₦airaland Forum

One person has died after being shot by a policeman during a protest over the ongoing detention of pop star-turned-MP Robert Kyagulanyi, a police official said on Friday.

Regional police chief Francis Chemusto said officers were responding on Thursday night to a protest in the home town of the MP, who is better known as Bobi Wine, in Bukalamuli, some 120km west of Kampala

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/27/ugandan-police-say-protester-shot-in-self-defence/

A Burundi UN peacekeeper has been killed in an ambush in the Central African Republic, the UN’s MINUSCA mission announced on Friday.

The ambush, believed to be by so-called “anti-balaka” vigilantes, occurred on Thursday evening around 20km from the town of Alindao in the centre of the country, MINUSCA said in a statement.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/27/burundi-un-peacekeeper-killed-in-ambush-in-car/

Ethiopia’s prime minister in his first press conference since taking power vowed on Saturday to continue with dramatic reforms “at any cost” and said the longtime ruling coalition soon will prepare for a “free and fair election” in 2020.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also said the World Bank “soon” plans to provide $1bn in direct budgetary assistance, a sign of confidence after years of unrest in Africa’s second most populous nation. Such assistance stopped after the disputed 2005 elections.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/27/ethiopias-pm-vows-to-continue-reforms-at-any-cost/https://annafrica.net/2018/08/27/ethiopias-pm-vows-to-continue-reforms-at-any-cost/

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed his position as a favorite in new polls before the October presidential elections in Brazil, despite his incarceration for corruption and the risk of his candidacy invalidated.

Lula, who has been jailed for more than 12 years for corruption since April, would get 37 percent of the vote for the Workers’ Party (left), according to an opinion poll published late Monday by the Ibope Institute.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/22/brazil-presidential-election-in-prison-lula-still-stronger-in-polls/

US President Donald Trump suffered a double hard court blow on Tuesday, with his former lawyer personally implicating him before a judge and, at the same time, his former campaign leader who was convicted at his trial.

Two different jurisdictions for two separate cases, but the same shadow hovered over the courts of Alexandria and New York: that of the Republican billionaire, whose mandate in the White House is poisoned by court cases that involve many of his relatives and threaten to reach it directly.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/22/double-hard-court-blow-for-trump-implicated-by-ex-lawyer/

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday “demonstrated his fitness” to continue in office.

After Eid-el-Kabir prayers in Daura, Katsina State, he shunned protocol, and amid cheers from hundreds of well-wishers who lined the route, the president walked 800 metres from the prayer ground to his private residence.

“I think there are two things here,” said Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu.

“One is that the president is responsive to the enormous support and commitment of his own people that came out in their numbers to see him.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/22/buhari-walks-800-metres-to-prove-fitness-for-2019-polls/

Funmilayo Ransom Kuti
To decorate Woman Crush Wednesday today is The Mother of Africa, Chief Funmilayo Ransom Kuti. Popularly referred to as the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria and her advocacy for women.

Here’s a quick background knowledge of the ‘ Doyen of female rights in Nigeria’

Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was born 25 October 1900 in the south-western region of Abeokuta, Nigeria , to Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu.

She attended Abeokuta grammar school for her secondary education. There after went to England for further education. She soon returned to Nigeria to become a teacher. She married the Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome Kuti on 20 Janurary, 1925.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/22/chief-funmilayo-ransom-kuti-the-doyen-of-female-rights-in-nigeria/

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 55 lives since the start of the month, the authorities said on Monday, as the government announced free treatment against the disease for the next three months.

The health ministry’s latest bulletin said that the death toll had been increased following five new victims in Mabalako-Mangina, close to Beni, the epicentre of the outbreak in the North Kivu province.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/21/ebola-death-toll-in-drc-rises-to-55/

Egyptian security officials say a car bomb has targeted members of the security forces in the turbulent north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing a military officer.

They say the blast, which took place on Sunday on a road just south of the coastal city of el-Arish city, also wounded four conscripts.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/20/car-bomb-kills-officer-wounds-4-in-sinai/

Mali’s Constitutional Court on Monday declared Ibrahim Boubacar Keita president after the 73-year-old incumbent won elections that his opponent, former minister Soumaila Cisse, 68, said were marred by fraud.

