Year: 2024

Nigerian economist, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was unanimously reappointed on Friday for a second four-year term as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Trade sources said her early reappointment could be seen as an effort to avoid a veto by incoming United States president Donald Trump, a suggestion the WTO has dismissed.

In 2020, his previous administration sought to block Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment, and she only secured US backing when President Joe Biden succeed him in the White House.

Trump has a history of hostility towards the WTO as a place for resolving trade disputes.

He has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China when he returns to office in January.

This will violate US trade commitments and ratchet up trade tensions with both friendly and adversarial nations.

Okonjo-Iweala says the WTO is looking forward to working with the new administration and plans to take a very constructive and creative approach.

The former Nigerian finance minister says she is committed to delivering results that ultimately improve the lives of people around the world.

The Nigerian President Tinubu began his three-day state visit to France on Thursday in a bid to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

The visit is symbolic to Nigeria’s leadership as it marks the first appearance of a sitting president at Champs-Élysées in two decades.

Paris is seeking to renew its ties with Africa, especially the English-speaking countries. France has seen its influence diminish in the French-speaking countries following the coups that took place in the Sahel countries.

France is seeking to strengthen economic ties with Africa, as the visit sets up the two presidents for meetings at the “Franco-Nigerian Business Council” forum.

The forum was meant to boost the economic cooperation and investments between the two countries.

Tinubu is graced with some of the highest-ranking officials in his government including popular business moguls like Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote.

Ties between France and the continent are beginning to falter after Niger’s military junta banned the French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, or Acted, from working in the country in mid-November.

The Ministry of the Interior signed a decree withdrawing the nonprofit organization’s license to operate, without providing reasons for the decision.

Niger had been the West’s last reliable partner in the region in battling jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

President Macron last visited Nigeria in 2018 during the tenure of the then President Buhari. The visit to Nigeria then marked a return to familiar territory for Macron. He spent six months in Abuja as an intern at the French embassy in 2002.

Franca has been seen to be courting the English-speaking regions and countries in Africa to replace the French countries after his fallout with some of them like the Sahel countries. Macron visited several countries in Africa including Kenya and Ethiopia in 2019, South Africa in 2021, and Nigeria in 2018.

According to the latest data, Nigeria is the leading trading partner for France in Africa followed by South Africa.

It has been a rocky season for football star Kylian Mbappé, who missed a penalty during Real Madrid’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday. While the club’s head coach Carlo Ancelotti conceded that Liverpool deserved the win, he stated that Mbappé was in need of support.

“This has happened before (in my career) many times”, Ancelotti told the press.

“I think when you’re a striker you want to score. You get a bit disappointed in yourself [when you don’t do that.] I think that there’s a medicine which is to be patient. To be patient because I think it’s a difficult moment [for him]. Everybody we’ve got to give him our support and he’ll soon be fine”, added Ancelotti.

Madrid has lost three of its last five games overall, sitting in 24th place this season. Asides from the Liverpool match, the club lost at home to Barcelona 4-0 and AC Milan 3-1.

This summer, Mbappé signed with the club for an undisclosed sum—many have claimed it was football’s most expensive free transfer. The 25-year-old called this “a dream come true.”

Earlier in the season, Mbappé took a break from France’s Nations League matches against Israel and Belgium, focusing on recovering from his thigh injury.

However, headlines soon shifted away from this injury and towards Swedish media speculation, which tied Mbappé to a rape allegation in Stockholm, filed shortly after the player’s trip to the city in October.

Ancelotti previously stated that Mbappé was not “affected at all” by these reports. Meanwhile, Mbappé called these reports “false and irresponsible”.

Mbappé led France to a World Cup title when he was only a teenager, in 2018.

Real Madrid’s captain Luka Modric knows first-hand the pressures that the club’s players face. He stated that although Mbappé was experiencing a difficult transition, this was by no means a fixed feat.

“It is never easy to make your start at Madrid, the first seasons are tough,” Modric said. “But he is a player with a lot of experience. He is a star, and has been one of the best players in the world for several years now.”

Mbappé and Madrid could have a good opportunity to get back to winning when they host Getafe in La Liga on Sunday.

“He has our backing and he knows how to get through this: By not losing confidence and working every day,” Modric said. “I am sure that he will find a way to pull through this and demonstrate why he is here.”

At least 15 people have died and 113 others are missing after landslides buried homes in six villages in eastern Uganda, police said Thursday.

Another 15 injured people have been rescued and admitted to Buluganya Health Center.

The Uganda Red Cross Society said Thursday that 13 bodies had been recovered after landslides buried 40 homes and the rescue effort was continuing. Local media reported that authorities expect the death toll could rise to 30.

Heavy rains triggered landslides in the mountainous district of Bulambuli, 280 kilometers east of Kampala, the capital, on Wednesday night.

