BURKINA Faso has rejected “baseless accusations” that soldiers massacred 223 people in attacks in February. A Human Rights Watch report alleged the army killed 179 people in Soro village and 44 others in Nondin, at least 56 of who were children, on 25 February. The NGO said this was “among the worst army abuse” incidents in the country in nearly a decade. Burkinabè authorities said they had opened a legal inquiry to “establish the facts” and condemned HRW’s report. “The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations,” communications minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a…
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SOUTH Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki has vowed to remove “rotten apples” and “thieves” from the governing African National Congress (ANC) party. The 81-year-old was on the campaign trail for the ANC for the first time ahead of elections in May. He made the pledge in front of cheering crowds in Soweto as the party that has governed since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 faces allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Last week, protesters from Soweto took to a major highway to show their anger about a lack of basic services in the township outside Johannesburg that witnessed widespread…
THE office of the First Lady in Nigeria, created by many governors, has become a hotly coveted title among some state governors who have more than one wife, as the rivalry between their wives spills into the public space In a not-too-subtle competition for influence, Titilola and Ngozi, the two wives of the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, locked horns, each claiming to be the First Lady of the state. Titilola, reputed to be the governor’s first wife, proudly bears the traditional title of Yeye Soludero of Ila Orangun in Osun State. She was honoured with the NET Ambassador award…
BAYER Leverkusen and Nigeria striker, Victor Boniface, said Xabi Alonso had a particular advantage over other coaches on the training pitch. “Imagine you’re training and your coach is doing better than you,” Boniface told AFP in an interview. “Then you want to step up your game. “For him to be involved in training gives us a boost,” Boniface said of Alonso, who “has won everything that can be won in football.” “Sometimes he tells me of players he played with, with similar abilities to me. He tries to improve me in my weakest areas.” Leverkusen host third-placed Stuttgart on Saturday…
LIVERPOOL forward Mohamed Salah said if he speaks “there will be fire” after he argued with manager Jurgen Klopp on the touchline during the 2-2 Premier League draw at West Ham. Salah seemed to clash with Klopp as he prepared to come on as a 79th-minute substitute. Klopp said he would not disclose what the argument was about, but former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch said on TNT Sports that “it doesn’t look good for the club”. “Salah is a player who has started the majority of games for Liverpool and he will be fuming to be on the bench,” Crouch…
PRO-PALESTINIAN demonstrations continue in universities across the United States, as they also spread to schools in Europe and Australia. In the second week of protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, thousands of students are calling on dozens of universities to divest from Israel. Some universities have been forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies, while others have seen entire buildings occupied by protesting students. One of the latest to join the movement is The City University of New York (CUNY), where hundreds of students have set up an encampment on…
HAMAS has published a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages being held in Gaza. In undated footage filmed under duress, Omri Miran says he has been held for 202 days and Keith Siegel mentions this week’s Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently. Both were captured when Hamas launched its deadly attacks on 7 October. Responding to the video, their families said they would keep fighting for the men’s return. They also urged the Israeli government to secure a new hostage release deal. The new video comes as Hamas said it was studying Israel’s…
ELECTRICITY supplies have been restored to Sierra Leone following weeks of power cuts, after it paid off part of the $48m (£38m) bill it owed to a Turkish company. The $18m payment came as the country’s energy minister resigned, saying he took full responsibility for the crisis. Most electricity supplies to the capital, Freetown, come from a Turkish ship anchored off the country’s coast. Last week, Karpowership said it had severely cut supplies to the city – from 60 megawatts to 6 megawatts – because of the unpaid bills, but the disruption has been going on for far longer. Residents…
A DAUGHTER of deposed Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum on Friday accused his predecessor of being the “mastermind” behind the military coup that toppled her father nine months ago. Bazoum and his wife have been under arrest in the presidential palace in Niamey since army officers seized power on July 26. He had been elected two years earlier, succeeding President Mahamadou Issoufou, in Niger’s first-ever peaceful transition since independence. “The hardest thing to accept was to discover that Mahamadou Issoufou was the mastermind who orchestrated everything out of egocentrism and to protect his interests,” Bazoum’s daughter Hinda Bazoum wrote in an…
SUPER Eagles duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi have won promotion back to the Premier League with Leicester City without kicking the ball on Friday. Their promotion was confirmed after Leeds United were thumped by Queens Park Rangers. The 4-0 defeat at Loftus Road means Daniel Farke’s side stay four points behind Championship leaders Leicester with only one game left. The Foxes remain on track to amass 100 points on their way back to the top flight following their relegation last season. Leicester can now claim the Championship title on Monday with victory at Preston if third-placed Ipswich fail…