Keita was victor in a runoff on August 12 that credited him with 67.16% of the vote.

China’s Ministry of Agriculture said on Sunday 88 hogs had died from African swine fever in the eastern city of Lianyungang, the third outbreak this month, as the highly-contagious disease threatened to spread through the world’s biggest pig herd.

A total of 615 hogs have been infected since Aug. 15 with the swine fever in Lianyungang, in Jiangsu province, where authorities have banned the movement of hogs, related products and animals that are easily infected both into and outside the affected area, the ministry said.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/20/third-african-swine-fever-outbreak-hits-chinas-hog-herd/

A police officer was reportedly arrested in Zimbabwe after gold worth about $1m vanished from a Plumtree police station in Matabeleland south.

According to the state-owned Chronicle newspaper, the gold weighing 28.5kg had been kept as an exhibit at the station since September 2015 after it was confiscated from a suspect who tried to smuggle it to Botswana in 2015 via the Plumtree border post.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/20/police-officer-arrested-after-1-million-gold-vanishes-from-police-station/

Nigeria international and Arsenal forward, Alex Iwobi has made a debut in his first film role in the soon to be released ‘Inpadisu.’

The movie, now trending on social media, features Iwobi being pursued all over the place, apparently because of choices he made in the movie.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/20/nigeria-international-alex-iwobi-debuts-in-nollywood-film-role/

Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul, died Thursday at her Detroit home, the Associated Press reports, surrounded by family and friends. She had been battling various undisclosed illnesses for years, and, in recent weeks, was receiving hospice care. Franklin was 76.

As news of her declining health spread over the past few days, visitors including Stevie Wonder and the Rev. Jesse Jackson reportedly paid their respects at her bedside. Beyoncé and Jay-Z dedicated their Monday concert in the Motor City to Franklin, declaring the iconic singer. “We love you,” Beyoncé said, adding a word of thanks for “the beautiful music.”

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-the-queen-of-soul-dies-at-76/

An FCT High Court sitting in Bwari has restrained Senate President Bukola Saraki from declaring the seat of former Minority Leader of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio vacant.

Justice Othman Musa on Wednesday also ordered Saraki not to impede Senator Akpabio’s access to the Senate building or take any action aimed at “overreaching his privileges and rights as a Senator pending the determination of the originating Summons of the applicant.”

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/16/court-halts-sarakis-move-to-declare-akpabios-seat-vacant/

A 78-year-old crocodile is reportedly being worshiped as a god by some people living in south-western Nigeria.

According to BBC, the crocodile has been owned as a pet by the Delesolu family for several generations in the Oje suburb of Ibadan City.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/16/78-year-old-crocodile-worshiped-as-a-god-in-nigeria-report/

Raging conflict is hampering efforts to rein in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation chief warned on Tuesday, urging a ceasefire to stop the virus from transmitting freely.

As the death toll in the outbreak declared on August 1 in DRC’s violence-wracked North Kivu province hit 41, the World Health Organisation chief also called for the rapid roll-out of an unlicenced drug being used for the first time to treat Ebola patients.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/15/who-worried-ebola-can-transmit-freely-in-drc-as-death-toll-hits-41/

Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic announced his international retirement on Wednesday one month after starring in the World Cup final.

“The time has come after 10 years on the national team to say goodbye my favourite jersey,” Subasic wrote in a letter published by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), a day after striker Mario Mandzukic retired.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/15/croatia-world-cup-keeper-subasic-retires/

Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused thousands of children over a 70-year period and silenced victims through “the weaponization of faith” and a systematic cover-up campaign by their bishops, the state attorney general said on Tuesday.

An 884-page report made public by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro after a two-year investigation contained graphic examples of children being groomed and sexually abused by clergymen. It was largely based on documents from secret archives kept by the dioceses, including handwritten confessions by priests, he said.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/15/pennsylvania-report-details-decades-of-sexual-abuse-by-priests/

An Ethiopian official says a notorious special police force in the country’s Somali region killed 41 people and wounded 20 others as ethnic violence poses a challenge to the reformist new prime minister.

