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Lagos to Sensitize Residents on Food Safety

Olasunbo Okoromi
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Lagos to Sensitize Residents on Food Safety

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) said it’s set to sensitize residents of the state on food safety. This was made available Sunday in a statement by  General Manager of the LASCOPA, Mr. Afolabi Solebo, disclosing that a food safety conference and exhibition organized by the Agency would hold on 28th July 2021.

The theme of the conference, according to Solebo is, ‘Food Safety: What Consumers Need to Know.’

The programme will provide insights into the management of complex food chain in the rapidly increasing population and in accordance with the demands of the food safety initiatives which is in line with the THEMES agenda of the present administration.

“The conference would also among others, serve as a platform for the Lagos State Government to come up with policy statement and legislation on food safety in the state,” Solebo said.

Pollution Turns Lake Southern Patagonia Region Bright Pink

Zoe Maven
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Pollution Turns Lake Southern Patagonia Region Bright Pink

A lagoon in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region has turned bright pink in a striking, but frightful phenomenon experts and activists blame on pollution by a chemical used to preserve prawns for export.

The color is caused by sodium sulfite, an anti-bacterial product used in fish factories, whose waste is blamed for contaminating the Chubut river that feeds the Corfo lagoon and other water sources in the region, according to activists.

Residents have long complained of foul smells and other environmental issues around the river and lagoon.

The lagoon turned pink last week and remained the abnormal color on Sunday, said Lada, who lives in the city of Trelew, not far from the lagoon and some 1,400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.

Environmental engineer and virologist Federico Restrepo told AFP the coloration was due to sodium sulfite in fish waste, which by law, should be treated before being dumped.

The lagoon, which is not used for recreation, receives runoff from the Trelew industrial park and has turned the color of fuchsia before.

In recent weeks, residents of Rawson, neighboring Trelew, blocked roads used by trucks carrying processed fish waste through their streets to treatment plants on the city’s outskirts.

With Rawson off limits due to the protest, provincial authorities granted authorization for factories to dump their waste instead in the Corfo lagoon.

Plants that process fish for export, mainly prawns and hake, generate thousands of jobs for Chubut province, home to some 600,000 people.

Dozens of foreign fishing companies operate in the area in waters under Argentina’s Atlantic jurisdiction.

Cars Washed Away As Belgian Town Hit By Worst Floods In Decades

Zoe Maven
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Cars Washed Away As Belgian Town Hit By Worst Floods In Decades

Parts of Belgium have been hit by some of the heaviest floods in years – marking the second time in just over a week that downpours have affected the EU country.

The Namur and Walloon Brabant provinces, southeast of capital city Brussels, were among the worst hit on Saturday, after thunderstorms and heavy rain battered various communities.

In Dinant, within Belgium’s Walloon region, a two-hour thunderstorm turned streets into torrential rivers. Footage on social media showed cars and pavements being swept away by a powerful stream of rainwater.

Dinant, which sits on the banks of the Meuse River, was spared the deadly floods 10 days ago, which killed 37 people in southeast Belgium and many more in Germany, but Saturday was a different story entirely.

Rainwater gushing down steep streets swept away dozens of cars, piling them in a heap at a crossing, and washed away cobblestones, pavements and whole sections of tarmac as residents watched in horror from their windows.

No deaths were reported in the area, according to officials. Similarly in the small town of Anhee, only a few kilometres north of Dinant, no one is thought to have been killed – though there is a lot of damage in both areas.

There was no precise estimate of the harm done but town authorities have warned it will likely be “significant”, according to local media. The government could be looking at “billions of euros” worth of repairs.

Over 210 people died in the floods across Western Europe last week, with most of the casualties coming from Germany and Belgium. Dozens are still missing in the former, though officials have said they are not hopeful all will be found.

U.S Offers Further Air Support To Afghan Troops Amid Taliban Offensive

Zoe Maven
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U.S Offers Further Air Support To Afghan Troops Amid Taliban Offensive

The United States says it will continue to carry out airstrikes to support Afghan forces facing attack from the insurgent Taliban, as U.S. and other international forces have drawn down troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie told a news conference in Kabul that the United States is prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the Taliban continue their attacks.

McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command, which controls U.S. forces for a region that includes Afghanistan, declined to say whether U.S. forces would continue airstrikes after the end of their military mission on Aug. 31.

He said the government of Afghanistan faces a stern test in the days ahead … The Taliban are attempting to create a sense of inevitability about their campaign.

But he added that a Taliban victory was not inevitable and a political solution remained a possibility.

