The British Government has pulled down a notice it published regarding its asylum policy in relation to separatist pro-Biafra groups, including the Indigenous People of Biafra and Movement for the Actualization of Biafra.
In an email sent to Radio Now, signed by Hannah Dawson, Senior Communications Officer, Newsdesk at the Home office, the British Government said the policy was being reviewed and would be uploaded once it was ready.
The email sent by Hannah Dawson was in response to a query by Radio Now, and request for an interview on the original policy which seemed to offer protection to members of groups some of which had not only been proscribed but also stood accused of being behind recent attacks against policemen and government infrastructure in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria.
The UK Government did not, however, give a time frame as to when the updated policy would be uploaded to their website.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had on Wednesday criticized the British government, saying its planned asylum for IPOB and MASSOB members was disrespectful of and sabotage against Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.
In response to Nigeria’s umbrage at the planned asylum, the British Government had said on Wednesday that “all asylum and human rights claims from Nigerian nationals are carefully considered on their individual merits and in accordance with its international obligations.”
It added that its asylum policy was updated regularly and that the update on the Biafra separatist note would be made available soon.
In a statement made available to two national newspapers by the Senior Press and Public Affairs Officer, British High Commission, Abuja, Christopher Ogunmodede on Wednesday, it said: “The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“Our country policy and information notes are published on the gov.uk website. They are kept under constant review and updated periodically – an update to the Biafra separatist note is expected shortly.”
The African Union on Friday urged the restoration of civilian rule in Chad after veteran ruler Idriss Deby Itno’s son, a general, took charge following his father’s death fighting rebels.
The AU’s 15-member security body, the Peace and Security Council, voiced “grave concern” over the establishment of a military council headed by 37-year-old Mahamat Idriss Deby.
The elder Deby, who had ruled the vast semi-desert state with an iron fist for 30 years, died from wounds sustained in battle at the weekend.
His death has stunned ally and former colonial ruler France, which has relied on Chad in its campaign against a jihadist revolt in the Sahel region.
Chad staged a state funeral for Deby on Friday that was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, who called on the newly-appointed military government to foster “stability, inclusion, dialogue, democratic transition”.
Chad’s parliament and government have been dissolved, allowing Mahamat Idriss Deby to wield full powers.
He has promised “free and democratic” elections after an 18-month transition period that can be extended once.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council met to discuss the situation Chad on Thursday but waited to issue its statement until after Friday’s funeral.
It urged Chad’s security forces “to respect the constitutional mandate and order, and to expeditiously embark on a process of restoration of constitutional order and handing over of political power to the civilian authorities.”
The statement also called for “an all-inclusive national dialogue” and said the African Union Commission, headed by Chadian former prime minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, should send a fact-finding mission to the country.
The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) rebel group, which crossed into Chad from Libya, has vowed to pursue its offensive after a pause for the funeral.
Friday’s AU statement said conditions on the ground posed a potential threat to Chad, its neighbours and the entire continent.
The American investment bank had been due to fund the European breakaway project, but have seen plans ripped up in dramatic style.
JP Morgan, the company that was due to provide the €3 billion (£2.6bn/$3.6bn) loan required to fund the breakaway Super League, has admitted that it “misjudged” the reaction of supporters to the divisive proposal and vowed to “learn” from their mistakes
Condemnation of the plans was swift and fierce, leading those involved to backtrack hastily to the point that the elaborate blueprint was ripped up inside 48 hours – leading those at the centre of talks on and off the field to issue grovelling apologies.
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID?
JP Morgan has now responded to criticism of its involvement, saying in a statement: “We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future. We will learn from this.”
WHAT DEAL DID JP MORGAN HAVE IN PLACE?
The American investment bank had been lined up as the main financier of the Super League. Plans were put in place for a 23-year loan worth over €3bn.
The deal would have been one of the biggest and most lucrative in the history of sport, with suggestions JP Morgan could pull in around £2 million a week over the course of their agreement.
In the end, no money changed hands as pressure from supporters and sporting organisations around the world forced those involved to revise their plans.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The 12 teams that signed up to the Super League plans were Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Inter and AC Milan.
