Category: LATEST NEWS

South Africa’s Bafana Bafana lost their AFCON opener to Mali’s eagles on Tuesday (Jan. 16).

The yellow and green fought well during the first half but will surely lament the missed penalty in the 19th minute.

After this scare, Mali resolutely marched towards victory during the second half.

The team scored a first goal in the 60th minute then six minutes later put a second goal in the net.

At the end of the fixture which was played at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali took the lead of group E.

In the same group Namibia made history Tuesday. The Brave warrios caused one of the major upsets of the tournament so far, beating 2004 champions Tunisia, 1-0.

The southern African nation, which is taking part in the Africa Cup for just the fourth time, has finished bottom of its group in each of its previous appearances.

South Africa will play with Namibia on Sunday and Mali meets Tunisia on Saturday.

An explosion at a firework factory in central Thailand killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, a rescue worker said.

The exact death toll was not immediately clear but around 15 to 17 people are estimated to have been killed, according to Kritsada Manee-In, a rescue worker with the Samerkun Suphan Buri Rescue Foundation.

The blast, whose cause has yet to be determined, took place in a rural area in Suphan Buri province, about 120km north of the capital Bangkok.

Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin, who is currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was briefed by phone call and called for a swift investigation.

The incident occurred less than a month before Chinese New Year in February, when demand for fireworks is strong.

In July last year, a large explosion at a fireworks warehouse in southern Thailand killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 100.

Zambia has commenced the administration of the oral cholera vaccine. On Tuesday authorites rolled out some doses in in Matero township, one of the affected shanty compounds of Lusaka, the country’s capital, most affected by the current outbreak.

The countrywide cholera outbreak has so far killed 363 people, 30% of which were children under the age of five, and sickened more than 9,500, according to health authorities.

The outbreak, which started in early October has spread to most parts of the country but the largest number of recorded cases are in the capital city of Lusaka.

Authorities mobilised resources to contain the outbreak and opened a main treatment centre at the Heroes Stadium in the city. The outbreak also prompted the government to postpone the reopening of schools, which were meant to start on 8 January, as the country tries to battle the deadly waterborne disease.

On Monday Zambian authorities accepted the first batch of 1.4 million oral cholera vaccines handed over on Monday by GAVI, the Vaccine alliance and other partners.

Speaking at a news conference in Lusaka where the vaccines were handed over, Minister of Health Syliva Masebo thanked various partners including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

“The WHO International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision approved over 1.7 million doses of oral cholera vaccines for use in Zambia,” she said.

“About 1.4 million doses have already been received in the country in four separate shipments between the 11th and the 14th of January, 2024. The remaining balance of over 200,000 will be made available to the country soon,” Masebo added.

Cholera outbreaks in Zambia coincide with the rainy summer season, which leads to heavy rainfall causing severe flooding of many areas.

Murky water could be seen flowing down the streets as children played in dirty puddles.

Inadequate waste water management systems, and a lack of access to clean drinking water in many under serviced and informal settlements of Lusaka lead to outbreaks of cholera.

Director General of Zambian National Health Institute, Professor Roma Chilengi thinks, however, the epidemic may have peaked.

“The epidemic curve seems to hit the max, the peak,”he said.

“It is too early to call and it does look like the indications over the last 4 days we have consistently registered fewer daily numbers which is a good sign.”

The current 2023/2024 rain season has seen unusually heavy rain storms.

FIFA published a new database of clubs banned from registering new players on Thursday. This list includes top African teams, six in Saudi Arabia and five in the Argentine championship.

Sanctioned clubs include San Lorenzo (Argentina), Wydad (Morocco), and TP Mazembe (DRC) who, since 2010, have all won continental championships and participated in the FIFA Club World Cup.

FIFA can impose bans usually for two or three transfer windows after clubs have broken transfer rules or have unpaid transfer debts to other clubs. In some cases, bans can be lifted by settling the debt, as Cristiano Ronaldo’s Saudi club Al Nassr did last year in a deal with Leicester.

