Africa Business Radio

The US State Department has warned American citizens in Ethiopia that it will not be able to evacuate them if the security situation worsens suddenly. A senior US official urged American citizens to leave Ethiopia immediately, saying that Washington had no plans to organise a mass evacuation, as it did in Afghanistan. The US and the African Union have been pressuring the Ethiopian government and rebels in the Tigray region to end their conflict, which has killed several thousand people and displaced two million since it started a year ago. American officials say the US has held off approving sanctions against the warring parties because peace negotiations are still active.

The government in Kenya says security officials are on high alert following the twin explosions in neighbouring Uganda on Tuesday. Government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna urged citizens to be vigilant and report any suspicious characters or movements. The alert comes days after three prisoners who were convicted for terrorism-related charges escaped from a prison in the capital Nairobi. Three other suspected suicide bombers were killed in Uganda in two explosion sites where three other people died. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Kenya for regional security talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

A UN spokesman says the Ethiopian government has released about half of the UN's contracted aid drivers arrested last week. Farhan Haq says on Monday that 34 drivers had been released but 36 others were still being detained. He hoped that the remaining contract workers and 10 UN national staff arrested by the authorities on Friday would be freed. The UN spokesman also announced that the UN had released $40m (£29.8m) in emergency funds to Ethiopians. The spokesman says the funds will help scale up emergency operations in Ethiopia's conflict-affected northern regions and support early response to the drought in southern Ethiopia.

Human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has urged the Lagos State Government to implement the recommendations of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, set up to investigate cases of police brutality and other SARS-related crimes. He says members of the Okuwobi Judicial Commission of Inquiry deserve commendation for the thorough investigation of police brutality in Lagos State, adding that a copy of the report should be sent to the President. The says the revelation that some of the 99 dead bodies dumped in the various mortuaries in Lagos by soldiers were traced to the Lekki Toll Gate has exposed the official lie that the report of the brutal killing was a figment of the imagination of the protesters.

The United States says it was looking forward to a response from the Lagos State Government after the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry submitted its final report. A statement from the US Embassy in Lagos says the United States welcomes the conclusion of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry with the transmission of its final report The statement added that they look forward to the Lagos State government’s response as part of a process that represents an important mechanism of accountability regarding the #EndSARS protests and the events that took place near the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest massacre of 15 people in Goronyo and Illela Local Government Areas of Sokoto. The President says the military was deploying advanced technology to crush the bandits carrying out the attacks. He says the persistent and unprovoked violence against unarmed civilians must be met with a fierce response by the government. He added that they are taking delivery of military equipment to improve the capacity of the security forces to effectively deal with this issue adding that the military is also deploying advanced technology to enhance surveillance and related operations to locate and crush these criminals and enemies of our common humanity.

The Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, has faulted the procedure adopted in the release of a document said to be the report of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality. The leaked report had indicted officers of the Nigerian Army for killing unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem” at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020. The CDS however explained that he could not, at the moment, comment on the content of the document because he has not seen the official report. General Irabor maintained that the Nigerian armed forces are committed to their constitutional mandate and do not engage in ignoble acts.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, hinted that Nigeria has adopted a forward-thinking approach by developing strategic minerals of the future. Adegbite noted that the minerals, which include minor metals such as titanium and cobalt, are vital to futuristic industries such as telecoms and electric vehicle manufacturing. He says the country is endowed with over 44 different mineral types occurring in commercial quantities in over 500 locations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. These mineral endowments broadly cut across the various mineral spectrums.

The Senate and House of Representatives have intervened in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. They said the situation is having a negative impact on Nigerians amid the work permit restriction and other challenges they face in the Arabian country. The Senate mandated its Committees on Foreign Affairs, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, National Security, as well as Intelligence and Interior respectively, to interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Intelligence Agency on best ways of resolving the dispute and report back to the lawmakers within two weeks. The House of Representatives, on its part, set up an ad-hoc committee to liaise with relevant government agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the treatment of Nigerians by the UAE authorities.

The Federal Government has revealed plans to boost the digital economy with a $600m Innovation Fund from the African Development Bank. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that they have a $600million Innovation Fund with the African Development Bank which they hope will really energize the industry Osinbajo identified the digital economy as an area that is “big for us and the next couple of years, and we are focusing on it.” He says the government’s strategy is to enhance productivity by focusing on value addition as the guiding principle for all sectors, especially agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, digital services, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment.

