Category: Foreign

Malaysian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Gloria Tiwet, has declared that no fewer than 13,000 Nigerians study annually in her country, signalling robust bilateral relations between the two countries.

Tiwet made this known yesterday, at the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) Alumni Programme 2022 in Abuja.

She noted that the numbers of Nigerian students to Malaysia had started to pick again following a disruption of academic exercise; as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Before COVID-19, every year, we had a total of 13,000 Nigerian students.

“During COVID-19, there was no movement, so there was zero students because most of them would have returned to Nigeria.

“Starting this year, our borders have been opened since April, and right now, we have around 4,000 Nigerian students who returned to continue their studies and there are also very few who are just starting their universities.

“So, right now, there is around 4,000 and I look forward to the numbers to increase to the numbers before COVID-19, that is, 13,000. Every year, there was 13,000 students,” Tiwet said.

Tiwet who also noted that Malaysia was one of the top destinations for Nigerian students said the numbers of students received in Malaysia were either sponsored by their parents, the Government of Nigeria, or Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

She also noted that the concerns of students were adequately handled and responded to, by relevant authorities and the schools.

“So, their affairs are under their respective universities or colleges that they study. And these universities are responsible for their wellbeing.

“And if they have any difficulties, they are to inform the security. But of course, in an institution of higher learning, they have a department of student affairs that will have check and balance and to see that they are good students, “she added.

Tiwet said the MTCP was established in 1980 in the spirit of South-South Cooperation, adding that the programme was a proof of the commitment of the government of Malaysia towards the promotion of technical cooperation among developing countries.

She said that the programme offered support to areas where Malaysia had experience and expertise.

She said since its establishment, Malaysia had  extended trainings to 144 recipient countries and a total number of 34,000 people have benefited, including Nigerians.

Tiwet added that 495 Nigerian officials have participated in the programme amongst those from the 144 countries.

President of MTCP Alumni, Solomon Adams, said the trainings had been very impactful and very helpful in their various offices.

“And, it has impacted us positively. We wish to state categorically clear, that we hope that in the future, we are going to have more of our citizens benefit from this training,” Adams said.

Pope Francis has defended himself against criticism that his statements on the war in Ukraine are political messages.

However, the Vatican for the first time directly named Russia as the initiator of the war, according to a statement from the Holy See yesterday.

The statement said for the large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, the Holy Father Francis’ interventions are clear and unequivocal in condemning it as morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.

It added that the head of the Catholic Church wanted to promote peace above all with his remarks.

“The Holy Father’s words on this dramatic issue should be interpreted as a voice rose in defence of human life and the values associated with it, and not as a political stance.”

Since the outbreak of the war in February, the pontiff has been asking the warring parties to reach a ceasefire, but came under criticism for not naming Russia as one of the parties.

Earlier, the pope caused outrage during an audience as he spoke of innocents and remembered Darya Dugina, a pro-Kremlin activist who was killed in a bomb attack near Moscow.

Following yesterday’s statement, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See Andrii Yurash said on Twitter that there is no doubt who the aggressor is and that the two sides cannot be equated.

Angola’s ruling party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), has won the August 24 general elections with 51.17 percent of the votes, handing the incumbent a second term.

“Mr. João Lourenço is declared president of the republic, while Ms. Esperança da Costa is the country’s deputy president”, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) head Manuel Pereira da Silva announced yesterday.

MPLA also got 124 legislators in Parliament.

According to CNE, the opposition coalition led by MPLA’s historic rival, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), was second with 43.95 percent of the votes and 90 MPs.

The Unita-FPU (United Patriotic Front) coalition included independent candidates from other opposition parties and formations.

Other parties that contested the polls were the Social Renovation Party (PRS), which got 1.14 percent and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) garnered 1.06 per cent. The Humanist Party of Angola (PHA) got 1,02 percent of the votes. The three parties had each two MPs elected to Parliament.

Broad convergence for the Salvation of Angola (Casa-Ce), Angola Patriotic Alliance (APN) and Pjango got 0.76, 0.48 and 0.42 percent of the votes, respectively, Silva declared.

Unita, PRS and Casa-Ce said they would contest the election results.

The vote was the tightest in Angola’s history.

The MPLA has traditionally wielded control over the electoral process and state media, and opposition and civic groups have in recent days raised fears of voter tampering.

The MPLA, a former liberation movement, has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975.

But it has seen a steady decline in support over recent elections.

Lourenco, a 68-year-old former general, educated in the Soviet Union, was first elected in 2017, winning 61 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said yesterday it noted the broad participation of Angolans in the August 24 elections.