Local officials told a journalist in the area that an excavator would be brought to assist in the rescue efforts, but the roads were covered in mud and rain was still falling.

The impacted area is about 50 acres with homesteads and farmlands spread downhill.

Photos and videos of people digging through mud in search of victims were shared on social media. Some of the houses were completely covered by mud while others only had a roof showing above the ground.

The Daily Monitor newspaper reported that most of the bodies recovered so far were those of children.

Bulambuli District Woman MP Irene Muloni said that the government intends to relocate residents from the landslide-prone area.

“Waterfalls are everywhere, and the rainfall is excessive. Let people be evacuated immediately,” she said, urging everyone to seek refuge with relatives and “leave this dangerous place.”

The prime minister’s office issued a disaster alert on Wednesday stating that heavy rains across the country had cut off major roads.

Two rescue boats capsized on Wednesday during a rescue mission on River Nile where Pakwach bridge was submerged.

The World Health Organization’s regional director-elect for Africa died while receiving medical treatment in India, Tanzania’s parliament speaker said Wednesday.

Plans to repatriate the body of Tanzania’s Dr. Faustine Ndugulile, 55, were underway, Speaker Tulia Ackson said, adding that funeral plans would be announced later. She didn’t disclose Ndugulile’s ailment.

Ndugulile served as a member of parliament for Kigamboni Constituency in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. He was also the East African country’s health assistant minister between 2017-2020 and the information and communication minister until 2021.

He was elected as the WHO’s African director in August and was set to start his new role in February 2025, following Dr. Matshidiso Moeti who served in the role for two terms. In his acceptance speech, Ndugulile expressed a firm commitment to advancing the health and well-being of people in Africa.

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed condolences on social media platform X, calling his death “devastating,” while WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by his death.

Several Tanzanian legislators also posted on X, saying Ndugulile was “a humble man.”

Godbless Lema, a former opposition legislator, wrote: “When in parliament, Ndugulile wasn’t as harsh as his colleagues in the ruling party.”

WHO regional directors have a five-year term and are eligible for reappointment only once.

Mali’s junta arrested one of the country’s top politicians Wednesday for criticizing the military rulers of neighbouring Burkina Faso, according to his son and a judiciary source.

Issa Kaou N’Djim, who previously supported Mali’s current military leader Col. Assimi Goita before distancing himself, was arrested on charges of insulting a foreign head of state, which is a crime in Mali, an employee of the court system said. The court employee spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

N’Djim had claimed on the Joliba TV News broadcaster on Sunday that the military rulers of Burkina Faso, a close ally of Mali, made up evidence of a foiled coup in November.

The politician was placed in custody and taken to the main prison in Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday, his son, Ousmane N’djim, said. “He knows he is being arrested because of his political struggle.”

The director of Joliba TV News has also been called for interrogation by the authorities.

Mali and Burkina Faso have been ruled by military regimes since coups in 2020 and 2022, capitalizing on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues. Together with Niger, another junta-led country in the region, they form the Alliance of Sahel States or AES.

N’Djim was one of the vice presidents of the National Transitional Council (CNT), Mali’s legislative body under the junta. He later distanced himself from the military regime and said he favoured a return to electoral democracy. In 2021, he was handed a six-month prison sentence after he criticized the military regime on social media.

The security situation in the three AES countries has worsened over the past couple of years, analysts say, with a record number of attacks by Islamic extremists. Government forces have been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants while cracking down on political dissent and journalists.

In June, Malian authorities arrested eleven opposition politicians and several activists.

Amnesty International called for N’Djim’s release in a post on the social media platform X.

The governing party in Georgia on Wednesday picked a former footballer as its candidate for the country’s new president following its controversial election victory that has sparked protests and led to the opposition parties’ boycott of the parliament.

The Georgian Dream party nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former national team member and Premier League player to the job of the country’s mostly ceremonial president.

He is all but certain to win the Dec. 14 vote by the electoral college controlled by the ruling party.

Georgian Dream retained control of the parliament in the Oct. 26 election that the opposition said was rigged under the Russian influence.

European election observers said the balloting took place in a “divisive” atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting and physical violence.

Georgian Dream has a majority in the college, making the approval of Kavelashvili’s candidacy all but certain.

Kavelashvili, who was a striker who played in the Premier League for Manchester City and in the Swiss Super League for several clubs, was elected to the parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket.

In 2022, he has co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which has become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

“Our society is divided,” Kavelashvili said in parliament, charging that “radicalization and polarization” in the country has been fueled from abroad.

He accused Zourabichvili of violating the constitution and declared that he will “restore the presidency to its constitutional framework.”

In the Central African Republic, gunmen killed six motorcycle taxi drivers and four of their customers near the diamond-mining town of Bria, authorities said Tuesday.

