Author: Editor

ACCORDING to the Confederation of Africa Football, Nigeria ranks fourth in terms of tickets purchased ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast next year. The 34th edition of the AFCON has been slated to hold January 13 to February 11, 2024, across five cities on the south coast of West Africa and CAF on their official handle on Thursday tweeted ticket purchases. Ticket sales for Nigeria are among the top five on the continent, says CAF. According to the data on the football governing body X handle, a total of 12,544 tickets have been purchased by the…

DEFENDING champions Senegal have to show that having won the Africa Cup of Nations with players playing in the biggest European leagues they can now triumph with those competing in the Saudi championship, said head coach Aliou Cisse. Cisse on Friday selected a quintet of stars who were pivotal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations success in 2022 but who now ply their trade in Saudi Arabia. Previously Cisse had refused to select players playing there due to the low quality of the league in comparison to the European leagues. However, stars of the calibre of talismanic forward Sadio…

THE United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday said that their aid convoy came under fire by the Israeli military while it was entering the Gaza Strip. However, the attack didn’t cause any casualties. “Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army — our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle sustained damage,” UNRWA’s director in Gaza, Tom White, wrote on X. According to UNRWA, the incident took place on Thursday afternoon. Responding to the requests for comments by AFP, the…

AT least 30 people have been killed in what Ukraine says is Russia’s biggest missile bombardment of the war so far. More than 160 people were injured as Russia hit Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Lviv in the early hours of Friday morning. Russia “used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal”, with homes and a maternity hospital hit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine’s air force said it had never seen so many missiles launched at once. Kyiv’s air defences have drastically improved in recent months, but on Friday they were overwhelmed. An Air Force spokesperson said Russia…

FULL provisional results of elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be announced Sunday, the electoral commission said on Friday, with a large victory expected for incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi. Some 44 million people were registered to vote on December 20 in chaotic elections to choose a president, national and regional lawmakers and municipal councillors. Out of the 15.9 million votes counted by Friday evening, Tshisekedi was well ahead with about 73 percent of the votes in the central African nation. The election was hit by bureaucratic disarray, as the electoral commission struggled to get voting materials to polling…

THE UN and the World Food Programme on Friday warned that a lack of funding could lead to the imminent suspension of humanitarian flights in coup-hit Niger, where 4.3 million people are in need of aid. The international organisation had in mid-November announced the resumption of its humanitarian flights after they were suspended following a coup on July 26 which saw the military oust elected leader Mohamed Bazoum. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) could be suspended imminently due to a lack of funding, the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA and the WFP said in a joint statement. It…

THE Board of Directors of the Media Trust Group (MTG) has approved a minor reorganisation in the management team of the company as part of efforts to enhance operational efficiency, thereby accelerating the pace of the conglomerate’s growth. As part of the exercise, Ahmed Ibrahim Shekarau has been mandated to oversee the affairs of the multimedia company as Group Chief Executive Officer in acting capacity. Shekarau, who has been the Group Executive Director in charge of Business Development since December 2021, has equally been given the added role of Editor-in-Chief of the print arm of the company’s newspapers, Daily Trust…

AFRICA Cup of Nations hosts Ivory Coast included a smattering of overseas stars in their 27-man squad for the January 11-February 11 competition released on Thursday. The Ivory Coast’s French manager Jean-Louis Gasset has called up Borussia Dortmund striker Sebastien Haller, Monaco defender Wilfried Singo, and midfielders Ibrahim Sangare of Premier League side Nottingham Forest, Seko Fofana (Al Nassr) and Franck Kesslie (Al Ahli). But missing from Gasset’s list are Galatasary forward Wilfried Zaha and Beskitas defender Eric Bailly. The Ivory Coast are drawn in Group A alongside Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Equitorial Guinea. Ivory Coast Squad: Goalkeepers: Yahia Fofana (Angers/FRA),…

AN estimated 150,000 Palestinians are being forced to flee areas of central Gaza, the UN has said, as Israeli forces advance on refugee camps there. Witnesses and Hamas’s armed wing reported that tanks had reached the eastern outskirts of Bureij camp. Israel’s military recently expanded its ground offensive to target Bureij and nearby Nuseirat and Maghazi camps. Israeli bombardment also killed dozens of people across Gaza on Thursday, the health ministry said. Egypt has confirmed that it has put forward a three-stage proposal to stop the fighting which ends with a ceasefire. A Hamas delegation is said to have arrived…

MAINE’s top election official has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Mr Trump was not eligible because of his actions leading up to the US Capitol riot in 2021. Maine now joins Colorado as the two states to ban Mr Trump from the ballot. The decisions increase pressure on the Supreme Court to weigh in. Colorado votes reliably Democratic, however, Maine is more politically competitive and would be more significant for Mr Trump – the Republican frontrunner – to lose. The 34-page…

