News Briefing
White House does not rule out Haiti request for U.S. troops
The United States is still reviewing a request for troops made by Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday. Psaki said Haiti’s political leadership remains unclear and that it was vital for the country’s leaders to come together to chart a united path forward. Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Haitian police said on Sunday they had arrested another key suspect. The death of the president has plunged the troubled country into deeper turmoil, and U.S. officials traveled there on Sunday to assess the situation and ...
UN: Close to 10,000 Mozambicans fleeing violence forcibly removed from Tanzania
Almost 10,000 Mozambicans have been forcibly removed from Tanzania so far this year after fleeing a deadly Islamist insurgency in their homeland, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado has been the focus of an insurgency linked to Islamic State since October 2017, but the conflict began gathering pace last year with militants regularly seizing and holding key towns. That culminated in an attack on the town of Palma in March, which killed dozens, displaced 70,000 according to the UNHCR and forced oil giant Total to halt its nearby $20 billion gas project. Many people headed north to the Tanzanian border, but were rejected, or were admitted then returned via a different border post hours inland. UNHCR spokesperson Babar ...
Registration: JAMB introduces USSD code
File Photo The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) says the board will introduce the use of USSD code as an option to the SMS process of generating a profile code for registration. This, it said, was part of measures it had put in place to address some challenges experienced by candidates of its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The Registrar of the board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this during a news briefing at the board’s headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, on Monday. Oloyede said the use of the USSD code would commence from Friday, April 30. He said the board had received complaints especially from parents of candidates who had tried to register their children and wards but had been unsuccessful. He said that service providers had, however, continued to ext...
Zamfara governor: We rescued 2000 kidnapped victims through dialogue
The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Mohammad Matawalle, says his administration has secured the release of over 2000 kidnapped victims. He said this was achieved through dialogue and peace process initiated in the state. He said since he assumed office, over 62 bandits have accepted and embraced peace. The Governor, through his newly appointed Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji Dosera, disclosed this at a news briefing in Kaduna on Friday. He said the repentant bandits are also helping in campaigning and convincing those who are yet to accept the dialogue and reconciliation process to do so. “They (repentant bandits) are also helping in the identification of the leaders of the recalcitrant bandits, including their camps and location for dialogue and reconciliation. Since the...
Nigerian government urged to lift restrictions on SIM card registration
A telecommunications expert in Owerri, the Imo capital, Mr Charles Okeke, has advised the Federal Government to remove the restrictions placed on SIM card registration. Okeke gave the advice at a news briefing in Owerri on Tuesday, while speaking on the effects of the federal government’s SIM Card-National Identification Number (NIN) linkage policy. He urged the government to embrace a more robust system that would encourage healthy partnership between the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and service providers to ensure a seamless linkage. He said that the partnership would fast-track the process and alleviate the “unnecessary hardship” faced by Nigerians due to tight deadlines for the exercise. He further said that large crowds of people struggling for attention at NIMC offi...
Former Zamfara deputy governor dumps APC for PDP
Mr Ibrahim Wakkala, immediate past Deputy Gov. of Zamfara, has announced his decision to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC) and join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Wakkala made his decision known at a news briefing on Wednesday in Gusau. “There were several speculations making the rounds for about two years now over where I politically belong; hence I feel this is the right time to put the records straight. “I want to inform you that all this while, whether as a member of G8 group or not, I have remained a full card-carrying member of the APC. “Even though since the time of our crisis in 2019, the party did not consider us relevant as demonstrated, by not inviting or informing us of any of its activities. “I want to formally inform the general public that I have finally thrown t...
Taiwan says request to drop word ‘country’ preceded BioNTech vaccine deal collapse
Germany’s BioNTech asked Taiwan to remove the word “country” from an announcement they planned to make on a COVID-19 vaccine sale to the island, its health minister said on Thursday, giving details of the deal whose axing was blamed on China by Taipei. Taiwan and China are engaged in an escalating war of words after Beijing offered the shots to the Chinese-claimed island via Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, which has a contract to sell them in Greater China. Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told a daily news briefing the government had signed and sent back a “final contract” agreed with BioNTech after months of negotiations, and the two sides were on the verge of issuing a press release on Jan. 8. But four hours later “BioNTech suddenly sent a letter, saying they strongly ...