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WHO: Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases top 95,000
Flickr The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday reported that COVID-19 cases in Africa as at May 21, had risen to over 95, 000. WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, gave the update on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO. “There are over 95,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 34,000 recoveries and 2,995 deaths,” it said. The figures showed that South Africa, Algeria and Nigeria had the highest reported cases in Africa. According to the report, South Africa had 18,003 cases and 339 deaths followed by Algeria with 7,542 cases and 568 deaths, while Nigeria had 6,677 confirmed cases and 200 deaths. It stated that Ghana had 6,096 reported cases and 31 deaths, while Cameroon recorded 3, 733 confirmed cases and 146 deaths. The report sai...
DR Congo police shoot dead activist during rally
Agence France-Presse An activist was shot and killed by police on Thursday during a rally in a strife-torn region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a campaign group has said. Police in the city of Beni, in a region plagued by attacks from bandits and militias, told AFP that two officers had been arrested over the incident. Roughly 20 people had gathered in a stadium in Beni for a protest organised by grassroots group Lucha against killings and general insecurity in the area. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a mainly Muslim rebel group, is accused of killing more than 1,000 civilians in the Beni region since October 2014. Residents have protested regularly against the failure of officials and UN forces to protect them. Roughly a dozen people were detained at Thursday’s rally, acco...
Kelechi Iheanacho returns to training slightly overweight
Kelechi Iheanacho is happy to be back in training after six weeks without football, no thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Super Eagles player shared the picture of himself arriving Leicester City training ground on Wednesday to training. “Good to be back missed everything,” stated the player upon arriving at training, as portrayed by the picture above taken beside his car. Meanwhile the former Manchester City forward could find himself in coach Brenda Roger’s hot water as he appeared overweight with a robust cheek. Iheanacho who has featured in 12 league matches for the Foxes this season must harder in order to be ready for a premier league game in June. Iheanacho has scored 28 goals in 81 appearances for the Foxes since he joined them from Manchester City in 2017. Get more st...
Apple and Google Launch COVID-19 Exposure Alert Tool
Apple and Google have officially launched their Exposure Notification system – previously debuted as contact-tracing software – which is designed to alert users of possible contact with individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. “Starting today, our Exposure Notifications technology is available to public health agencies on both iOS and Android. What we’ve built is not an app — rather public health agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install,” says the tech giants in a joint statement. The Application Programming Interface (API) will enable apps created by public health agencies to work more accurately, reliably and effectively across both Android and iOS devices. “Our technology is designed to make these apps work better. Each user gets to decide whet...
Over 1 Billion SMSs Sent since the Beginning of Lockdown in Nigeria
Sourced from allAfrica. Nigeria’s lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the usage of SMSs – the quintessential short message service used all across the world – as subscribers were discovered to have sent over 1-billion messages within the last month. Though this mass of messages was largely free, checks on some operators revealed the rate of how customers made use of the SMS platform to send messages to one another. For instance, a check on MTN showed that within the first five weeks of lockdown, where people all across the country began to work remotely. Over one billion text messages were sent by customers within the first four weeks of the pan-African telecom introducing a new free SMS package – the package allows MTN Nigeria subscribers across the country to send 1...
South African EduTech Supports Online Learning for Students in Rural Communities
Sourced from CodeXtra Trends Syafunda, an educational platform that provides access to digital content through mobile technology, has received investment funding from SME-enabler Edge Growth which will allow them to scale their platform to meet the surging need for online learning in South Africa. Syafunda, which means “we are learning” in Zulu, was the inspiration of entrepreneur Zakheni Ngubo. Together with his Durban-based Syafunda team, Zakheni is capitalising on South Africa’s high mobile penetration rate to make education more easily accessible. Syafunda partners with local content developers and publishers, setting up digital libraries in places like townships and rural schools where connectivity is limited or non-existent. The digital libraries have five terabytes of pre-loaded con...
How to Adapt your Marketing Strategy for the COVID Era
Good marketing relies on a thorough understanding of your target market, but when much of what you knew about your customers is suddenly no longer relevant, a major shift is needed. With the onset of the coronavirus, almost every aspect of what was considered typical daily life was upended literally overnight – people confined to their homes, anxious about the future and their financial security. “The most important question you should be asking is: ‘How best can I connect with my customers during a crisis?’” says Gavin Knox-Grant, marketing guru and director of Karbon Media. “It’s not only during the pandemic that business will be different,” says Knox-Grant, “the way in which we all conduct business will be forever changed.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_556.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.t...
IGP orders officers to respect essential workers
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered respect for journalists, medical personnel and other essential workers who are exempted from the eased restriction and curfews across the country. Doctors and journalists were allegedly being harassed by security agents. This had prompted the Nigerian Medical Association to call on its members to down tools. Force spokesman DCP Frank Mba, in a statement on Wednesday, said the IGP had directed Zonal Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and State Command Commissioners of Police to give maximum effect to these orders and extend due courtesies to essential service providers so affected and also ensure that personnel deployed for the enforcement duties respect the fundamental rights of the citizens. Mba stated: “The Force wishes to ...
Oyo governor appoints retired general as Amotekun chairman
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has appointed retired general Ajibola Kunle Togun as the Chairman of the Oyo State Security Network, code-named Amotekun. A statement signed by Moses Alao, Special Assistant to Makinde on Print Media, also indicated that a retired colonel, Olayanju Olayinka, was appointed as the commandant of the security outfit. According to the statement, the two retired military officers will oversee the state security network which was put in place to check insecurity in the state. Newsmen recall that Makinde on March 10, signed the State Security Network Agency (Amotekun) Bill, 2020 into law. The governor remarked that the initiative was purely to complement the existing security agencies in tackling security challenges and not a replacement for the existing ones. Ve...
Presidency: No discrimination against any state
File Photo The Presidency says no state will suffer any such discrimination in dealing with security and all other matters on account of their political differences with the government at the centre. Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement issued to announce a massive plan by the Ministry of Defence to launch “Operation Accord” in the North West and North Central States. Shehu said the plan, whose arrangements had been concluded, was a major military exercise aimed at flushing out insurgents from the contiguous states of Kaduna, Niger, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and parts of Kebbi State. He said while Tuesday’s Senate resolution was “perfectly in order”, it was important to state that, in his duty as Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari had already approved th...
Emmanuel Dennis reveals highlights of 2019/20 season
Club Brugge forward Emmanuel Dennis says his goals against Real Madrid and Manchester United are the highlights of his 2019/20 campaign. The young striker hugged the headlines in October after bagging a brace against Real Madrid in a Champions League group stage fixture, that ended 2-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu. The 22-year-old also scored a goal in a Europa League round of 32 first leg tie against Manchester United in February following his team’s demotion to the UEFA second tier club competition. Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports News, the Nigeria international said; “Against Manchester United was a highlight,” “Madrid is a big team, the best in the world, but I was disappointed because I wanted us to win and we drew. I wanted those three points.” “I was happy because I was speakin...
PDP warns against plot to foist emergency rule in Rivers
File Photo The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned against the exposed plots by certain unpatriotic and disgruntled individuals, allegedly working for the All Progressives Congress (APC), to orchestrate a security situation and push for imposition of a state of emergency in Rivers State. The party said it has been informed of plots by such power hungry politicians to sponsor their misguided youth to unleash violence and unrest in certain parts of the state to create an impression of security breakdown so as to validate their plot for imposition of emergency rule in the state. The PDP said such anti-people elements include some individuals who were rejected by the people of Rivers state in the 2019 governorship election, as well as their godfathers, who believe they have the backing o...
