Tag: africanews

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Nigerian security forces of killing at least 115 people between March and June this year in a crackdown on a secessionist movement in the southeast. Violence broke out in the southeastern states, killing at least 127 police and security personnel, according to the police, while local media reported that about 20 police stations and election offices were attacked. The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra Independence Movement (IPOB), which advocates the secession of Nigeria’s predominantly Igbo-populated southeast, and its paramilitary wing, the Eastern Security Network ESN, were…

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Two multiracial athletes, two high-profile roles: Rising NBA star Rui Hachimura carried the Japanese flag at the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron. For Japan, it was a remarkable showcase of racial diversity — but one that also highlighted how much remains missing in a nation that values homogeneity and conformity. Osaka and Hachimura, both of whom have one foreign parent and one Japanese parent, were cheered warmly by many even as some nationalists pounded them online for not being “pure Japanese.” It has rekindled…

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People who fled their homes and lost their livelihoods due to the ongoing conflict in the North-East of Nigeria struggle to put food on the table because of soaring inflation. The inflation rate reached a four-year record high of 18per cent in March this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. People displaced by the conflict are among the most vulnerable and are disproportionally affected by price fluctuations. “Before the prices of things were acceptable. Since they increased, everything has become expensive. And since I sell my merchandise in…

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Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango made history on Thursday as he claimed his country’s first-ever Olympic medal in the men’s triple jump. The 28-year-old, who also won bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, jumped 17.47 meters to claim third spot on the podium. Pedro Pichardo of Portugal won gold with a jump of 17.98 meters to claim his first Olympic title, while China’s Zhu Yaming took silver at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium with 17.57. Zango’s historic win came on the same day as his country’s 61st independence anniversary. On…

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Serge KOFFI, Africanews correspondent: Welcome to this Africanews interview. We are here in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Prime Minister Jean Michel Sama Lukonde. Good morning Mr Prime minister, and thank you for receiving us here at the primacy. SAMA LUKONDE: Hello Serge, you are indeed most welcome. _Serge KOFFI: You have been in this building as Prime Minister for 5 months. _**We are going to discuss with you the security, economic and political situation in your country.** When you arrived, you outlined a plan to make…

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With Senegal in the grip of a deadly third wave of Covid-19, cemeteries in the capital Dakar are contending with a surge in burials. In Yoff, the largest cemetery in Dakar is handling three times more burials than normal, while the Christian Saint-Lazare Cemetery is seeing as many burials in one day as it usually would in one week. “In a week, we would do six or seven funerals. But now, we can do six or seven in a single day. With the first (Covid-19) wave, we didn’t even feel…

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Burundi is preparing to accept its first COVID-19 vaccines after becoming one of the last countries in the world to embrace them. Health Minister Thaddee Ndikumana announced the government reversal last week and said vaccines will arrive with the support of the World Bank. It was not immediately clear how many doses the East African country will receive or when. Burundi continues to carry out mass screenings for the virus, with Ndikumana saying he expected to control the latest uptick in infections by mid-August. He has said the government will…

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Only shrubs grew naturally in the sandy acid soil that farmer Volker Miros chose as a site to test the potential for truffle production in South Africa. The determined mycophile saw no reason why the highly prized fungi could not grow on the plateaus of South Africa’s rugged Cederberg mountains in the west of the country, where the climate is similar to that of Mediterranean Europe. “We looked at where truffles are grown in the rest of the world and it’s in the northern hemisphere, about 32 to 35 degrees…

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Two international aid groups said Tuesday that the Ethiopian government had suspended part or all of their operations, while the United Nations humanitarian chief warned Ethiopian authorities that blanket accusations against aid workers in the country’s embattled Tigray region and elsewhere are “dangerous” and must stop. Martin Griffiths spoke to reporters amid a new push to get more badly needed food and other supplies into Tigray, where hundreds of thousands of people face famine conditions and Ethiopia’s government has been accused of blocking assistance. He acknowledged that his own flights…

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Since late 2020, Cameroon has suspended the activities of Doctors Without Borders in the northwestern part of the country, which is in the middle of a conflict between the army and anglophone separatist forces. After several months of negotiations with the authorities, the NGO has finally decided to withdraw its teams from the region. Frédéric Janssens, MSF communications advisor, describes the situation in the interview above. Sourced from Africanews

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