The Taliban escalated its offensive in recent weeks, taking rural districts and surrounding provincial capitals, after U.S. President Joe Biden said in April U.S. troops would be withdrawn by September.

Afghan government and Taliban negotiators have met in Qatar’s capital Doha in recent weeks, although diplomats say there have been few signs of substantive process since peace talks began in September.

McKenzie said there would likely be a rise in violence after a lull over a Muslim holiday this week and said the Taliban could focus on populated urban centres.

Afghanistan’s military is reportedly overhauling its war strategy against the Taliban to concentrate forces around the most critical areas like Kabul and other cities, border crossings and vital infrastructure.

Ethiopia’s Amhara State Rallies Youth To Fight Tigrayan Forces

Zoe Maven
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Ethiopia’s Amhara State Rallies Youth To Fight Tigrayan Forces

Ethiopia’s Amhara region on Sunday called on “all young people” to take up arms against forces from the neighbouring region of Tigray, who claimed to have taken over a town in Amhara for the first time since the conflict began.

The call for mass mobilisation came as a spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that controls Tigray, said they had taken the town of Adi Arkay in Amhara.

The spokesperson, Getachew Reda, told Reuters in a text message that TPLF had taken over the town but offered no more detail.

Spokespeople for the prime minister, Ethiopian military, a government taskforce on Tigray and did not return calls seeking comment.

The spokesperson for the Amhara region said he was not authorised to comment on the matter.

War erupted between the Ethiopian military and the TPLF in November. Three weeks later, the government declared victory when it captured Tigray’s capital Mekelle, but the TPLF kept fighting. At the end of June, the TPLF seized back control of Mekelle and most of Tigray after government soldiers withdrew.

In recent days Tigrayan forces pushed into Afar, the neighbouring region to the east, where they said they planned to target troops from the Amhara region fighting alongside the federal military in the area.

Tigrayan forces have also pushed south and have said they will push west in an effort to restore their region’s pre-war boundaries. Western Tigray is currently controlled by Amhara forces, who say the land rightfully belongs to them.

Protests Across Tunisia Target Ennahda Party Over Political Crisis

Zoe Maven
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Protests Across Tunisia Target Ennahda Party Over Political Crisis

Police and protesters clashed in several Tunisian cities on Sunday as demonstrators demanding the government step down attacked offices of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that is the biggest in parliament.

Witnesses said protesters stormed or tried to storm Ennahda offices in Monastir, Sfax, El Kef and Sousse, while in Touzeur they set fire to the party’s local headquarters.

The violence came as hundreds of protesters rallied in each of the main cities after a reported spike in COVID-19 cases that has aggravated economic troubles and exposed the failings of a squabbling political class.

The protests, the biggest in Tunisia for months and the biggest to target Ennahda for years, were called by social media activists. No political parties publicly backed the rallies.

In Tunis, police used pepper spray against protesters who threw stones and shouted slogans demanding that Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi quit and parliament be dissolved. There were other big protests in Gafsa, Sidi Bouzid and Nabeul.

The protests raise pressure on a fragile government that is enmeshed in a political struggle with President Kais Saied, as the government tries to avert a looming fiscal crisis amid a weeks-long spike in COVID-19 cases and increased death rates.

The pandemic has hammered the economy which was already struggling in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution that ousted long-time authoritarian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Public support for democracy has waned amid surging unemployment and crumbling state services.

Mozambique President Says Army Gaining Ground In Insurgency-Hit Region

Zoe Maven
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Mozambique President Says Army Gaining Ground In Insurgency-Hit Region

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi says troops fighting the Islamic State-linked insurgency in its northern province of Cabo Delgado were gaining ground and the enemy was retreating.

Nyusi was addressing the nation on the crisis that was triggered when the insurgents in March attacked the coastal town of Palma, near natural gas projects worth $60 billion that are meant to transform Mozambique’s economy.

He said the insurgency has caused total paralysis in mineral activity, agriculture and infrastructure development in the region.

Nigerian Bandits Abduct Negotiator Over Ransom To Free Students

Zoe Maven
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Nigerian Bandits Abduct Negotiator Over Ransom To Free Students

Armed bandits in Nigeria have seized a negotiator who had been sent to pay ransom money to secure the release of 136 students kidnapped two months ago from an Islamic school in the north of the African nation.

Abubakar Alhassan, director of the Islamic school, said the school and parents have been negotiating with the kidnappers who demanded 30 million naira to release the students from the school in Nigeria’s Niger state.

Alhassan said the school had contributed to a ransom and some parents sold property to raise cash but they said the negotiator, a 60-year-old man from the community, was taken because kidnappers said the ransom he brought was short.

