At UN, African leaders say enough is enough: They must be partnered with, not sidelined
At the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, African leaders are relaying a unanimous message, that their continent of more than 1.3 billion people is done being a โvictimโ of a post-world war order and must be recognized and partnered with as a global power in itself.
Sub-Saharan Africa is 'new epicenter' of extremism, says UN
A new report by the U.N.โs international development agency says that sub-Saharan Africa is the new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism and that people are increasingly joining as a result of economic factors and less by religious ones.
Nigeria says it found first case of omicron in November
Nigeria has detected its first case of the omicron coronavirus variant in travelers that arrived from South Africa in the past week, the countryโs national public health institute said Wednesday, correcting its earlier statement that it found the variant in samples taken in October.
Pope prays for liberation of 317 kidnapped Nigerian students
VATICAN CITY โ Pope Francis on Sunday decried the kidnapping of 317 students from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria and prayed for the girls' quick release. Police on Friday in Nigeria said gunmen had abducted the students from their boarding school. โI pray for these girls, so that they may return home soon,'' the pope said. A resident of the area said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction. On Saturday, authorities in Nigeria announced that nearly 40 students, teachers and relatives abducted on Feb. 17 from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed.
Africa CDC: New virus variant appears to emerge in Nigeria
โItโs a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,โ the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would analyze more samples. The new virus variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. โWe believe this mutation will not have an effectโ on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, the Africa CDC director said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.
The Latest: China tests millions in port over virus cluster
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)BEIJING โ Authorities in Chinaโs northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the last 24 hours. It has a deal to secure up to 100 million doses of the potential vaccine produced by AstraZeneca. Koca said the first shipment of three million doses of CoronaVac would be shipped to Turkey on Sunday and arrive Monday. He said Turkey could get 4.5 million doses until the end of March and would have the option buy up to 30 million doses. Indonesia has reported nearly 700,000 COVID-19 cases, the largest caseload in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to Indiaโs 10.1 million confirmed cases.
US citizen kidnapped in Niger rescued in military operation
WASHINGTON โ An American citizen kidnapped in the West African nation of Niger this past week has been rescued in a U.S. military operation in neighboring Nigeria, U.S. officials said Saturday. The man was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger early Tuesday morning by armed kidnappers who demanded a ransom from the manโs father. โThis American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,โ the department said in a statement. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details .
Amnesty: Credible reports protesters shot dead in Nigeria
People hold banners as they demonstrate on the street to protest against police brutality, in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)LAGOS โ Amnesty International said late Tuesday there was โcredible but disturbing evidenceโ that security forces in the megacity of Lagos had fatally shot protesters who were demonstrating against police brutality despite a new curfew going into effect. The development came just hours after Lagos state Gov. The governor of Lagos state said the new curfew would cover the entire city of some 14 million people and surrounding areas. The announcement came after a police station was burned down in the city and two people were shot dead by police.
Up to 150 million could join extreme poor, World Bank says
Middle income-countries are expected to have 82% of the new extreme poor, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Most of the new extreme poor, more than 110 million even by the World Bank's baseline estimate, will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly a third of the newly extreme poor are expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, between 26 million and 40 million. The World Bank estimates between 88 million and 115 million people could slip into extreme poverty this year, with another 23 million to 35 million in 2021. The report "offers no simple answers to these major challenges currently confronting the world, because there are not any,โ the World Bank authors write.
Africa now free of wild poliovirus, but polio threat remains
The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. But sometimes patchy surveillance across the vast continent of 1.3 billion people raises the possibility that scattered cases of the wild poliovirus still remain, undetected. The final push to combat the wild poliovirus focused largely on northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group has carried out a deadly insurgency for more than a decade. Africa's last reported case of the wild poliovirus was in Nigeria in 2016. Cases remain of the so-called vaccine-derived polio virus, which is a rare mutated form of the weakened but live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine.
Ghana's virus cases spike 10 days after lockdown is lifted
South Africa will began a phased easing of its strict lockdown measures on May 1, although its confirmed cases of coronavirus continue to increase. In South Africa, which has the continent's highest number of reported cases at 5,350, community health workers continued testing in Johannesburg. The Ghana Health Service reported 403 new cases, bringing the total to 2,074. The spike was announced 10 days after President Nana Akufo-Addo eased a three-week lockdown in the capital of Accra and in the city of Kumasi. Adwoa Nyarku said she used to earn about $100 a week cleaning houses in the capital of Accra, where 89% of the country's confirmed cases have been reported.