Local spokesperson Miski Mohammed says the Liyu Police attacked on Sunday in east Hararghe while people fled fearing further attacks. Regional spokesperson Negeri Lencho has said those targeted were ethnic Oromos.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/15/ethiopian-special-police-force-kills-41-official/

A team of teenage girls representing Nigeria has defeated teams from the United States of America (USA), Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China to win the 2018 Technovation world pitch junior division in San Francisco, USA.

The team Save-A-Soul from Nigeria developed a mobile application called ‘FD Detector’ to tackle the problem of fake pharmaceutical products in the country.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/10/nigerian-teenage-girls-win-global-tech-competition-in-silicon-valley/

Zimbabwe’s President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa says opposition politician Tendai Biti has been released on bail following his “intervention”.

Biti will return to court at a later date to face charges of inciting violence after last week’s elections.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/10/biti-released-on-bail-mnangagwa/

Zimbabwe’s President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa says opposition politician Tendai Biti has been released on bail following his “intervention”.

Biti will return to court at a later date to face charges of inciting violence after last week’s elections.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/10/biti-released-on-bail-mnangagwa/

European Union (EU) and United Nations have called for the encouragement of women in politics as a strategy to help in reducing poverty and increasing economic growth in Nigeria.

The international bodies and other stakeholders urged the Federal Government to step up more women to participate in the 2019 elections.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/10/eu-un-want-more-women-in-nigerian-politics/

The Nigerian singer and producer Tekno will be having a new collaboration with the American singer and diva Ciara. However, this new collaboration will be Tekno’s first.

Ciara has announced her collaboration with the Pana crooner Tekno on a new song ‘Freak Me’ scheduled for release on Friday, August 10, 2018.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/09/american-star-ciara-collaborates-with-tekno-for-her-new-single/

Senator Godswill Akpabio has formally defected to the national ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at a mega rally held at the Ikot Ekpene township stadium on Wednesday.

No fewer than 30 APC’s senators and members of National Working Committee (NWC) were on hand to receive the ex-senate minority leader, Akpabio.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/08/akpabio-formally-defects-to-apc/

The President of the Senate DR Bukola Saraki has said that the 8th Senate was ready to reconvene to consider the N242 INEC budget currently pending before it.

Saraki disclosed this during a World Press Conference on Wednesday on the aftermath of the siege on the \national Assembly by operatives of the DSS.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/08/saraki-says-senate-ready-to-reconvene-over-inec/

Senate President Bukola Saraki addressed the press on the blockade of the entrance of the National Assembly on Tuesday by DSS operatives and vows to ensure that democracy thrives as well as ensure justice and fairness.

He said that the siege on the National Assembly was an act of cowardice by those who orchestrated the attack out of desperation to remove him.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/08/saraki-addresses-world-press-conference/

Nigeria’s oldest prisoner, Celestine Egbunuche, is a century old. He turned 100 on Saturday at the Enugu Maximum Prison.

The Centenarian was sentenced to death 17 years ago when someone died in a scuffle over land possession.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/08/nigerias-oldest-prisoner-turns-100/

A minivan caught fire on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos on Wednesday leading to traffic build up on the bridge.

According to the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency Response Unit, on Twitter, the fire started early Wednesday at Adekunle axis of the bridge.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/08/mini-van-catches-fire-on-third-mainland-bridge/

The All Progressives Congress has refuted claims that the party National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole was involved in the blockade of the National assembly by the Department of State Security (DSS) operatives on Tuesday.
The party said that the allegations were mischievous, false and baseless while stating it was merely observing the developments at the National assembly.
“Our attention has been drawn to mischievous attempts in some partisan quarters to link developments @nassnigeria @NGRSenate @HouseNGR to the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole,” APC’s spokesman Yekini Nabena said.

“While the Party is monitoring the developments @nassnigeria like every concerned Nigerian stakeholder, there is absolutely no basis for the false allegations and attempt to blame the National Chairman for the development there.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/07/apc-denies-involvement-in-dss-blockade-of-the-national-assembly/

The emergency meeting of the National Assembly which was scheduled to hold on Tuesday has been called off.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yussuff Lasun, said that the meeting cannot hold because of the situation at the National Assembly.

The National Assembly was barricaded by the DSS.

Read more at https://annafrica.net/2018/08/07/national-assembly-leaders-call-off-emergency-meeting/