Armed groups have been blamed for a series of raids on schools and universities in northern Nigeria in recent months, abducting more than 1,000 students for ransom since December.

The government has said it would not pay any ransom. President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security forces to search for the students.

Ibrahim Salihu, father of two of the children abducted by the school in Niger state said they sold most of their properties and used their savings to see their children are returned but after all the effort, they said they did not bring the money as they required.

Kidnappings in Nigeria began with abductions by jihadist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province. Now criminal gangs have used the tactic.

Kidnappers released 28 students seized from another school on Sunday, but kept hold of 81 other students.

Gymnastics: Nigeria Misses Out On Quarter-Finals Spot At Olympics

Angel Gimalo
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Gymnastics: Nigeria Misses Out On Quarter-Finals Spot At Olympics

Nigeria’s Uche Eke missed the chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals in the gymnastics event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday.

Competing in the men’s all round artistic gymnastics event, Eke placed 36th with a score of 74.765 which was not enough for a place in the last eight.

The 24-year-old was Nigeria’s sole representative at the on-going Tokyo Olympics.

Earlier on Saturday, Esther Toko could not make it to the quarter-finals in the women’s single repechage 2 in the rowing event, after placing fourth with a time of 9:07.54.

Although, Toko misses out on chances of a medal, she qualifies for the semi-final EF round which will determine her overall ranking in the event.

Also, in the women’s singles in table tennis event, veteran Funke Oshonaike lost 4-1 to Juan Liu of USA in the preliminary stage.

UNICEF Partners Nigeria Govt., 20 Million Youth To Benefit

Angel Gimalo
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UNICEF Partners Nigeria Govt., 20 Million Youth To Benefit

The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to partner with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to empower 20 million Nigerian youth by 2030.

The initiative tagged: “Generation Unlimited” and is to be inaugurated on Monday in Abuja, is targeted at 20 million persons between the ages of 10 and 24 out of the nation’s 65 million young people.

Peter Hawkins, the Country Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, said this in an interview in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital on Sunday.

According to him, the initiative is also being replicated in many other countries with 1.8 billion young people targeted around the World.

With specific reference to Nigeria, Hawkins said that the Generation Unlimited programmes were aimed at developing the capacity of young Nigerians to be better positioned as leaders of tomorrow.
He said that if the youths were not equipped with the right skills, especially in view of the ongoing digitisation of the World, they would be unable to bring value to the future of Nigeria.

The UN representative added that such initiatives would also help in turning the youth away from drugs or crime.

“Nigeria has 65 million people between the ages of 10 and 24, so young people of Nigeria are more importantly the future. That generation would shape the future of Nigeria.

“What Generation Unlimited is trying to do is to first act as a platform between the government, the United Nations and the International Community and the private sector.

“Out of the 65 million young people, Generation Unlimited is trying to help 20 million of those over the next 10 years to step over the generation that they are in to be able to meet their own ambitions and be valuable commodities in Nigeria.

“What is going to define the future of any country, particularly Nigeria is the digital platform – access to data, access to digital information.
“It is not only expanding the digital platform but expanding young people’s access to that platform.

“There are initiatives like School-2-School connectivity, looking at how we can bring digital learning into the schools, communities and ensure that young peoples’ skills around digital platforms come to the fore,” he said.

He pointed out that other areas include education skills on the one hand and employability and entrepreneurship on the other hand.

Hawkins said that UNICEF was particularly focused on connection between the skills and opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, trying to develop the skills that jobs require.

Hawkins added that the last part was engagement of the young people not only to understand what they want to do but also to create an environment where they are contributing to the future of this country as a voice.

“Already, over the past year, we have been engaging with 450,000 young people through different initiatives around the country.

“There is a massive prospect in this country to engage young people. So in summary, Generation Unlimited is trying to help 20 million young people to achieve skills and jobs with digital platform being the main conduit for many of these jobs and skills.

“On Monday, Nigeria’s Vice President will inaugurate the Generation Unlimited Nigeria, this is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate a vision for the young people of Nigeria and give them the opportunity to engage in what happens in Nigeria in the future.

“There are many initiatives at the moment currently ongoing, especially around skills development, education a live skills learning.

“What we are trying to do at Generation Unlimited is to allow the platform of all of these to go to scale, using different initiatives to trigger off other initiatives to reach the 20 million that we want to reach in the next 10 years,” he said.

The UNICEF Representative listed some of its partners to include: GIZ, EU, USAID, Unilever, Microsoft, Tony Elumelu Foundation, and MasterCard, amomg others, adding that they were open for partnerships with institutions and the private sector.

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