₦airaland Forum

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is now 25 years old, and it has significantly reshaped Africa-China relations. What began in 2000 with 44 African countries has grown into a wide-ranging partnership touching infrastructure, trade, industry, and diplomacy.

✅ Infrastructure Boom
Over 100,000 km of roads, 10,000 km of railways, 100+ ports and bridges built or upgraded. Major projects include:

TAZARA railway (Tanzania-Zambia)

Mombasa–Nairobi railway (Kenya)

Lekki Deep Sea Port (Lagos) – projected to generate $360bn and 170,000 jobs.

✅ Trade & Investment Growth

China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for 16 years.

2024 trade volume hit $295 billion (6.1% increase).

African exports to China now include more processed goods, not just raw materials.

✅ Support for African Industrialisation

3,300 Chinese companies across 51 African countries.

$42 billion invested in sectors like manufacturing, agro-processing & digital economy.

China offering zero-tariff access to exports from 53 African nations.

✅ Not Just Business – A Shared History
The article reminds us that this relationship goes beyond money — rooted in decades of solidarity, anti-colonial support, and development cooperation.

🤝 President Xi Jinping calls for building an “all-weather China–Africa community with a shared future.”

🔗 Full article here: [url][/url]https://thenationonlineng.net/focac-at-25-the-china-africa-journey/

Africa faces the most severe environmental damage from the conflict – countries must actively work on diplomatic solutions.

The Red Sea crisis has become a pressing concern largely due to its disruption of global trade. However, it also has far-reaching environmental impacts as the waters become a battleground. The clashes are adding to other environmental stressors that pose potentially irreversible damage to ocean health. The path for Africa is clear – it must act urgently.

On 27 January, Houthis attacked the Marlin Luanda British-linked oil tanker in response to United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) air strikes against the armed group. The tanker caught fire and was severely damaged. This is just one of numerous attacks on oil tankers in the Red Sea since mid-December 2023.

The conflict is unfolding at a time of increasing pressure in the region due to population growth, climate change and coastal development. The Red Sea’s reef ecosystem provides food security and livelihoods for 28 million coastal inhabitants. Oil spills in these waters would cause severe damage, contaminating marine ecosystems, destroying vital coral reefs, and harming already overexploited fish populations. Clean-up efforts would be costly and time-consuming in a region lacking maritime safety capabilities.

Cooperation for climate action in the region is already hindered by complex geopolitical dynamics. For example, in August 2023, a United Nations (UN) mission conducted a ship-to-ship transfer of 1.4 million barrels of crude oil from the FSO Safer supertanker in Yemen. The tanker was at risk of corrosion-induced spillage due to a lack of maintenance since the Yemen war started in 2015. It could also have exploded if caught in the crossfire, posing a potential environmental and humanitarian crisis if the oil spilt into the Red Sea.

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/africas-oceans-could-pay-dearly-for-the-red-sea-crisis

At least 17 people died of anthrax in a southern Ugandan district in November, a local official told AFP on Thursday, adding that "the situation is under control".

The Bacillus anthracis bacterium, which survives for decades in the form of spores in land where animals that have died of anthrax or carried the disease have been buried in the past, is transmissible to humans and potentially fatal in its rarest forms.

In the Kyotera district of southern Uganda, some 180 kilometers from the capital Kampala, "17 people died" in November from anthrax, the district's health officer, Dr. Edward Muwanga, told AFP. These people "are suspected of having eaten meat from the farm where the animals had contracted the disease", he added.

"We are working with teams from the Ministry of Health in Kampala and the World Health Organization (WHO) who are on the ground to help contain the situation and it is under control," said Mr. Muwanga.

Gilbert Ekugbe

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs TGI Group, Mr. Sadiq Kassim, has lamented the nation’s high import rate of food and agricultural commodities, which currently stands at N3.3 trillion.

Kassim said spending so much on importing food is unsustainable for Nigeria, especially at a time when the country is grappling to earn the much foreign exchange it needs to carry out capital projects for economic growth and development.

He stated this during a panel session at the unveiling of Afrinvest 2023 Nigerian Banking Sector Report in Lagos recently.

He said that Nigeria has the capacity to produce all its food requirements even as he called on the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to fund the commercialisation of research findings to boost the discovery of new food varieties to meet the ever growing demand for food.

Kassim said: “90 per cent of the food we consume is produced by the smallholder farmers in Nigeria since it was created and that is incontrovertible. Although, the Russian-Ukraine war made nations experience a disruption in their respective food value chains and systems, but we survived. There is capacity to produce food in the country.

“We need to revive all agricultural development initiatives diligently in this country. I am sure we can do this because the N3.3 trillion imports of food or agricultural commodities are not sustainable and we cannot continue with this.”

He, however, stated that the nation’s agricultural sector is growing significantly, but called for more support and funding for the sector to come out of the woods.

