Month: May 2024

“Nigeria has decided to suspend the proposed cybersecurity levy on domestic money transfers,” Information Minister Mohammed Idris announced, adding that “The implementation has been directed by the government to be put on hold.”, local media reported.

“The new levy was planned as authorities clamp down on cryptocurrency, which they have blamed for Nigeria’s currency weakness,” Idris explained.

“The cybersecurity tax policy implementation has been directed by the government to be put on hold, so it has been suspended,” reiterated Idris.

Civil society groups had earlier kicked against the introduction of the levy. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) on Thursday, May 9 expressed concerns about the timing of the recently introduced 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Subsequently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday was reported to have issued a circular to various financial institutions, including commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, announcing the cybersecurity levy.

The NESG, in a statement, urged the federal government to reconsider the levy due to concerns over multiple taxation and inflationary pressures burdening Nigerians.

The group pointed out that, amidst escalating inflation and financial exclusion, the timing of the cybersecurity levy is inappropriate given the current cost of living crisis and increased currency circulation.

Israelis celebrated Independence Day in Tel Aviv on Tuesday amid its months-long war in Gaza and concern over the fate of remaining hostages.

As with previous years, Israelis celebrated the day – this year marked from Monday evening through Tuesday – with barbecues filling up entire parks across the country.

But in the shadow of the conflict in Gaza and immediately after the country marked an emotional Memorial Day, the normally raucous parties were subdued, as families grappled with their desire to mark the event as the country faces one of its most difficult tests in decades.

We don’t want to show Hamas that they can win. We want to show them that we are strong and we want to show them that our country is important for us and to show them that we still go out, we still live our lives.” says Shiri Simon, a Tel Aviv resident.

With the trauma of Oct. 7 looming large, each day is expected to feel dramatically different from previous years.

Roughly 1,200 people were killed that day, about a quarter of them soldiers, and another 250 were taken captive in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. The attack sparked the war, now in its eighth month, which has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.

The militants stormed past Israel’s vaunted defenses, bursting through a border fence, blinding surveillance cameras and battling the country’s first line of defense soldiers, many of whom were outnumbered. Itay Chen, an Israeli-American, was one of them.

Militants reached roughly 20 different locations in southern Israel, stretching into cities beyond the belt of farming communities that straddles Gaza. It took hours for the region’s most powerful military to send reinforcements to the area and days for it to clear all the militants.

The attack shook Israel to its core. It shattered the broad trust the country’s Jewish population has long placed in the military, which has compulsory enlistment for most Jewish 18-year-olds.

Israelis are wondering what the right way to celebrate is — and whether there is much to celebrate at all.

It’s been really eye-opening to be able to know more about my heritage and to be able to know this is just the beginning of my discovery,” she told guests at the event on women in leadership.

Markle and her husband, British Prince Harry, are visiting Nigeria for the first time to promote mental health for soldiers and young girls.

“What’s been echoed so much really in the past day by men and women alike is ‘Oh! We weren’t surprised when you found out you were Nigerian,” she said.

“I say that mostly as a compliment to all of you, because what they define as a Nigerian woman is brave, resilient, courageous, powerful, beautiful,” she added.

Markle is known for her advocacy on women’s rights and gender equality.

The event, held in the capital Abuja, was co-hosted by Nigerian economist and head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

It highlighted the importance of female leadership and empowerment in driving positive change globally. Participants discussed the importance of mentorship for young women and career challenges faced by women in the country.

“Oftentimes, when women reach the peak of success, they leave. But you need to come back home, you need to at least be a familiar face for the next generation to say ‘Oh she looks like me, and I can be that’,” said Markle.

The couple’s three-day visit to Nigeria ends on Sunday.

Rwanda says it didn’t arm rebels accused of a grenade attack, despite Burundi’s accusations. Relations between the two countries remain tense.

“We call on Burundi to solve its own internal problems and not associate Rwanda with such despicable matters,” government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said in a statement Sunday.

Burundi’s interior ministry blamed the grenade attack on Friday that injured 38 people on RED-Tabara rebels and said the group was backed by Rwanda. The rebel group denied responsibility for the attack.

