Myanmar security forces on Tuesday clashed with a local militia group in Mandalay the second biggest city in the country.
After the army seized power on February 1st, and took down the elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, security forces have clamped down on protests against the military rule.
Groups of opponents People’s Defense Forces have appeared across the country.
They said that they responded after the army invaded one of its bases… and this is the first time that a fight has broke out in a place where it has not been a small town or in the countryside.
Myanmar’s military junta has violently controlled anti-coup protests… taking the lives of hundreds of civilians in the process.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the army has killed at least 873 protesters since the coup in February.
The following day, Myanmar’s foreign ministry released a statement rejecting the UN resolution, saying it was “based on one-sided sweeping allegations and false assumptions.”
slamic Scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi has said that no school is safe until the government negotiate with bandits.
sources report that controversial Islamic cleric, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, has said that no school is safe until the government negotiate with bandits noting that there are about 100,000 armed bandits in the North-West alone.
He insisted that no school could be safe until the government engaged with the bandits.
Gumi said the bandits kidnapping school pupils were disappointed that he negotiated with them without the involvement of the Federal Government.
Gumi stated this during an interview with The PUNCH on efforts to rescue the kidnapped pupils of Tegina Islamic School, Niger State, North Central, Nigeria.
The bandits had requested N200m from the victims’ parents, which was subsequently reduced to N150m.
Gumi said despite efforts to get the pupils out, the bandits were adamant in their financial demand.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Federal Government’s Team to engage with Twitter.
Sources report that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Federal Government’s Team to engage with Twitter over the recent suspension of the operations of the microblogging and social networking service in Nigeria.
The approval was announced in a statement in by Special Assistant To The President (Media) Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Abuja, Segun Adeyemi.
The statement said that Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed will chair the team.
The Federal Government’s team also comprises the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Works and Housing, Minister of State for Labour and Employment as well as other relevant government agencies.
Following the indefinite suspension of its operations in Nigeria, for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, Twitter wrote to President Buhari seeking to engage with the Federal Government over the suspension, with a view to charting a path forward.
The Federal Government had earlier suspended indefinitely the operations of the microblogging and social networking service Twitter in Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement citing the presistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
A high court of the Federal Capital Territory, sitting in Apo has sentence a former member of the House of Representatives, Faruk Lawan to 7 years imprisonment.
Mr Lawan was found guilty of bribery during the investigation of petrol subsidy scam in 2012.
Oil marketer, Femi Otedola, accused him of demanding for bribe in order to exonerate Zenon petroleum and gas limited from the list of companies in the fuel subsidy scam.
He was caught on camera receiving bills of dollars from the oil marketer
Justice Angela Otaluka ordered Mr Lawan to return the $500,00 he collected to the federal government.
Faruk Lawan was the chairman of the House of Representatives adhoc committee probing the multi billion-naira fuel subsidy fraud in 2012.
According to reports the Community Court of Justice, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued a restraining order on President Muhammadu Buhari or any member of his administration from prosecuting any Nigerian using Twitter.
This ruling followed the suit filed against the government by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians.
Some 41 million people worldwide are at at imminent risk of famine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday, saying soaring prices for basic foods were compounding existing pressures on food security.
Another half a million are already experiencing famine-like conditions, said the WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley.
“We now have four countries where famine-like conditions are present. Meanwhile 41 million people are literally knocking on famine’s door,” he said.
The WFP, which is funded entirely by voluntary donations, said it needs to raise $6 billion immediately to reach those at risk, in 43 countries.
“We need funding and we need it now,” said Beasley.
After declining for several decades, world hunger has been on the rise since 2016, driven by conflict and climate change.
FILE PHOTO: Bags of food donations are seen at the Tsehaye primary school, which was turned into a temporary shelter for people displaced by conflict, in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
In 2019, 27 million people were on the brink of famine, according to the WFP, but since 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has been added to the mix.
World food prices rose in May to their highest levels in a decade, U.N. figures show, with basics like cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar up a combined 40% versus year ago levels.
Currency depreciation in countries like Lebanon, Nigeria, Sudan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe is adding to these pressures and driving prices even higher, stoking food insecurity.
Famine-like conditions are present this year in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, as well as in pockets of Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
But Beasley warned against “debating numbers to death” as happened in Somalia in 2011 when 130,000 people – half the eventual toll from starvation – had already died by the time famine was declared.
The WFP, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, says around 9 percent of the world’s population, equivalent to nearly 690 million people, go to bed hungry each night.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s new fertiliser plant near Lagos will export its first shipment in late June or early July, to Louisiana, while the majority of exports from the plant are expected to go to Brazil, Dangote said on Tuesday.
The new urea plant at the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos State, designed to manufacture 3 million tonnes of urea per year, will also be able to supply all the major markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Dangote told a virtual economic forum hosted by Qatar.
On a small island where the Senegal River meets the sea, hundreds of mask-wearing jazz enthusiasts listened to French-Senegalese vocalist Awa Ly sing the blues for uncertain times.
“Once you touched the sky and you went down,” she crooned. “Use your inner senses and you’ll figure it out, like a dream you can’t remember.”
Last year COVID-19 halted Saint Louis’ jazz festival for the first time in its 29-year history. This year it was back, bringing much needed life to the Island of Saint Louis, a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for its colonial architecture and pastel-coloured houses.
Singer Awa Ly performs on stage at the Saint Louis Jazz Festival in Saint Louis, Senegal, June 18, 2021. REUTERS/Cooper Inveen.
African rhythms, funk, gospel and blues could be heard along the narrow streets last weekend, emanating from restaurants, bars and hotels into the early morning.
“I was relieved, and everybody else was relieved too,” Ly said after her performance. “It was a beautiful energy, a beautiful vibration and a beautiful link between the stage and the audience.”
Saint Louis, in northern Senegal, was spared the deadliest impacts of COVID-19. But a decline in tourism and an economic crunch have left residents hungry for a boost that only its largest annual event could provide.
Billed as Africa’s biggest jazz festival, it has struggled with dwindling attendance since its days hosting headliners like American pianist Herbie Hancock, who played there in 1996.
But it does draw enthusiasts from across West Africa and Europe and is a source of pride for the city’s street performers.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has delisted additional six Computer Based Centres (CBT) over poor performance on the second day of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Head, Protocol and Public Affairs of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.
The board had earlier delisted 24 CBT centres across the country over poor performance at the commencement of the 2021 UTME.
This figure brings the total number of delisted centres across the country to 30.
Benjamin said candidates who were unable to register during the allowable time for registration despite the extension were graciously directed to visit designated centres to be registered.
He said these categories of candidates that had been scheduled for the 2021 UTME were directed to print their examination notification slip for their schedule for the examination from June 21.
He, however, directed the candidates to print their notification slip from the JAMB’s website www.jamv.gov.ng.
He further said that 464,834 candidates across the country wrote the UTME on June 21, the second day of the examination.
The additional centres delisted include: Dayspring Christian College, Opete town near Otokutu between Ughelli South lga and Udu Local Government, Delta and Fountain of Knowledge International Academy CBT, Azuiyiokwu, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
Also, Twelve Apostles College, Ndiaboishiagu Sharon, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Lead British International School, 1 Aliyu Mustafa Street, off Wole Soyinka Street, Gwarimpa, Abuja, FCT, were delisted.
Others are Zaria Academy, Km 10, Zaria-Funtua road, Shika, Zaria in Kaduna State and Muhammed Kamaldeen CBT centre proposed by Muhammed Kamaldeen University along FGC, Ogidi, Ilorin in Kwara.
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