He said: “The export figure of agriculture export has risen more than what was happened from 2016 to 2019. In 2016-2019, we exported N800 million, but in 2022, we did more than N500 billion export of agricultural commodity which is more than what has been done in the previous years.

“53 per cent of our youths are unemployed and for me that is a great labour availability in the agricultural sector and there are only 37 per cent of women which means we are excluding half of the population from agriculture.”

Hundreds of vehicles carrying aid are waiting to be allowed into Gaza to bring in vital supplies

Water for basic needs in Gaza is running dangerously low, with no supplies being allowed in for over a week after Israel launched a "complete siege" following Hamas's 7 October attacks.

For anyone trying to get a sense of the scale of how much supplies have run dry, we've created this graphic to demonstrate it:

Graphic showing how people should have 100 litres of water a day for basic needs, that in Gaza before the 7 October they used 84 litres on average and now they have just 3 litres. All data is from the WHO.

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court, Lagos, has ordered the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos State Command, not to do anything that could destroy the Res (subject matter) in a Human Right Enforcement suit filed by one Peter Ogochukwu Adaba pending the hearing and determination of a substantive application pending before the court.

Justice Aluko granted the order while ruling on an ex-parte motion filed and argued by Mr. James Babatunde Alara, counsel to Adaba.

According to the ex-parte motion dated August 9, 2023, with suit number FHC/L/CS/1201/23, the petitioner sought for an order of the court, restraining the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command or it agents from harassing, arresting, detaining or in any way infringing on his fundamental rights pending the hearing and determination of his originating summons dated June 23, 2023.

In the alternative, the petitioner said the court should grant an order maintaining status quo as at 9th of August, 2023 which is that the applicant is not yet in the custody of the police.

In the affidavit filed in support of the ex-parte application, the petitioner averred that due to the persistent and continuous violation of his fundamental rights by way of malicious arrest, detention and willful harassment, he instituted a suit against the Commissioner of Police Lagos State and its agents for the breach of his right before the Federal High Court, Lagos in the matter between Peter Ogochukwu Adaba and another versus the IGP in suit number FHC/L/C’s/1201/23.

The petitioner said he took steps to serve the Police with all the court processes, but that despite the service of court processes on the police, agents of the respondent particularly the CP Special Squad, led by CSP. Gbenga Oni, and his lieutenants ASP. Cosmas Roberts and the Investigating Police Officer, Inspector Destiny Nwafor, have continued to harass and intimidate the petitioner through calls, threats and insistence on arresting the applicant.

In particular, the applicant averred that on August 9, 2023 officers of the Special Squad from the Lagos State Command led by CSP. Gbenga Oni stormed his residence insisting on gaining unlawful entry into the premises while searching menacingly for him.

He added that the respondent later laid siege on his residence for hours making it impossible for him to enter or exit the premises as a result of which his aged mother and sister who came to visit him from the United States were traumatised.

Adaba accused the police of acting the script of his estranged wife who is using men of the Police Special Squad and the IPO to exert pressure on him so that he can be forced to give up possession and ownership of thier joint properties.

He added that the issue of ownership of the joint properties is already subject of litigation in suit number ID/11760WD/2022 between Abimbola Adenike Adaba versus Peter Ogochukwu Adaba, saying the police want to criminalise what is purely a matrimonial dispute.

Citing instances of infringement on his rights, the petitioner said that he was arrested on the of 16th January, 2022, and detained, arrested again on 16th February, 2023 and detained and would have been kept for a long period, but for the timely intervention of a senior police officer.

Adaba added that the plan of the agents of the respondent is to arrest him and obtain a detention order from a magistrate court for a period of 30 days within which period they will subject him to mental and physical torture and exertions as much pressure on him in a bid to do the bidding of his estranged wife.

The applicant averred that CSP. Gbenga Oni of the Special Squad Unit of the Lagos State Police Command did not respect the authority of the court.

Following the submission of Mr. Babatunde Alara, the presiding judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko, while delivering ruling, said that he could not close his eyes particularly when it is obvious based on the evidence before the court that the right of the petitioner is about to be violated.

He therefore, ordered the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command and its agents to desist from doing anything that could destroy the Res of the matter pending before the court.

Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned hearing of the substantive motion till September 26, 2023.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Human rights activists in Niger say they have been unable to gain access to top political officials who were detained after mutinous soldiers ousted the African country’s democratically elected president nearly three weeks ago.

The military officers who carried out a coup against President Mohamed Bazoum also arrested several former government ministers and other political leaders, according to Ali Idrissa, executive secretary of the Network of Organizations for Transparency and Analysis of Budgets, a local human rights group. . Requests to see them and check on their well-being have gone unanswered, he said.

The junta that seized power has held Bazoum, his wife and son under house arrest in their compound in the capital since July 26. It says it plans to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security, crimes that are eligible for the death penalty in Niger.

Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for the junta, said in a Sunday evening TV broadcast that the detained officials were being treated humanely and had not raised any health concerns. Representatives of the coup leaders did not immediately respond to questions about whether rights organizations would be allowed to visit or communicate with Bazoum and the others.

Oxfam report says only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance in 2020 devoted to helping vulnerable states.

Rich nations are undermining work to protect poor and vulnerable countries from the impacts of the climate crisis, by providing loans instead of grants, siphoning off money from other aid projects or mislabelling cash, new research suggests.

Only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance from rich countries in 2020 was devoted to helping poor countries adapt to extreme weather, despite increasing incidences of climate-related disaster, according to a report from the charity Oxfam.

Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam’s international climate change policy lead, said this was inadequate given the scale of the problem. “Don’t be fooled into thinking $11.5bn is anywhere near enough for low- and middle-income countries to help their people with more and bigger floods, hurricanes, firestorms, droughts and other terrible harms brought about by climate change,” she said. “People in the US spend four times that each year feeding their cats and dogs.”

Under a promise made by the developed world in 2009, developing countries should have been receiving $100bn a year in climate finance from 2020, made up of funds to help countries adapt to climate impacts and to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. But that pledge has so far gone unmet, with only $83bn provided in 2020.

Estimates suggest that the $100bn figure should be exceeded this year, but Oxfam said standard estimates overstated the true amounts. That is because some of the money has been taken from existing overseas aid budgets, and some of what is counted as climate finance includes funds primarily allocated to development projects such as health and education, with only tangential benefits to the climate.

Oxfam also argues that finance should be provided in the form of grants rather than loans, though some donor countries defend the use of loans.

If all of these sums are stripped out, then only $21bn to $24.5bn of the $83bn remains as pure climate finance without strings attached, according to Oxfam in its Climate Finance Shadow Report 2023, published on Monday.

Climate finance will come under close scrutiny this week, at UN negotiations to be held in Bonn, ahead of the Cop28 climate summit that starts on 30 November.

This year’s summit – Cop stands for “conference of the parties” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil-producing country that plans to expand its fossil fuel production capacity.

Sultan Al Jaber, president-designate of Cop28, is also head of UAE’s national oil company, Adnoc, a dual role that many campaigners have warned represents a conflict of interests.

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and twice a climate envoy for the UN, led a group of prominent women in writing to the UN at the weekend, asking for a clear “firewall” to be set up between the Cop preparations and UAE’s oil industry.

“So far, UAE hasn’t shown signs of prioritising action to address the impact of climate change on vulnerable people, especially women,” they wrote. “Some are saying that the talks are heading for a car crash – instead of leading to address the emergency for people, climate and nature, we are also facing an emergency for the survival of the UN multilateral system and democracy.”

At this week’s preparatory meeting, governments will discuss how to set up a fund to help poor countries with loss and damage, which means the ravages of climate breakdown that are too severe for countries to adapt to them. They will also lay out some of the groundwork for assessing how close countries are to meeting their pledges on cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a process known as the “global stocktake”.

Al Jaber has talked of the need for a “course correction” at Cop28 that would put the world on track to meet the Paris goals. He told the Guardian, in a rare interview, that boosting the deployment of renewable energy was key and that there were encouraging signs.

But he said governments and activists needed to show unity. “We need to stop the fingerpointing. We need to stop this polarisation. We need to flip the page and start focusing on being optimistic, positive and working together in harmony.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/05/climate-crisis-rich-nations-undermining-work-to-help-poor-countries-research-suggests

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh7G7tDbyqw

Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. reporter Seymour Hersh said this week that U.S. Navy divers, in a CIA operation ordered by President Joe Biden, planted explosives that destroyed three Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ6th842g5I

Look at NATO's role in the Nord Stream bombing and you can see what kind of alliance NATO is.

lhordspy:
Lol. NATO countries are bunch of spineless jokers. Believe the articles 4 and 5 at your own peril.

When rocket strayed into Poland few months ago. And rumours started going round it was Russia's missile. They all cowered like little fear babies.

They were making excuses here and there. None of them could even summon the courage to even talk about war with Russia. They were all looking for something else to blame for the attack until it was discovered the missile strayed from Ukrainian launcher.

What a relieve it was for them back then. Bunch of scared little noisemakers.

"Bunch of scared little noisemakers." Right.

MOSCOW, March 28 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday it would keep demanding an international investigation into explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year, after failing to win backing for a probe at the United Nations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said everyone should be interested in an impartial investigation in order to find the culprits.

"We will do everything in our power to continue to insist and to initiate such an international investigation," he told a daily conference call with reporters, without specifying what Moscow would do next.

On Monday, Russia failed to get the U.N. Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into explosions in September that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany and spewed gas into the Baltic.

Peskov said Russia viewed the outcome at the U.N. "with regret".

