreckage in pouring rain. The aircraft lay split into at least two chunks…

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40 migrants drown in shipwreck off Mauritanian coast

Ishaku Yohanna

A boat carrying around 40 migrants and refugees has sunk off the coast of Mauritania, leaving only one survivor, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday. The perilous sea passage from West Africa to the Canary Islands was once a major route for migrants seeking jobs and a better life in Europe. Attempts became scarcer when Spain stepped up patrols in the mid-2000s, but the route is seeing a fresh surge. “New shipwreck off the coast of Nouadhibou #Mauritania of approximately 40 persons on board, there is one…

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Lebanon’s Defence Council unravels cause of Beirut explosion

Ishaku Yohanna

A meeting of the Lebanese Supreme Defense Council said that a massive blast that occurred in the port of Beirut on Tuesday evening might have been the result of maintenance work at the site. The council said at an emergency meeting that followed the blast that a door of the port’s hangar, where explosive materials were stored, did not close properly, local media reported. Following the tragic incident, the city’s governor said that half of the Beirut’s buildings were damaged, and hospitals were overcrowded due to a large number of…

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Boko Haram attacks Cameroon IDP camp, kills 16

Ishaku Yohanna

Fighters from the Boko Haram jihadist group killed at least 16 people in an attack on a camp for displaced people in northern Cameroon, an official said on Sunday. “The toll is currently 16 dead, it is clear that it was Boko Haram that was responsible,” local mayor Mahamat Chetima Abba told AFP Sunday following overnight attack. Details later …

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