The million to CGI Merchant Group, which plans to remove ex-president Donald Trump’s name from the luxury property’s facade. The Wall Street Journal says the Miami-based investment fund has struck a separate agreement with Hilton Worldwide Holdings to rebrand the Trump International Hotel as a Waldorf Astoria. The historic building just a short walk from the White House and down Pennsylvania Avenue from the US Capitol is not owned by the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization invested some $200 million in the renovation of the building, which was constructed in the late 19th century and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Britain’s booster programme for COVID-19 vaccinations is to be expanded to younger people after scientists gave the green light. The UK government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says all healthy adults aged 40-49 should be offered a booster, six months after their second dose. The booster programme was limited to those aged 50 and over, and the clinically vulnerable. Some 12.6 million Britons have received the third jab. The JCVI says that 16 and 17-year-olds should now be offered a second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

The European Union has decided to impose new sanctions against Belarus, accusing it of driving a crisis that has left thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in freezing forests on its borders with the EU. The Western bloc seeks to stop the policy by Belarus to push migrants towards it in revenge for earlier sanctions. Belarus has rejected the allegations. The asylum seekers, who are mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, began arriving on Belarus’s land borders with the EU this year, trying to cross into member states Lithuania, Latvia and Poland via routes not used before. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says the inhumane system of using refugees as tools to exert pressure on the European Union has got worse over the last few days pledging to target those involved in what he called human trafficking.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa issued directives to three ministers with the aim of unlocking investment in forestry. He abolished the export of semi-processed timber products and instructed Investment minister Geofrey Mwambe to visit timber factories to inspect and identify those exporting partially processed products. The Premier also directed the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled, Ms Jenista Mhagama, to visit timber processing and resolve wage challenges and occupational safety and health concerns. Natural Resources and Tourism minister Damas Ndumbaro was also ordered to collaborate with his Finance and Planning counterpart to review and if possible scrap nuisance taxes charged to forestry stakeholders.

Mozambique government says more than 14 tonnes of precious minerals have been smuggled out of Mozambique in the last 10 months alone. Gold, rubies, tantalite and garnet were smuggled from places where they're most abundant - in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia and Manica. Judge Counselor of the Supreme Court Rafael Sebastião told fellow attendees discussed at the meeting between the government, the judiciary that legal processes are being fine-tuned to stop criminal exploitation and smuggling.

The Constitutional Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared itself unfit to prosecute former Prime Minister Augustin Matata and two other men accused of embezzling $205m from a farming project. The court says that it could only try current and not former prime ministers. The prosecutor had accused Mr Matata of being intellectually responsible for misappropriating funds from the planned Bukanga Lonzo agro-industrial park. Mr Matata denies wrongdoing, Reuters news agency reports. The ruling means Mr Matata can now hope to return to his parliamentary role as a senator.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has raised an alarm over the existence of another hacking group orchestrating cyberespionage in the African telecoms space. Dr Ikechukwu Adinde says the agency explained that the notification became necessary to keep stakeholders in the country’s telecoms sector informed, educated, and protected. He says an Iranian hacking group known as Lyceum (also known as Hexane, Siamesekitten, or Spirlin) has been reported to be targeting telecoms, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Africa with upgraded malware in a recent politically motivated attacks oriented in cyberespionage. He added that the hacking group is known to be focused on infiltrating the networks of telecoms companies and ISPs.

The National Bureau of Statistics says the Consumer Price Index which measures inflation increased by 15.99 per cent (year-on-year) in October 2021, While the country recorded a higher figure in October compared to last year, the inflation rate dropped for the seventh straight month. The agency says that the development indicated an increase of 1.76 per cent points compared with the rate recorded in October 2020. It added that increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose divisions that yielded the headline index.

The federal government is mulling the possibility of compelling passengers of domestic airlines to show evidence of vaccination. The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire says it was commonplace in many foreign countries for people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, in order to be admitted to restaurants, cinemas, nightclubs, even to board aircraft on international flights. Ehanire says the vaccines being used in the country are trusted and are of high standards. The minister said Nigeria had so far tested a total of 3,392,457 samples, of which 213,147 were confirmed positive for Covid-19, while active cases are 4,447 and cases discharged to date are 205,732.

The Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos state government to probe October 20, 2020, #EndSARs protest has revealed that at least 11 persons were killed during the peaceful demonstration at the Lekki Tollgate and another four missing but presumed dead making a total of 15. The report was an incriminating indictment of heightening extrajudicial killings and unprofessionalism by Nigerian law enforcement agents The report described as atrocious, the maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor, waving their Nigerian flags and singing the National Anthem, stressing that the act could be equated to a massacre in context. The panel stated that 24 sustained gunshot injuries, while 15 others were assaulted by soldiers and police, revealing that 96 other corpses were presented by a Forensic Pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Prof. John Obafunwa.