"We believe that everyone should be interested in an objective investigation involving all interested parties, all those who can shed light on who commissioned and perpetrated this terrorist act," he said.

The pipeline blasts occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Russia has complained that it has not been kept informed about ongoing investigations by those countries and Germany. It has maintained, without providing evidence, that the West was behind the blasts.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-russia-will-keep-calling-nord-stream-probe-after-un-failure-2023-03-28/

It must be difficult to collect these pics

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), said its preferred presidential candidate will be unveiled on Thursday in time for the 2023 presidential election on February 25.

The leadership of the student body announced on Monday that it would be engaging presidential candidates in a town hall meeting in Abuja on the day where one of them would be endorsed.


NANS National Publicity Officer, Giwa Temitope, who disclosed this in an interaction with newsmen, said the student union was not interested in money from any of the candidates, rather, it would beam its searchlight for the right candidate with the “capacity and desire to fix the challenges facing the country’s education sector.”

“We all know that NANS is the apex body of all student organisation in Nigeria both home and abroad. In view of the forthcoming presidential election, NANS is set to endorse its candidate after a proper consultation with all Students Union Presidents, indigenous associations, Joint Campus Committees of the students’ body, and the Diasporan student leaders,” Temitope said.

“Recall that a committee was set up last year to interface with all the presidential candidates; the APC, PDP, Labour Party and the others. We have reached a conclusion and we will be having a town hall meeting on Thursday.

“We have already invited all the candidates to have an interactive session with them to know who has our love at heart, has the desire to fix the education sector, health sector and all sectors in Nigeria that is not working at the moment.

“After the interaction with the candidates, we will be endorsing the candidate that we believe will take Nigeria to a greater height

“Any other endorsement by anyone using the name of student association is fake, null and void. Anyone who endorses any candidate in the name of NANS on or before February 23 is fraudulent and should be arrested.

“We don’t need any candidate’s money; we need a candidate who will love the masses and make a great difference,” he added.

https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/we-will-announce-our-preferred-presidential-candidate-thursday-nans/

take care

In response to reports about the confiscation of a saildrone found in Namibian territorial waters near Lüderitz, the United States embassy in Namibia strongly refuted claims that its government is involved with or has interfered with the confiscated drone.

This comes after the Namibia Defence Force on Thursday confirmed they confiscated a sophisticated sailing drone, believed to have been active at the coast in the vicinity of Lüderitz for half a year.

NDF spokesperson Petrus Shilumbu said although there is nothing much to share at this stage, no one came forth to claim ownership through the right channels. It is suspected that the drone has been at sea for six months, and it has been under surveillance.

“Any reports, articles, or social media postings that say otherwise are incorrect and based on groundless accusations. We call on all actors to stop the spread of misinformation and to seek the facts before sharing incorrect information,” said US embassy spokesperson Tiffany Miller.

Miller said although the drone is made and operated by Saildrone, a private US company, the Swedish Institution - University of Gothenburg contracted the drone for marine research purposes.

According to her, as the research is being conducted by a third-party private institution, the US embassy has no details on the marine scientific research it was conducting.

However, she confirmed an open search on the University of Gothenburg’s website shows that it has a robust marine research programme. It has collaborated with other international research partners as early as 2019 to conduct marine scientific research in the Southern Ocean often using cost-effective saildrones for ocean data collection.

Equally, an open search on Saildrone’s website shows that saildrones are used to gather ocean data. The website further provides details on the company’s many global partners.

The sailing drone was confiscated from two South African nationals, who were sent by the controller or operator in the USA to recover it from the sea.

The drone was reportedly transported under heavy military guard to Windhoek for further analysis. A local tour operator from Lüderitz was allegedly also contacted by the controller or operator in the USA to assist in pulling the drone to the port, doing so without reporting it to the port authorities or other security stakeholders.

Shilumbu said a full and comprehensive update about the drone will be provided at a later stage.

No fewer than 8,150 persons were displaced from Galadima-Kogo and environs in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger when an aircraft bombed the area on Jan. 24.

Many members of a vigilance group in the area were killed, while their commander sustained serious injuries.

The area bombed had Internally Displaced Persons taking refuge at some facilities.

Secretary to Niger State Government, Alhaji Ahmed Matane, said in Minna on Saturday that the aircraft belongs to the Nigeria Air Force and was not aware that security personnel were in the area.

He added that it was not a mysterious aircraft as being rumoured.

He said government was also aware of the presence of IDPs in the area.

Matane said government had discussed with Shiroro Local Government Council officials and the management of the North South Power (NSP) facilities in the area that provide shelter for the IDPs.

“We are doing assessment to deal with the matter and we are also dealing with the issue of those who lost their lives from the angle of security personnel that were accidentally affected.

“We have recorded some deaths and are attending to the injured in hospitals.