The motorcycle taxi drivers and their customers were returning from a religious ceremony in the town of Ippy and were heading to Bria, the capital of the central Haute-Kotto prefecture, when they were ambushed by unidentified gunmen, Bria MP Jacques Tafogo told The Associated Press.

“They were tied up and killed with their clients and their motorcycles were set on fire ,” Tafogo told the our source by telephone. The city is in the grip of psychosis and the army is mobilized with the support of Wagner ‘s Russian mercenaries .

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the mining town of Bria has been plagued by fighting between the country’s armed forces and the Coalition of Patriots for Change , an anti-government militant group, in recent years.

Diamond exports from the city are banned under the 2003 Kimberley Process , which aims to eliminate the trade in “blood diamonds” that fuel conflict in Africa.

The Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced then-president François Bozizé from office.

The 2019 peace deal only served to dampen the fighting, and six of the 14 signatory armed groups subsequently left the deal. The Coalition of Patriots for Change was founded in 2020 following the deal.

The Central African Republic is also one of the first countries where Wagner’s Kremlin- backed mercenaries established their operations, promising to fight rebel groups and bring peace.

But instead of stabilizing the country, Wagner’s forces have been accused of gross human rights violations and of defending the military regime of Faustin-Archange Touadéra , in power since March 2016.

“The army is working on a military operation in the area where the tragedy took place with the support of our Russian allies ,” Haute Kotto military police commander Robestin Yamande told the Africanewsguru.com following the attack in Bria.

Chadian defence forces have intensified their operations to track down Boko Haram fighters.

This follows a deadly attack in late October in which the terror group targeted a garrison in the Lake Chad basin killing about 40 soldiers. In the aftermath, the president launched operation Haskanite. Authorities say they have killed about 100 fighters.

“I can confirm that there are no more Boko Haram groups on Chadian soil,” the governor of the Lake province du Lac

“Operation Haskanite has driven them out, moreover, we were able to finish them off. For instance, I can talk about our last confrontation during which a prominent leader, he was known among Boko Haram fighters, this leader was named Kanaye Djougoun. This operation has bore fruits,” Saleh Haggar said.

Chad claims no Boko Haram fighter is based on its soil and that they operate from neighbouring Niger and Nigeria. The Lake Chad basin would be their supply area.

The region has remained a flashpoint for militant attacks, with insurgent activity spilling over from Boko Haram’s origins in northeastern Nigeria since 2009.

Chad’s minister of communication considers his country has been left alone in this fight.

“Why is Chad alone on the battleground?” Boukar Michel said.

“Why haven’t these refugees, internally displaced people, received any help from the international community? Why haven’t they been taken care of by humanitarians? Nobody can accept to be the only one suffering losses when attacks occur or to be the only one having their defence forces laid to rest.”

N’Djamena has threatened to exit the regional counterterrorism security force.

Multinational Joint Task Force’s (MNJTF) was set up in 2015 with Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon, each contributing troops.

Mali’s ruling junta cut the signal of the popular news broadcaster Joliba TV News after a prominent politician criticized the military rulers of neighboring Burkina Faso during a televised debate, a journalist for the channel said Tuesday.

“This morning, the authorities cut off our TV channel signal, but we’re still hopeful that they’ll restore it soon,” Attaher Halidou, the journalist who chaired the debate, told The Associated Press.

Earlier this month, Malian authorities arrested and jailed politician Issa Kaou N’Djim after he claimed during the debate on Joliba TV that the military rulers of Burkina Faso had fabricated evidence of a foiled coup in September. The director of the broadcaster was also questioned by the authorities.

The decision to cut Joliba TV’s signal is the latest crackdown on press freedom and political dissent in Mali, which has been ruled by a military regime since 2020.

In June, the authorities arrested 11 opposition politicians and several activists. That followed the junta’s decision to ban the media from reporting on the activities of political parties and associations.

The Press House of Mali, which represents journalists and the media in the West African country, threatened on Sunday to rebroadcast the televised debate if the authorities revoked Joliba’s license.

“We are in talks with the Malian authorities to find a global solution that not only concerns the restoration of Joliba TV’s signal, but also the threat of withdrawal of its license and all other factors concerning press freedom,” Bandiougou Danté, the president of the press organization, told The Associated Press.

N’Djim was one of the vice presidents of the National Transitional Council, Mali’s legislative body under the junta. He later distanced himself from the military regime and said he favored a return to electoral democracy. In 2021, he received a six-month prison sentence after he criticized the military regime on social media.

Mali has been ruled by military regimes since a series of coups which capitalized on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues. With Niger and Burkina Faso, it is a member of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a mutual defense pact which was created by the three states in 2023.

The security situation in the AES member countries has worsened in recent times, analysts say, with a record number of attacks by Islamic extremists. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.