RUSSIA on Thursday reopened its embassy in Burkina Faso after a gap of nearly 32 years after the West African nation fell out with former colonial ruler France. The Burkinabe foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that “Russia formally reopened its embassy this Thursday in Ouagadougou.” Russia’s ambassador to Ivory Coast, Alexei Saltykov, said he would head the mission in Burkina Faso until the new ambassador is named and described Burkina Faso as “an old partner with whom we have solid and friendly ties”. “Despite our physical absence here, bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields have never ceased,”…

MORE than 40 people were feared dead when a tanker truck exploded after crashing in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer told local media on Thursday. The tanker carrying gasoline crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital Monrovia. Dr Francis Kateh told local broadcaster Super Bongese TV it was difficult to determine the number of victims because some had been reduced to ashes but he estimated that more than 40 people were killed in the incident. “We have our team going from home to home to check…

SIR Jim Ratcliffe has said it will take “time and patience” to “bring sporting success” back to Manchester United. The British billionaire has agreed to buy a 25% stake in the Old Trafford club for about $1.3bn (£1.03bn). His Ineos Group will take control of football operations and Ratcliffe will also provide $300m (£236m) for future investment into United’s stadium. Ratcliffe has told supporters “we recognise our responsibility as custodians of the club on your behalf”. In an open letter to fans, he added: “I believe we can bring sporting success on the pitch to complement the undoubted commercial success…

ISRAEL is expanding its killings into Palestinian refugee camps in central Gaza, as it warns the war with Hamas will last for months. The UN has expressed grave concern after Israeli strikes reportedly killed dozens of people in Bureij, Nuseirat and Maghazi camps in recent days. Heavy fighting is also continuing to the south, in the city of Khan Younis. Meanwhile, the Palestinian president has described what is happening in Gaza as “beyond a war of annihilation”. The health ministry has said at least 195 people have been killed across the territory over the past 24 hours. More than 21,100…

THE Eiffel Tower, one of the world’s prime tourist attractions, was closed Wednesday after staff went on strike, the tower’s operator said. The strike on the 100th anniversary of the death of engineer Gustave Eiffel, who built the tower, was to protest about “the current way it is managed”, the hard-left CGT union said in a statement. The tower’s operator SETE was “headed for disaster”, it said. The CGT said management was running the Eiffel Tower according to a business model that was “too ambitious and unsustainable” and was based on an inflated estimate of future visitor numbers while under-estimating…

BURKINA Faso’s former foreign minister-turned-opposition-leader has been missing for three days after being taken away from his house by people who said they were police, his party said on Wednesday. Besides foreign minister, Ablasse Ouedraogo served as deputy director general of the World Trade Organization and has held positions at the African Development Bank. He is currently head of the opposition party Le Faso Autrement, and has been critical of the military regime that has ruled Burkina following a September 2022 coup. In early November, the Burkina military drafted the 70-year-old Ouedraogo intending to send him to the front to…

ZAMBIA’s Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo resigned Tuesday, the president’s office announced, hours after he was embroiled in a social media frenzy over alleged dealings with a Chinese businessman. Kakubo, who had been foreign minister since September 2021, said in a letter he was quitting because of “malicious claims over a business transaction”. Earlier, a video showing two people counting wads of cash stacked on a table spread quickly on Zambian social media accounts. An image of a signed handwritten note, dated July 8, 2022, was also put online. The note named a Chinese mining firm and a Zambian mining firm…

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu and the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya have described the late Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu who moved Nigeria towards equity, fairness and justice in his strident advocacy against every form of injustice. According to Tinubu, “It is a difficult task to have to pen a tribute and sing a dirge for a departing soul. It is a more difficult job in our African culture when one is compelled to do so for a younger person. “Here am I having the difficult job of singing a dirge for…

A FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na”Abba has reportedly died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja. A family source told this newspaper that the former lawmaker died in an Abuja hospital following a brief illness. Ghali Umar Na’Abba CFR was born into the family of Alhaji Umar Na’Abba, a businessman in Tudun Wada, Kano City, Kano Municipal Local Government on 27 September 1958. Na’Abba was a political scientist and a policy architect. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1979. His early education was at Jakara…

RASMUS Hojlund capped Manchester United’s thrilling fightback from two goals down as the Denmark striker netted for the first time in the Premier League to seal a dramatic 3-2 win against Aston Villa on Tuesday. Erik ten Hag’s side were in danger of another damaging defeat when goals from John McGinn and Leander Dendoncker put Villa in control by half-time at Old Trafford. United were booed off at the interval but they staged a much-needed revival, sparked by Alejandro Garnacho scoring their first goal in seven hours and twenty minutes. Garnacho struck again to equalise before Hojlund finally ended his…