“Relief materials are being processed to take to victims and government wants to ensure that security is provided at the IDP camps,’’ he said.

One of the displaced victims, Hajiya Rabi Musa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that residents saw the aircraft flying through on Tuesday only to hear a very loud bang that shook the area.

“Many of our people were killed, aside the vigilante members. We ran to take shelter at the NSP facilities; right now no single person is left in our community; it is deserted.

“Since we came here, nobody has come to our aid; not even a single government official. We don’t have water to drink, not even to take our bath; we are suffering,’’ she said.

Youth Leader in Galadima-Kogo, Malam Ibrahim Bahago, said the community was told on Tuesday that bandits were going through the area.

He said vigilantes went toward the route the bandits were passing through in company of other security operatives, but were ambushed.

Dreal1247:
The oil is blessing to other countries but a curse to Nigeria. They use inexistent subsidy to siphon every kobo that comes from oil and yet borrow to run the economy. Adeosun was removed from the seat as the finance minister just because she demanded for the comprehensive monthly account report of NNPC before accepting the remittance. With the petroleum subsidy being paid by the government, Nigerians are supposed to be receiving PMS free of charge.

Nigeria's oil should be put to good use for the benefit of local people. There's still a long way to go.

Any report that global crude oil demand may collapse soon is not realistic, especially with increasing economic growth in Africa and the reopening of the Chinese economy, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has predicted.

China’s eventual reopening and slow crude supply growth means the global oil market would be in shortage, Kyari who also serves on Nigeria’s Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) delegation, said during a webinar, according to a report by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

OPEC and its allies, including Russia, opted to slash production quota by two million barrels per day (bpd), from November through the end of 2023, in anticipation of slowing demand and the prospect of recessions in key economies.

The decision was despite the European Union’s plan to impose an embargo on imports of Russian crude from December and refined products from February.

“I do not see how this demand will collapse because countries are coming back. China is recovering from COVID-19 and a number of countries, particularly sub-Saharan African countries, are growing.

“These economies are growing very, very fast against all odds. That means more consumption,” Kyari said.

The OPEC+ alliance reaffirmed the decision at its December meeting and a nine-country monitoring committee, on which Nigeria sits, will convene February 1, to review market conditions and, if needed, recommend any changes to production volumes.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/01/16/kyari-foresees-sustained-rise-in-oil-demand-with-economic-growth-in-africa-reopening-in-china/

The US justice department is reviewing documents marked classified found in President Joe Biden's former office at a think tank, the White House says.

About 10 of the files were discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November by Mr Biden's legal team, said his lawyer.

The batch has been handed over to the National Archives.

Mr Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, is facing a probe for taking classified files to Florida after his presidency.

According to the BBC's US partner CBS News, the FBI is involved in the inquiry into classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center, and US Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers.

It is unclear what the documents relate to, the level of classification involved or why they were there.

A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the batch did not contain nuclear secrets and had been contained in a folder in a box with other unclassified papers.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement to CBS on Monday that the files were discovered just before the midterm elections by Biden attorneys who were clearing out the office space.

Mr Biden kept an office at the think tank, which is about a mile from the White House, when he was vice-president, from 2017 to 2020.

Mr Sauber said: "Since that discovery [of the documents], the president's personal attorneys have co-operated with the [National] Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives."

His statement did not explain why there was a two-month delay in revealing the discovery, which happened just before the midterm elections.

In September, President Biden appeared on CBS and was asked for his reaction to a photo showing the documents recovered at Mr Trump's Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

"How anyone could be that irresponsible?" the president said.

Mr Trump reacted on Monday on his social media site, Truth Social, asking: "When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?"

Mr Trump is under investigation for allegedly resisting requests to give back about 300 classified documents that he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. The National Archives tipped off the authorities in that case.

The Biden files were discovered shortly before the justice department announced it would appoint an independent lawyer to decide whether to criminally charge Mr Trump over the files found at his golf club.

Congressman James Comer, the new Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Monday that the handling of the Biden papers raised questions about the justice department's neutrality.

He told reporters: "This is further concern that there's a two-tier justice system within the DoJ [justice department] with how they treat Republicans versus Democrats, certainly how they treat the former president versus the current president."

The Department of Justice has asked the US attorney in Chicago, John Lausch Jr, to review the documents in question, according to CBS News.

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger speculated on CNN that the investigation will come down to who on the former vice president's team handled the documents and whether it was intentional or an accident that they remained there.

Neither the Penn Biden Center nor National Archives immediately commented.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64218179

LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Hackers stole the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and posted them on an online hacking forum, a security researcher said Wednesday.

The breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing,” Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn. He called it “one of the most significant leaks I've seen.”

Twitter has not commented on the report, which Gal first posted about on social media on Dec. 24, nor responded to inquiries about the breach since that date. It was not clear what action, if any, Twitter has taken to investigate or remediate the issue.