Not every team has spoken out though, and Real president Florentino Perez, who was due to head up operations, has claimed that changes he believes are essential to the future of football have merely been put on hold.
Mining companies awarded blocks in Egypt’s Eastern Desert are set to start exploring for gold under a legislative overhaul that seeks eventually to unlock vast untapped mineral resources.
Despite plentiful reserves and a rich mining history that gave rise to elaborate Pharaonic gold jewelry, Egypt has just one commercial gold mine in operation. Foreign investment in oil and gas has grown, but mining has languished.
Now, the country is banking on high gold prices and amended mining laws that scrap red tape and a profit-sharing rule, unpopular in the industry, to lure interest.
One year after launching its first bid round under the new rules, it has so far clinched five gold exploration contracts in a first bidding round and kept the tendering system rolling as it tries to build momentum.
The government is looking to attract $1 billion in annual investments in mining, a target industry sources say could be within reach.
“Success is ultimately going to be measured by how many mines are going to be discovered and advanced to production,” said Patrick Barnes, Head of Metals & Mining Consulting EMEARC at Wood Mackenzie, which advised Egypt’s government on its mining law reforms.
“Early indicators show us that this bid round was much better than the ones held previously.”
In its initial tender, Egypt in November awarded 82 exploration blocks to what metals analysts say is a healthy mix of 11 companies, ranging from junior explorers to industry giants such as Barrick Gold (ABX.TO).
The blocks on offer are in the Arabian-Nubian shield geological formation, which flanks the Red Sea and is believed to be one of the most mineral rich areas in the world.
More than 1,000 Arsenal supporters gathered outside Emirates Stadium before Friday’s game against Everton to protest against owner Stan Kroenke’s role in the failed European Super League.
The protestors called for Kroenke to leave the club.
It follows similar protests by Chelsea fans on Tuesday
Around 1,000 Blues supporters had gathered outside Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground before their game against Brighton to protest at their club’s involvement.
Arsenal apologised in an open letter to their fans following their withdrawal from the Super League and said they had “made a mistake”, adding they were withdrawing after listening to them and the “wider football community”.
The Gunners board said they did not intend to “cause such distress” and that they joined the Super League because they “did not want to be left behind” and wanted to ensure the club’s future.
“Our aim is always to make the right decisions for this great football club, to protect it for the future and to take us forward,” they added.
“We didn’t make the right decision here, which we fully accept.”
American businessman Kroenke was appointed to the Arsenal board of directors in 2008 and became the majority shareholder of the club in 2011.
South Africa’s oldest crude oil refinery, the 120,000 barrel per day plant operated by Engen (Enref), will be converted into a new storage facility because the refinery is no longer sustainable in the long term, the company said on Friday.
The refinery, situated on the eastern coast in the city of Durban, has been shut down since a fire in December damaged the plant that supplies around 17% of the country’s fuel production and is South Africa’s second largest crude refinery.
“The conclusion of the strategic assessment is that the Engen refinery is unsustainable in the longer-term,” Engen’s CEO Yusa Hassan said in a statement.
Engen is majority-owned by Malaysia’s oil and gas firm, Petronas.
Hassan said a globally challenging refining environment with supply surplus, depressed demand and low refining margins had placed Engen in “financial distress”.
Hassan added that unaffordable costs to meet the government’s cleaner fuel drive by upgrading refineries was another reason to convert the refinery operating since 1954.
The South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA), which represents operators such as BP (BP.L) and Shell (RDSa.L), said in January that local refinery operators were less likely to invest 40 billion rand ($2.8 billion) for these upgrades after the coronavirus pandemic.
Africa’s most industrialised economy has five other refineries. It is a net importer of petroleum products.
Hassan said the new import and storage terminal was expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2023. He did not provide any cost estimates for converting the refinery.
Mohamed Ould Ghazouani (L), the President of Mauritania, pays his respect at the coffin of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno during the state funeral in N'Djamena on April 23, 2021. - Chad's President Idriss Deby died on April 20, 2021 from wounds sustained in a battle with rebels in the country's north, an army spokesperson announced on state television. Deby had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April 11, 2021 elections. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
Chad on Friday staged a state funeral for veteran ruler Idriss Deby Itno, a linchpin in the fight against the Sahel’s jihadist insurgency, as France and regional allies voiced backing for his son and successor, Mahamat Idriss Deby.