Clubs banned from registering players – in cases often called “transfer bans” – can sign new players, but cannot field them in matches because they cannot register them with the national federation.

Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid have been hit with a registration ban by FIFA over the past decade in cases involving the signing of youth players to international contracts. Bans are generally frozen until appeals are completed.

In similar cases in 2019, Chelsea were subject to a ban during a negotiating window before winning their appeal. Manchester City avoided a ban by paying FIFA a fine of 370 000 Swiss francs ($432,000) in 2019.

The current list includes three of the eight clubs that participated in the first edition of the African Football League this season: Wydad (Morocco), Esperance ( Tunisia ), and TP Mazembe (DRC). Another African power, Zamalek of Egypt, is also on the list, but details of its case are not published.

“The main objective of this new tool is to provide stakeholders, including players and clubs, as well as the general public, with an overview of all clubs currently blocked from registering new players, ” FIFA said in a statement.

Saudi Pro League clubs Al Raed and Al Wehda were recently banned from registering for three commercial windows, and four second-division clubs are also on the FIFA list: Al Faisaly, Al Qaisumah, Jeddah, and Ohod.

In Argentina, the clubs that cannot register new players are Banfield, Central Cordoba, Independiente, San Lorenzo, and Union.

FIFA’s database on Thursday included 78 lists of cases involving Chinese clubs and numerous cases in Ukraine where clubs lost revenue from ticket sales, broadcasting, and sponsorship deals during the military invasion Russian.

With the Pope’s approval, African Catholic bishops will not carry out the extra-liturgical blessings proposed for same sex-couples in a declaration issued by the Vatican on what it calls irregular couples.

The president of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) cited “confusion” and a “risk of scandal” in a letter released Thursday (Jan. 11).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines scandal as “an attitude or behaviour which leads another to do evil.”

Beforehand, SECAM president, Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, met with Pope Francis to discuss the matter.

The Declaration Fiducia supplicans, published on December 18, opens the possibility of blessing couples whose relationship is not “valid” in the Catholic church, including unmarried couple, divorced-and-remarried couples and same-sex couples.

However, the document issued by the Christian Catholic Church’s doctrine bureau and signed by the Pope stirred a controversy among Catholics, some Africans.

In Zambia, Catholic bishops said that the declaration should be tacken for further reflection and not for implementation citing the law “ in the country which forbids same-sex unions and activities”.

In a document issued to clarify the original declaration and address concerns on January 4, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said for example that: when “there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death,” “a blessing would be imprudent.”

In communion with the Pope, the African church “reaffirmed its commitment to continuing pastoral assistance to all its members.”

Speaking to the faithful, Cardinal Ambongo pointed out that Fiducia supplicans emphasizes that “the Church’s doctrine on Christian marriage and sexuality remains unchanged.”

A United Nations (UN) helicopter crash-landed in an area under the control of armed Islamists in Somalia, following an impact on its main rotor blade, according to a UN source.

Al-Shabab fighters reportedly seized the helicopter, and unconfirmed reports suggest that one passenger may have been shot dead, with six others currently held captive by the militants. Two individuals are said to have escaped the incident.

The helicopter, on a medical mission, made an emergency landing near a village, as confirmed by the UN mission in Somalia, which acknowledged an “aviation incident” involving a UN-contracted helicopter.

According to the UN source, among the nine individuals on board, one was Somali, while the others hailed from various African and European countries. The foreign nationals include the reported fatality and the two who managed to escape, with their current status unknown. All nine individuals, including the four-member crew, were third-party contractors and not UN staff, and some were identified as medical personnel.

The helicopter was en route to Wisil town, near the frontlines of a government offensive against al-Shabab when it crash-landed after being struck by an unspecified object, the source added. Major Hassan Ali, a Somali military official, revealed that the aircraft was carrying medical supplies and intended to transport injured soldiers from the Galgudud region.

Al-Shabab, affiliated with al-Qaeda, controls significant portions of southern and central Somalia and has been engaged in a brutal insurgency for nearly two decades.