Reuters could not independently verify the data on the forum was authentic and came from Twitter. Screenshots of the hacker forum, where the data appeared on Wednesday, have circulated online.

Troy Hunt, creator of breach-notification site Have I Been Pwned, viewed the leaked data and said on Twitter that it seemed “pretty much what it’s been described as.”

There were no clues to the identity or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It may have taken place as early as 2021, which was before Elon Musk took over ownership of the company last year.

Claims about the size and scope of the breach initially varied with early accounts in December saying 400 million email addresses and phone numbers were stolen.

A major breach at Twitter may interest regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have been monitoring the Elon Musk-owned company for compliance with European data protection rules and a U.S. consent order respectively.

Messages left with the two regulators were not immediately returned on Thursday.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-hacked-200-million-user-email-addresses-leaked-researcher-says-2023-01-05/

KIGALI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Rwanda's government said on Wednesday that a fighter jet from Democratic Republic of Congo briefly violated its airspace, the latest accusation to fly between the two countries whose relations have frayed this year.

Congo, Western powers and United Nations experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23 rebels in eastern Congo, who have seized several towns and villages in offensives this year.

Rwanda denies any involvement, saying the allegations are a tactic to cover up Congo's security failures. In July Congo's president and his Rwandan counterpart agreed at a summit in Angola's capital, Luanda, to de-escalate tensions, but the M23 rebels continued to advance.

In November an unarmed Congolese warplane briefly landed at a Rwandan airport while on a reconnaissance mission near the border, in what Congo said was an accident.

"These repeated violations are against the spirit of Luanda and Nairobi peace initiatives," Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said in a statement.

"The authorities in (Congo) seem to be emboldened by consistent coddling by some in the international community who repeatedly heap blame on Rwanda for any and all ills in (Congo), while ignoring the transgressions originating from (Congo)," Makolo added

Congo's government and army spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Friday the M23 rebels withdrew from a small portion of territories they had seized, as part of what they described as a goodwill gesture in a ceasefire brokered by East African regional leaders.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rwanda-says-congo-fighter-jet-briefly-violated-its-air-space-2022-12-28/

Ahead of 2023 general election, the Nigerian Police Force yesterday warned that none of its personnel deployed to man the inner rings of polling booths should be seen bearing lethal weapons during the elections.

The Inspector General of Police, IG Usman Alkali Baba, gave this warning in Ilorin, Kwara State capital while delivering the maiden distinguished personality lecture of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin.

Baba, however, said that the affected police operatives could only wield batons.

The lecture was at the instance of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies of the faith-based varsity.

Speaking on the lecture with the topic: “Engendering Security and Public Safety among Stakeholders Towards Peaceful 2023 General Elections in Nigeria,” he said men of the police at political gatherings shall be limited to the maintenance of peace and order as well as enforcement of extant laws.

He added that officers posted to the venues of elections must be acquainted with procedures guiding the conduct of the exercise.

The IG said: “All security personnel participating in the election should have the knowledge of procedurals at the election venues. That is classification of inner and outer rings respectively to serve as a guide in deployment.

“On no account should personnel deployed to the inner ring of the venue of the political events or voting centres/polling booths be seen with any lethal weapon, except baton. Involvement of the police at political gatherings shall be limited to the maintenance of peace and order, and enforcement of extant laws.

“Officers shall at all-time exercise maximum restraint while covering political gathering or deployed at voting/collation centres. Force personnel shall not at any time turn themselves into spectators but shall at all times be conscious of happenings around them, observe precautionary measures, personal and public safety while on duty.

“Police personnel shall use tact and persuasion to resolve issues when dealing with or confronted by agitated persons, avoid escalation where there is tension.”

He disclosed that 10,000 policemen billed for passing out from Police Colleges nationwide at the end of this month would be deployed to augment the police strength already on ground for duties in the forthcoming general elections.

Baba, who spoke through the Assistant Inspector General of Police in Charge of Zone 8 Headquarters, Lokoja, Mr. Ashafa Adekunle, vowed that the force would not tolerate acts that could jeopardise the peaceful conduct of the polls irrespective of whose ox is gored.

He added that police under his leadership had ensured that stakeholders in the elections conduct themselves within the ambit of the law.

The IG promised that the force would not be partisan in all ramifications of the polls and urged political parties to make their campaigns issues-based and avoid inciting violence before, during and after the elections.

In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Professor Noah Yusuf, said that threats and resort to violence were becoming real daily, particularly since the floor was declared open for electioneering campaign, thus making many Nigerians and the international community to be scared and jittery.

Yusuf noted that individual and collective responsibilities for enhancing and supporting security efforts were paramount in the nation’s quest towards peaceful 2023 general elections.

The acting Director, Centre for Peace and Security Studies at the institution, Dr. Ruth Abiola Adimula, informed that the lecture was convened to keep stakeholders abreast of their roles in the next year’s elections.

