Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye has sacked his commerce minister because she risked “compromising the country’s economy,” as sources in the ruling regime alleged she had embezzled airline funds.

“Considering the acts of the person concerned risk compromising the country’s economy and the image of Burundi… the honourable Immaculee Ndabaneze is dismissed from her functions as minister of commerce, transport, industry and tourism,” the presidency said in a statement posted Saturday on the state house’s official Twitter account.

The statement did not provide further details.

But according to corroborating sources within the ruling regime, the minister was dismissed for the illegal sale of the last plane of the now defunct Air Burundi and for allegedly embezzling funds intended to go towards the country’s future flagship carrier Burundi Airlines.

The plane, a Beechcraft 1900, had not flown in more than a decade and was sold to a South African businessman without governmental approval, the sources said.

Ndayishimiye, who took office in June 2020, has made fighting corruption a top priority in Burundi, which has for years been ranked among the top 10 most corrupt countries, according to Amnesty International.

At least three managing directors, including the head of budget programming, as well as 119 municipal accountants have been dismissed over alleged embezzlement in just the last three months.

However none of them have been prosecuted, to the disappointment of anti-corruption organisations.

“These people must be prosecuted and their guilt established,” said Faustin Ndikumana, the head of campaign group Parcem.

Gabriel Rufyiri, the president of anti-corruption organisation Olucome, agreed.

These people must be prosecuted and their guilt established,” said Faustin Ndikumana, the head of campaign group Parcem.

Gabriel Rufyiri, the president of anti-corruption organisation Olucome, agreed.

“The people have the right to know why these people are dismissed, and for which corruption cases, because it is public money — it is their money,” he said.

Ndayishimiye announced in March that there will no prosecutions for corruption cases that took place before June 19, 2020, the day he was sworn in.

He also publicly exonerated all senior officials from the constitutional obligation to declare assets.

A senior official in the regime told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the president must take into account the fact that the heavyweights of this (ruling) party have become outrageously wealthy over the last 15 years and they are often behind all corruption cases”.

Europe is looking at easing travel restrictions on foreign tourists as early as next month, but the catch is, if they are fully vaccinated or come from a country with under control, officials said Monday.

The European Commission is recommending EU member states agree to restart the bloc’s vital tourist industry in time for the European summer after a wipe-out season last year when travel plummeted worldwide.

“Time to revive the EU tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle — safely,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

The commission statement said vaccinated people arriving in the EU on “non-essential travel” would need to have received EU-approved jabs, currently those from BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Then there is an “emergency brake” allowing EU countries to halt arrivals from where a “variant of concern or interest is detected”, such as those spreading in Brazil, India and South Africa.

“Even vaccinated persons would be subject to the travel restrictions coming from these countries subject to this emergency brake,” said a commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz.

That brings the question to mind the whole essence of vaccination.

Administrators of South Africa’s cash-strapped flag carrier SAA said Friday they had handed control back to management, bringing to an end a 17-month restructuring.

Loss-making South African Airways (SAA), one of the continent’s largest airlines, was placed under a state-approved rescue plan in December 2019 in an effort to save it from collapse.

The airline, Africa’s second largest after Ethiopian Airlines, had not posted a profit since 2011, instead surviving for years on state bailouts.

A symbol of the mismanagement of state-owned enterprises that characterised ex-president Jacob Zuma’s reign, the airline was forced to abandon many routes even before the pandemic.

Now the administrators “have effectively discharged the business rescue and handed over the operations of SAA back to its board and executive team with immediate effect,” they said in a statement, adding that the company is now “solvent and liquid”.

The administrators said they had received 7.8 billion rand ($538 million) out of a 10.5 billion rand bailout allocated by government.

Under the restructured business model, SAA’s debt should be paid over the next three years, they added.

The Department of Public Enterprises welcomed the development which “signals the exit” of the rescue team at the national carrier.

But the ministry warned that more work needed to be done to ensure capital and crucial technical and commercial expertise needed are brought in to shape a competitive airline.

SAA is set to be replaced by a new airline after years of mismanagement and debt.

This month the carrier’s interim board named chartered accountant Thomas Kgokolo as its fifth acting CEO in five years.

Nigeria will ban entry to non-Nigerian passengers who have been in Brazil, India or Turkey in the last fortnight due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in those three nations, health authorities said on Sunday.

The travel ban does not apply to passengers who have transited through those countries, the presidential steering committee on Covid-19 said in a statement.

“These precautionary measures are a necessary step to minimize the risk of a surge from other countries,” the statement said.

Nigerians and permanent residents who have been in those countries in the last 14 days will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for a week in a government-approved facility on arrival, it said.

All passengers arriving in Nigeria will now have to show a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel rather then the previous 96 hours period.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has reported just over 165,000 cases of the coronavirus and 2,063 deaths since the virus first emerged in China at the end of 2019.