NIGER Republic’s top court on Friday lifted the immunity of president Mohamed Bazoum, paving the way for a possible trial after his ouster in a July 2023 military coup. “The court orders the lifting of Mohamed Bazoum’s immunity,” said Abdou Dan Galadima, president of the court, created in November by the new military regime. The Niger authorities accuse Bazoum of treason, financing terrorism and plotting to undermine the state. He has been held at the presidential residence with his wife Hadiza since the coup on July 26. After Friday’s hearing, Ould Salem Mohamed, one of Bazoum’s lawyers, said they took…
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A BENIN Republic court has jailed three Nigeriens who were detained last week at a port, judicial sources said on Friday, as diplomatic tensions deepen between the two West African neighbours. Ties between Benin and Niger have been strained since last year’s coup that ousted Nigerien President Mohammed Bazoum, and Benin’s port of Seme-Kpodji, which exports Niger’s oil, is a flashpoint. Five Nigeriens were arrested last week at Seme-Kpodji, accused of entering the port illegally. Three of the five, including the deputy general director of the oil company Wapco-Niger, were jailed on Thursday after appearing before a judge, several judicial…
THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will hire an expatriate technical adviser for the Super Eagles after the team’s dismal outing in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria have failed to win a match out of four games in the qualification series, the latest being a shocking loss to the lowly Benin Republic in their last clash. The development triggered a backlash from fans calling for Finidi George’s sack. Days after the loss, the NFF in a Thursday communique following a meeting, said the appointment of the technical adviser would come “in the coming weeks” and apologised to Super Eagles’ fans…
EIGHT-TIME Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi has confirmed in an interview with US broadcaster ESPN that he will not attempt to win a second gold medal with Argentina at the Paris Olympics this summer. “I spoke with (Argentinian Olympic coach Javier) Mascherano, and we immediately agreed on the situation,” Inter Miami forward Messi said in the interview broadcast on Wednesday. “It’s a difficult moment, because there’s the Copa America, and that would mean two or three consecutive months away from my club. “At my age, I don’t want to play everything and I need to make the right choices,” added…
VIOLENCE against children caught in multiplying and escalating conflicts reached “extreme levels” in 2023 with an unprecedented number of killings and injuries, including in the occupied Palestinian territory, a United Nations report has found. Children were “killed and maimed in unprecedented numbers in devastating crises”, notably in the Gaza Strip, according to the report released by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday. The annual Children and Armed Conflict report found “a shocking 21 percent increase in grave violations” against children under the age of 18 in an array of conflicts, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,…
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not pardon his son Hunter or commute any sentence following Hunter’s conviction on charges of lying about his drug addiction while buying a handgun. “No,” Biden replied when reporters at a G7 summit press conference in Italy asked if he would commute any sentence that 54-year-old Hunter faces. “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction, he’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” Biden said. “I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that. I will not pardon him,” he said.…
THE party of Malawi’s vice-president Saulos Chilima, who was killed this week in a plane crash, on Thursday demanded an investigation. Chilima died on Monday alongside eight others when a military aircraft on an internal flight crashed into Malawi’s Chikangawa Forest in dense fog. His party, the United Transformation Movement (UTM), allied with President Lazarus Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the 2020 presidential election, fielding a joint ticket. But the alliance that brought the pair to office is now under pressure, with UTM leaders demanding answers from government ministers over the accident. “We demand to know what happened to…
SENEGAL’s new government on Thursday unveiled measures to reduce the price of rice, oil, bread, and other basic items to address cost-of-living concerns amid high unemployment and inflation. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was swept to power in a March election, vowed during the campaign to address high living costs in the West African nation that heavily relies on imports. The issue has featured widely in the media and on social media in recent weeks, with many saying it is a priority. Under the measures, the price of a kilo (2.2 pounds) of the most widely consumed type of rice…
FANS at Euro 2024 will be given more detailed information on video assisted refereeing decisions than before, organisers UEFA said Wednesday. The head of UEFA’s refereeing committee Roberto Rosetti said screens at stadiums across Germany will provide “technical explanations” of VAR calls in order to improve spectator understanding. One of various criticisms of VAR technology since its widespread introduction has been the difficulty match-going fans have in understanding why certain decisions are made. “After the video assistance, the technical explanation of the decision will be shown on the giant screens in the stadiums,” explained Rosetti at a press briefing at…
MORE than 8,000 children aged under five have been treated in the Gaza Strip for acute malnutrition since war broke out, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 28 of those children had died and a significant proportion of Gaza’s population was now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions. “Despite reports of increased delivery of food, there is currently no evidence that those who need it most are receiving sufficient quantity and quality of food,” he told a press conference. Tedros said the UN health agency and its partners had attempted to scale up…