Relations between Rwanda and Burundi have deteriorated since early this year when Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye renewed accusations that Rwanda was funding and training the RED-Tabara rebels, who oppose the Burundi government.

Burundian authorities consider RED-Tabara a terrorist movement and accuse its members of being part of a failed coup attempt in 2015. The group first appeared in 2011 and has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.

In January, the Rwandan government accused Burundi of closing the border between the two countries, two weeks after an attack that Burundi said was carried out by the RED-Tabara group.

Pope Francis expressed concern on Saturday for “the planet in flames” because of wars during his meeting with the participants of ‘#BeHuman’, the world meeting on human fraternity that brings together 30 Nobel Prize laureates and top figures from international bodies at the Vatican for a dialogue on peace.

“On a planet in flames, you have come together to reaffirm your ‘no’ to war and ‘yes’ to peace, bearing witness to the humanity that unites us and makes us recognise each other as brothers, in the mutual gift of our respective cultural differences,” the pope told the delegates.

Among those attending the meeting are New York Mayor Eric Adams, retired U.S. football star Tom Brady, country singer Garth Brooks, former first lady of South Africa Graca Machel Mandela, and Nobel laureates Maria Ressa and Jody Williams.

The pontiff said that “war is a deception. War is always a defeat, as is the idea of international security based on the deterrent of fear. It is another deception. To ensure lasting peace, we must return to a recognition of our common humanity and place fraternity at the center of peoples’ lives.”

The two-day meeting has been organised by the ‘Fratelli tutti’ foundation and will consist of 12 thematic tables set up in different locations in Rome, such as the Palazzo de Campidoglio and the Vatican’s Chancellery.

The Nobel laureates will debate with scientists, economists, doctors, managers, workers, sports champions from various parts of the world, with the aim, according to a note of presentation, “of looking for alternatives to wars and poverty”, with proposals to “understand where the principle of fraternity is already present in social life and discern the parameters needed to measure it”.

As hope dwindles, authorities in South Africa race against time to rescue 44 construction workers trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building.

The daunting task ahead involves moving thousands of tons of concrete with heavy machinery to search for survivors. The death toll climbed to nine as a critically injured worker passed away in the hospital.

Of the 28 workers rescued from the site, 21 were in critical condition or had life-threatening injuries following Monday’s collapse of the five-story apartment complex that was under construction.

With fears that the final death toll could exceed 50, authorities in the city of George on South Africa’s south coast said large earth-moving equipment had arrived and rescue teams were removing huge slabs of concrete and rubble to reach deeper into the wreckage.

it was still a rescue rather than a recovery operation, but no survivors have been located or brought out since Wednesday.

“Despite the introduction of large machinery, rescue techniques will still be applied meticulously and sensitively by the highly skilled and experienced disaster management team,” the city said in a statement.

It also revised the number of missing from 38 to 44 after determining that there were more construction workers at the site than previously thought. New information provided by the construction company showed there were 81 workers when the building came crashing down, not 75 as authorities had initially announced, it said.

More than 600 personnel are involved in the rescue operation, with many brought in from nearby towns and cities. George, which is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town, is a small city known as a vacation and golfing destination.

Authorities say multiple investigations are underway into the cause of the collapse, including by police, the provincial government, and the National Department of Labor.

Chad’s military leader, Mahamat Deby Itno, was declared the winner of this week’s presidential election, according to provisional results released Thursday. The results were contested by his main rival, Prime Minister Succès Masra.

The national agency that manages Chad’s election released results of Monday’s vote weeks earlier than planned. The figures showed Deby Itno won with just over 61% of the vote, with the runner-up Masra falling far behind with over 18.5% of the vote. Gunfire erupted in the capital following the announcement.

Preliminary results were initially expected on May 21.

Chad held its long delayed presidential election following three years of military rule, a vote that analysts widely expected the incumbent to win. Deby Itno, also known as Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power after his father, who spent three decades in power, was killed fighting rebels in 2021.

The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people hasn’t had a free-and-fair transfer of power since it became independent in 1960 after decades of French colonial rule.

Hours ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Masra published a speech on Facebook accusing the authorities of planning to manipulate the outcome.