The elder Deby, who had ruled the vast semi-desert state with an iron fist for 30 years, died from wounds sustained fighting rebels at the weekend, the army said Tuesday.
His death has stunned the Sahel and its ally and former colonial ruler France, battling a jihadist revolt that in nine years has swept across three countries.
The unrest has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Deby’s coffin, draped in the national flag and surrounded by elite troops, was driven to the Place de la Nation square in the capital N’Djamena for ceremonies attended by foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron.
A 21-gun salute sounded out for Deby, who only last August had been declared a field marshal — the first in Chad’s history — after leading an offensive against jihadists in the west of the country.
Macron, in his tribute to the fallen president, said “you lived as a soldier, you died as a soldier, weapons in your hands”.
“France will never let anyone, either today or tomorrow, challenge Chad’s stability and integrity,” Macron pledged.
But Macron also called on the newly-appointed military government to foster “stability, inclusion, dialogue, democratic transition”.
A similar message was conveyed personally to Deby’s son when he met earlier with Macron and the presidents of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, a French presidential aide said.
“What emerges from the president’s consultations with his counterparts is the need to push ahead very quickly with an inclusive transition, which hands on to political forces,” the source said.
“That’s the only way today, because a purely military process won’t work,” the aide said, adding that the G5 Sahel and African Union “are in the front line, and France will be playing the role of backup”.
The younger Deby, a 37-year-old four-star general commanding the elite Republican Guard, was named president and head of a military council immediately after his father’s death was announced. Parliament and the government were dissolved.
He will wield full powers but has promised “free and democratic” elections after an 18-month transition period that can be extended once.
The move has been branded an “institutional coup” by the opposition.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), underscoring the “terrible repression” under Deby, on Friday urged the swiftest possible return to civilian rule.
Deby’s death was announced the day after he was declared the winner of an April 11 election — giving him a sixth mandate after three decades at the helm.
The army said the 68-year-old had died on Monday from wounds suffered while leading troops in battle against rebels who had crossed from Libya.
The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) has vowed to pursue its offensive after a pause for the funeral, with spokesman Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol telling AFP that the rebels were “en route to N’Djamena”.
Mourners attend the state funeral of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno in N’Djamena on April 23, 2021. – Chad’s President Idriss Deby died on April 20, 2021 from wounds sustained in a battle with rebels in the country’s north, an army spokesperson announced on state television. Deby had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April 11, 2021 elections. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
Unstable country –
Deby seized power in a chronically unstable country in 1990 and had twice thwarted attempted coups with support from France.
He was repeatedly returned to office in elections condemned by opponents as fraudulent.
But he gained a reputation in the West as an unfailing ally in the fight to roll back jihadists, whose campaign has shaken the vast, impoverished Sahel.
Chad has well-respected armed forces and hosts the headquarters of France’s 5,100-strong Barkhane anti-jihadist mission.
It also partners Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in a regional anti-jihad coalition called the G5 Sahel.
The group may name Burkina’s president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, as interim leader to succeed Deby, who had been its chairman under a rotational arrangement, a source at the G5 Sahel secretariat in Noukachott said.
French armoured escort –
Macron, who left for France in mid-afternoon, was the only Western head of state to attend the ceremony.
French armoured vehicles escorted Macron to the embassy after his arrival at the military base used for Barkhane’s headquarters, an AFP journalist saw.
The funeral was followed by prayers at the capital’s Grand Mosque.
Deby’s remains were then flown a thousand kilometres (600 miles) east to the village of Amdjarass near the Sudanese border, where he was to be buried alongside his father close to his birthplace of Berdoba
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen called for “flexibility” as talks with Switzerland’s president on Friday failed to make a breakthrough towards sealing a long-delayed cooperation agreement.
Brussels has made no secret of its growing impatience to nail down a “framework agreement” to unify a patchwork of accords with Bern, 13 years in the making.
But the two sides remained at an impasse after the EU refused to budge on demands from Swiss leader Guy Parmelin to exclude key issues relating to state aid, wage protections and freedom of movement from the pact.