Adimula said: “The rationale behind the theme of the lecture is to ensure that for the 2023 elections, all stakeholders at different levels know their roles as voters, INEC, security personnel, traditional rulers, individuals.

“All of us are stakeholders, and we have our respective roles in 2023. It is our joint and collective responsibility that can make us achieve free, fair and peaceful elections.

“And this is why we have invited the Inspector General of Police ably represented to come and talk to the populace and different stakeholders present on their roles in the polls to make it hitch free”, Adimula said.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/12/02/2023-police-warn-personnel-against-bearing-lethal-weapons-at-polling-booths/

As Nigeria today joins the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Diabetes Day, the World Health Organisation, WHO, has appealed to governments of member states to prioritise investment in essential products in the management of the disease such as insulin, glucometers and test strips to ensure equitable access for every diabetic, no matter where on the continent they are.

The WHO also disclosed that 24 million Africans are living with diabetes while a total of 416 million people lost their lives to the disease in 2021.

WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti who made the appeal in a statement to mark this year’s Day with the theme: “Access to diabetes care”, also urged African governments to adopt and customise the global targets for diabetes, as part of recommendations to strengthen and monitor diabetes responses within their national NCD programmes.

“To Africa’s people, I cannot overemphasise the importance of healthy and balanced diets, combined with regular exercise, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and limiting alcohol consumption. This will go a long way to protecting individuals from Type 2 diabetes and other NCDs.

“Africa’s diabetes statistics illustrate the depth of the challenge; 24 million adults are currently living with diabetes, with that number predicted to swell by 129 percent to 55 million by 2045.

“Last year, diabetes mellitus took the lives of 416 000 people on the continent and is forecast to become one of the leading causes of death in Africa by 2030.

“Importantly, diabetes is the only major Non-Communicable Disease, NCD, for which the risk of dying early is increasing, rather than decreasing.

“Known risk factors include family history and increasing age, along with modifiable risk factors such as overweight and obesity, sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, smoking, and alcohol abuse. Unfortunately, these modifiable risk factors are on the rise across all countries in the WHO African Region,” she lamented.

Stating that WHO African Region was committed to the requisite training of health workers in the prevention and management of NCDs at the district and community level, to improve the availability of these services, she stated that response efforts are constrained by the fact that more than one in every two people in Africa living with Diabetes mellitus has never been diagnosed.

“Increased access to diagnostic tools and medicines, particularly insulin, is one of the most urgent areas of work. Left unchecked, and without management and lifestyle changes, diabetes can lead to several debilitating complications. These include heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, visual impairment, blindness, and nerve damage. People with diabetes are also at higher risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/11/diabetes-who-begs-african-govts-to-prioritise-investment-in-essential-products/

Africa’s ‘Shocking’ Climate Injustice

The United Nations’ climate change summit opened in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday with a warning from the Egyptian foreign minister and COP27 president, Sameh Shoukry, that world leaders must recognize the “magnitude of the climate challenge” faced and address concerns around “backsliding” on financial pledges.

A flashpoint of COP27 is a demand that those who have contributed the most to the planet’s pollution pay the costs of the “loss and damage” caused and not only focus on curbing future impacts.

Africans are experiencing some of the worst weather events in a decade this year despite contributing the least to global carbon emissions at less than 4 percent. Devastating floods have destroyed food production across West Africa, including hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Nigeria. The worst drought in 40 years in East Africa has led to famine conditions for 50 million people, including nearly 8 million in Somalia.

Extreme heat and wildfires have ravaged North African countries. In July, temperatures in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking a 40-year record. Meanwhile, cyclones have wreaked havoc in Southern Africa since January, affecting thousands across Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi.

The climate chaos means the continent is losing up to 15 percent of gross domestic product per capita growth each year because of climate change, according to the African Development Bank. Paying for reconstruction is also more expensive because, with downgraded credit ratings, poorer nations pay more for borrowing.

Egypt and other African countries are demanding that previous financial commitments be upheld. More than 12 years ago, richer countries promised $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate adaptation but never delivered.

“Our countries are already forced to spend between 2 percent and 5 percent of their gross domestic product each year to deal with a problem they did not create,” Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, said at the Africa Adaptation Summit in September. “This is where one of the most shocking injustices toward our continent resides,” he added.

Yet richer countries have so far rejected calls for climate reparations. “At the rate we’re going, a couple of countries have the ability to eclipse our historical emissions,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the New York Times. Observers view this and other past comments as being directed at China, the world’s largest emitter.

“The elephant in the room driving the remarks is clearly China,” wrote Faten Aggad, a senior advisor on climate diplomacy at the African Climate Foundation. Chinese President Xi Jinping is notably absent from the conference.