PREMIER League chief executive Richard Masters on Friday revealed the case against Manchester City for alleged financial breaches will be resolved in the “near future”. City are bidding to win a fourth successive Premier League title this season, which would be their second triumph in the competition since being hit with 115 charges of breaching financial rules in February 2023. The allegations relate to City’s conduct in nine seasons starting in 2009 until 2018, when the Premier League opened an investigation into the club. Asked on Friday whether another City title success while the charges remain unresolved would damage the…
A PREMATURE Palestinian baby, who was saved from her mother’s womb after she was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, has died after days in an incubator. Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda. Dr Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal unit at Emirati Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, who was caring for the baby girl, also confirmed her death on Friday. “I and other doctors tried to save her, but she…
IRAQI social media influencer Om Fahad has been shot dead outside her home in Baghdad, according to local media reports. The attack happened in the capital’s eastern Zayne neighbourhood on Friday. Iraq’s interior ministry confirmed in a statement that a “woman known on social networking sites” had been killed by “unknown assailants”. It added that a “specialised work team” had been set up to investigate the circumstances of her death. Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was reportedly shot in her car by a lone person with a gun riding a motorbike. An Iraqi security source told the AFP…
THE United States will withdraw some troops from Chad, the Pentagon has said, days after Washington agreed to move forces out of neighboring Niger. The US has approximately 100 troops stationed in Chad as part of its strategy to combat extremism in West Africa. “USAFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some US military forces from Chad, a portion of which were already scheduled to depart,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told a news conference on Thursday, referring to the US Africa Command. “This is a temporary step as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which…
BURKINA Faso has suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio networks from broadcasting after they aired a rights report accusing the army of attacks on civilians in its battle against jihadists. The British and US broadcasters are the latest international media organisations to be targeted since Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African country in a September 2022 coup. “The programmes of these two international radio networks broadcasting from Ouagadougou have been suspended for a period of two weeks,” Burkina’s communications authority, the CSC, announced late on Thursday. It said the decision had been taken because BBC…
BANDITS have attacked the palace of the Emir of Zurmi, Alhaji Bello Muhammad Bunu, killing three people and abducting many residents of the town. The bandits, who stormed the town around 10pm on Wednesday, according to locals, also attacked the residence of the former Military Administrator of Nasarawa State, Colonel Bala Muhammad Mande (rtd). While Col. Mande, a former minister of environment under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration was not in the house, Emir Bunu was in the palace when the bandits launched the attack, this newspaper learnt. During the attack, the bandits also destroyed a GSM mast and burnt two…
THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesperson, Hakama Sidi Ali, has lost her dad, Alhaji Sidi Ali. The First Republic politician and Second Republic parliamentarian reportedly died in Kano on Thursday evening at 86. In his later life, he was a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a member of the party’s Elders Committee in Kano State. In his 2018 birthday message, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari noted that Ali spent most of his life serving the country as a Public Affairs Officer, “most remarkably for ensuring accurate and balanced information on government activities during and after the Civil War.…
DAN Ashworth is set to take Newcastle to arbitration in an effort to resolve the impasse over his intended move to Manchester United. Ashworth has been on gardening leave since 19 February after informing Newcastle he wanted to join the revamped set-up under Ineos at Old Trafford. The Red Devils’ intention is for the 53-year-old to become their new sporting director. However, there has been no agreement over compensation. Manchester United have become increasingly resigned to not getting Ashworth into the club until after the summer transfer window has closed. Yet even that hinges on a resolution to the impasse…
THE UK on Thursday joined the United States and Canada in announcing a fresh set of sanctions against Iran’s drone and missile industries after its recent attack on Israel. Tehran launched its first direct military assault on Israeli territory nearly two weeks after an April 1 air strike — widely blamed on Israel — that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus. Iran’s large-scale attack involved more than 300 drones and missiles, most of which were shot down by Israel and its allies including Washington and London, causing little damage. The United States and Britain announced…
MARINE biologists raced Thursday to save more than 100 pilot whales after a mass stranding on an Australian beach, with officials fearing many will have to be euthanised. Western Australia’s Parks and Wildlife Service said 26 of the beached pilot whales had already died. As many as 160 pilot whales became stranded Thursday morning at Toby’s Inlet, officials said, located about three hours’ drive south of state capital Perth. “A team of experienced staff including wildlife officers, marine scientists, veterinarians are on site or on their way,” the Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement. Wildlife officers will try…