A STAGGERING total of 120 million people are living forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution, the UN said Thursday, branding the ever-increasing number a “terrible indictment on the state of the world”. The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR said forced displacement globally had once again smashed records, with conflicts in places like Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar forcing even more people to flee their homes. The global displaced population is now equivalent to that of Japan, it pointed out in a statement. “Conflict remains a very, very big driver of mass displacement,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters. At…
SENEGAL’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has said profits from the sale of oil and gas will be “well managed” as the West African state started producing oil for the first time. Australian energy giant Woodside described the extraction as a “historic day” and a “key milestone” for the company and the nation. The Sangomar deep-water project, which also has gas, aims to produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day. It is expected to generate billions of dollars for Senegal and boost its economy. Thierno Ly, the general manager of the national oil company Petrosen, said the nation had entered a…
IRAN and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been accused of violating a UN arms embargo by supplying drones to the warring sides in the 14-month conflict that has devastated Sudan. We look at the evidence to back up the claim. On the morning of 12 March 2024, Sudanese government soldiers were celebrating an unprecedented military advance. They had finally recaptured the state broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital, Khartoum. Like most of the city, the building had fallen into the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the start of the civil war 11 months earlier. What was…
PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu has concluded plans for a shake-up of his cabinet soon, which will include the appointment of new ministers and the creation of a new ministry, this newspaper gathered. The new ministry will be for livestock development, a department hitherto under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the goal of driving the administration’s livestock master plan. The Nigeria Livestock Master Plan, inaugurated in August, last year, was instituted to guide the development of the livestock sector which accounts for about one-third of the 21 per cent contribution that the agricultural sector makes to the national…
CRISTIANO Ronaldo scored a fine double as a classy Portugal side signed off before Euro 2024 by comfortably beating the Republic of Ireland in Aveiro. Joao Felix opened the scoring for a much-changed Portugal side in the first half, curling home after the hosts caught the Republic out with a short corner. Ronaldo then fired an unstoppable effort into the top corner early in the second half and doubled his tally with a sweeping finish on the hour mark. It was a perfect send-off for Roberto Martinez’s side in their last warm-up game before their Euro 2024 opener against the…
HAMAS has responded to a US-backed proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and an exchange of captives for prisoners with some “remarks” on the plan, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have said. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they were ready to “deal positively to arrive at an agreement” and that their priority is to bring a “complete stop” to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television channel that the group had “submitted some remarks on the proposal to the mediators”. He did not give…
A JURY found Hunter Biden guilty on Tuesday of federal gun charges in a historic first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting US president. The 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden was convicted on all three of the felony counts stemming from his 2018 purchase of a handgun while addicted to drugs. The verdict comes as his father is seeking reelection and on a day when the Democratic president is scheduled to give a speech in Washington about gun violence. The president expressed his “love and support” for his son in a statement released by the White House…
THE party led by South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has asked the country’s highest court to stop the newly elected national assembly from sitting for the first time on Friday. It is a key date because that is when members of parliament are due to vote for the country’s president. But Mr Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party is boycotting the session, claiming there were irregularities in last month’s general election – although it has not provided evidence to support this. Mr Zuma, a former ANC leader, is an ally-turned-enemy of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is seeking a second term.…
THE United States’ envoy to Sudan has warned that El Fasher, a besieged city in western Darfur, could fall to rebel forces imminently. El Fasher is the only city still under army control in the western Darfur region. The armed forces have been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a civil war that has lasted for 14 months. US envoy Tom Perriello told the BBC that some in the RSF think capturing El Fasher will help them establish Darfur as a breakaway state. Mr Perriello said the US would not recognise an independent Darfur “under any circumstances”. “I…
MALAWIAN President Lazarus Chakwera said Tuesday there had been no survivors when a plane carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others crashed into a forest. “The plane has been found and I am deeply saddened and sorry to inform you all, it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy,” he said, in a televised address. The crash occurred weeks after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. Malawian searchers found the wreckage of the plane that was carrying Chilima on Tuesday, a day after the aircraft went missing in bad weather. The military plane carrying Chilima,…