“Our position is different — it is that obviously you cannot carve out such three fundamental areas from the agreement,” EU spokesman Eric Mamer said after the 90-minute meeting.
Mamer said the EU had put some “compromises” on the table and wanted them to form a basis for any future talks.
“Our doors are open and at any point in time the Swiss side can contact us and we can continue the discussion,” he added.
Talking before the meeting, von der Leyen insisted that it was possible to reach a deal if there was “some flexibility on both sides”.
“In a negotiation, the final metres are the most difficult,” the European Commission president said.
Parmelin admitted there were “substantial differences” between the two sides and insisted he was trying to get an “acceptable agreement” that would stand up to scrutiny back home.
“We agreed to stay in contact,” he said.
For the EU, the negotiations on the deal concluded in 2018 — but the Swiss have continued to press for changes and have so far balked at signing.
The agreement would rejig five major agreements within 120 bilateral accords that govern non-EU member Switzerland’s relations with the bloc.
Among other points, they touch on access to the single market and fine-tuning applicable Swiss and EU laws.
Fears abound that failing to secure the framework deal could jeopardise Switzerland’s relationship with its largest trading partner at a time when more than half of all Swiss exports go to the bloc, which all but surrounds the landlocked country.
Saudi Arabia on Friday imposed a ban on imports of Lebanese fruit and vegetables into its territory, citing a spike in drug smuggling from Lebanon.
The ban will come into effect on Sunday and will continue until Lebanese authorities provide “adequate and trusted guarantees” to stop “systematic smuggling operations” into the kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was informed of the Saudi decision and that the foreign minister has referred the issue to higher officials. “Smuggling drugs in containers or trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables from Lebanon abroad is an act punishable by Lebanese law,” the statement said.
“Drug smuggling harms the economy, the Lebanese farmers and the reputation of Lebanon,” it added. The statement also called on all security services and customs at the border crossings to make every effort to control all smuggling operations.
The Saudi agency said Saudi authorities noticed increasing attempts by drug smugglers from Lebanon to use the Lebanese products, mainly fruit and vegetable shipments bound for the monarchy or transiting on the way to neighbouring countries, for the illicit trade.
Saudi Arabia will continue to keep a close eye on shipments of other Lebanese products to see if similar measures need to be taken, SPA added.
The ban was announced shortly after Saudi authorities said they had foiled an attempt at the Red Sea port of Jeddah to smuggle around 5.3 million pills of Captagon, a synthetic drug, hidden into a pomegranate shipment coming from Lebanon.
The Eurozone economic recovery accelerated in April despite coronavirus restrictions as business activity grew at its fastest pace since the summer thanks to a manufacturing boom, a key survey said Friday.
“Eurozone business activity grew at a stronger rate in April, the rate of increase accelerating to the fastest since last July as a record expansion of manufacturing output was accompanied by a return to growth in the service sector for the first time since last August,” economic data group IHS Markit said.
The firm’s PMI index rose to 53.7 points in April from 53.2 in March, remaining above the 50-point level that indicates growth.
It marked a second straight month of expansion in business activity after four consecutive months of decline.
“In a month during which virus containment measures were tightened in the face of further waves of infections, the eurozone economy showed encouraging strength,” Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit said.
“Although the service sector continued to be hard hit by lockdown measures, it has returned to growth as companies adjust to life with the virus and prepare for better times ahead.”
Williamson added that the manufacturing sector was booming as “pent-up spending, restocking, investment in new machinery and growing optimism about the outlook have all helped fuel a further record surge in both output and new orders”.
Factories in economic powerhouse Germany led the way as manufacturing expanded across the region “at a rate unsurpassed in over two decades of survey history”.
The hard-hit service sector continued to trail behind however, as countries imposed restrictions to try to curb a third wave of coronavirus infections.
Germany’s return to growth in the sector ground to halt as tighter measures were enforced, but France and much of the rest of the eurozone saw a “marginal” uptick for the first time since last summer.
The more positive news comes as vaccination drives across the European Union pick up pace after a sluggish start caused in part by delivery shortfalls.
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