An uncomfortable fact for Washington is that China is one of the main funders of renewable-energy projects in Africa. At last year’s China-Africa Cooperation forum, Beijing committed to ramping up investments in solar, wind, and other renewables across the continent and has made no overseas coal power investments since 2021. It is also one of several nations funding the International Monetary Fund’s $20 billion IMF Resilience and Sustainability Trust on pandemics and climate change resilience.

U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to increase international climate financing from $5.7 billion to $11.4 billion per year by 2024. However, Congress approved just $1 billion this year. One analysis by Carbon Brief, taking account of historic carbon emissions with proportional contributions to the $100 billion pledge, suggests the United States owes developing countries nearly $40 billion.

Experts say that, without strong action from the world’s two biggest polluters, there is little prospect of avoiding a global climate disaster. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that trust between the global north and south is being eroded. “Getting concrete results on loss and damage is a litmus test of the commitment of governments to the success of COP27,” Guterres said.

European leaders have also received criticism from African activists who accuse Europe of using Africa as a personal gas station. Germany has been pursuing development of a gas field in Senegal to plug its energy crisis while demanding that African governments fast-track renewable energy for their own electricity needs.

At a press conference, Mohamed Adow, director of the energy and climate think tank Power Shift Africa, singled out German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The message we want to send to Scholz as he comes here is that the days of colonialism are over. We won’t accept energy colonialism,” he said.

It is poignant that this year’s climate conference is taking place within the North African region, the most underfunded region when it comes to climate research adaptation despite its vulnerability to drought, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

Low-lying and densely populated cities in Algeria and Egypt are threatened by sea level rise. The report suggests extreme heat will reduce production of crops such as olives, which is a key resource for rural jobs in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. Already this year, low rainfall has cut Tunisia’s olive production by 15 percent.

On top of this, countries in North Africa and the Middle East are the world’s “most water-scarce,” leading to competition over water as seen with Egypt’s dispute with Ethiopia over its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This will increase the ongoing migration exodus happning from North African countries.

Some European countries have pledged financing toward a loss and damage fund. In September, Denmark became the first national government to commit $13 million. On Monday, Belgium pledged $2.5 million to Mozambique from 2023 to 2028. (Mozambique is expected to become a large liquefied natural gas exporter.) Germany also announced it would provide a pot of $170 million to help “countries hit hardest.”

Those sums don’t go far enough. Loss and damage in developing countries are projected to cost between $290 billion and $580 billion a year by 2030, according to a 2018 study. One idea being floated is to make fossil fuel companies that have made record profits fund some of the bill.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is urging global leaders to curb the most devastating humanitarian consequences of the climate crisis and avert a catastrophic future for millions of displaced people.

“COP27 must equip countries and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis to prepare for extreme weather, to adapt, and minimize the impact of the climate emergency,” said Grandi. “We cannot leave millions of displaced people and their hosts to face the consequences of a changing climate alone.”

Climate shocks are combining with conflict, acute food insecurity, rising prices, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to impact people across the globe, but those least responsible for the climate crisis and least able to adapt to its shocks are being hit hardest.

This year’s UN Climate Conference takes place against a backdrop of climate catastrophes from historic floods in Pakistan to the worst drought in decades across the Horn of Africa.

Inside Somalia, nearly one million people have been displaced by drought and the threat of famine. Devastating cyclones in Mozambique have affected tens of thousands of people previously displaced by violence, while South Sudan and Sudan are battling record floods for a fourth consecutive year. More than 3.4 million displaced people and their hosts are facing the consequences of recent destructive flooding in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and the Central Sahel countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali – a region already experiencing one of the world’s worst displacement crises.

In Cameroon’s Far North, intercommunal violence has erupted between herders, fishers and farmers over dwindling water resources as Lake Chad and its tributaries have dried up from drought. Over 100 people were killed or injured late last year, and tens of thousands fled their homes.

Meanwhile, drought in Central America’s “Dry Corridor” has forced farmers to flee to nearby cities where they are vulnerable to violence from street gangs. And in other parts of the region such as Honduras, climate change is one more factor sparking displacement as hurricanes become ever more powerful and frequent.

Over 70 per cent of the world’s refugees and displaced people come from the most climate-vulnerable countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Yemen. They have an enormous stake in discussions about the climate crisis, but they are too often excluded.

Only bold action and a massive boost in financing for climate mitigation and adaptation can alleviate the current and future humanitarian consequences of the climate crisis on displaced populations and host communities. Investments must be collaborative, inclusive and seek solutions for the most vulnerable. World leaders must look to transformational, lasting, and integrated action that involves local communities, governments, and partners already battling climate extremes. In some contexts, adaptation will not be enough and additional financing will be needed for inevitable “loss and damage”, a stark example of which is being forced from home.

The concerns and solutions for displaced people must be given a place not only in discussions like at COP 27, but also must receive much more support in the climate “hotspots”.