“We will continue to closely follow the electoral process”, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement, adding: “We call on all parties to express themselves peacefully and to resolve any grievances in accordance with applicable legal processes under Angolan law”.

Former Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano praised the Friday poll exercise and encouraged candidates to look at the results “with serenity” and to complain through legal channels, if unsatisfied.

In a joint statement with former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the two former heads of state, who were election observers, stressed that the vote was conducted “in a free, fair and transparent manner”.

“We can safely say that Angola is on the right path towards the consolidation of democracy,” they said in a joint statement read by Chissano in Luanda.

The Federal Government has issued a security advice against another round of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The warning is coming on the heel of a threat issued by a group in the former apartheid enclave.

The group, Operation Dudula, had threatened to attack foreign nationals resident in Southern African countries.

The group had, in recent video clips, informed of the plan to march against foreign nationals in South Africa, starting from next Thursday, September 2.

The Nigerian High Commission in South Africa gave the advice in a statement yesterday and available to reporters by the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) in Abuja.

The High Commission gave the advice in a letter titled, “Advisory to Nigerians in South Africa”, written by its Consular Section and dated August 24.

It advised Nigerians to be security-conscious, vigilant and exercise caution in their daily activities due to the threats of attack.

“This is to advise Nigerians living in South Africa to be vigilant and exercise caution in their activities due to the recent utterances of the proponents of the Operation Dudula and their threats to attack foreign nationals in this country.

“The group, through public notice and video clips circulated on the social media, has informed of plans to march against foreign migrants in South Africa, starting from September 2, 2022, and specifically on foreign business owners, shops and undocumented foreign nationals.

“Nigerian residents in South Africa are hereby advised to exercise caution and be watchful in carrying out their day-to-day activities,” the Nigerian High Commission counselled in the advisory letter.

Chief Warrant Officer Alizeta Kabore Kinda is the recipient of the 2022 United Nations Woman Police Officer of the Year Award, the global body announced yesterday.

The award was established in 2011 to recognise the exceptional contributions of women police officers to UN peace operations and to promote women’s empowerment.

Chief Warrant Officer Kinda is deployed as a gender focal-point with the UN Mission in Mali, known as (MINUSMA).

She supports the Malian Security Forces in the Ménaka region to promote and improve understanding of gender, child protection, human rights and civil protection issues.

Her efforts have led to more victims of sexual and gender-based violence coming forward to report their cases to local authorities and to receive medical care – now three or more per month, up from none before her arrival.

She has also focused on expanding the number of girls in schools and reducing early marriages.

“Chief Warrant Officer Kinda’s work is a shining example of how the participation of women police in peace operations directly impacts the sustainability of peace, by helping to bring different perspectives to the table and making our work more inclusive,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations.

“Through her actions, she embodies a more representative, efficient police service that is better equipped to serve and protect the public.”

Upon receiving the news about the award, Chief Warrant Officer Kinda expressed hope that it would inspire women and girls around the world to pursue policing careers “despite the gender stereotypes often associated with the profession: that men are better suited to enforce the laws and protect the population.”

She will be presented with the Award tomorrow during the third UN Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS), taking place at UN Headquarters in New York from 31 August to 1 September.

“Chief Warrant Officer Kinda has demonstrated creativity and commitment in addressing the specific security needs of the communities she serves,” said UN Police Adviser Luis Carrilho.

“She and her team are helping to increase trust between Malian local authorities and communities, which makes the work of the United Nations Police more effective and the people safer.”

UN Police work to enhance international peace and security by supporting host countries in conflict, post-conflict, and other crisis situations.

Women comprise over 19 per cent of the approximately 10,000 UN Police serving in 16 peace operations around the world.

Throughout her career, Chief Warrant Officer Kinda has focused on protecting and promoting women’s and children’s rights, including between 2013 to 2015, when she was a gender focal point at the UN’s Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO.

She performed these duties back home in Burkina Faso within the Ministry of Security and the Regional Brigade for the Protection of Women and Children, a unit of the national police, as an investigator on sexual violence and exploitation.

The summit between Japan and Africa ended yesterday with a promise of $30 billion in investment in African aid.

Speaking via video link, Japanese Prime-Minister Fumio Kishida also promised to pressure for an African seat at the UN Security Council.

The summit, held in Tunis, also served as a platform for business between Japan and the Continent.

The Japanese prime-minister also announced that Japan would appoint a special envoy to the Horn of Africa, where a long drought has prompted the UN’s weather agency to warn this week of an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

Kishida said Japan would also pump $8.3 million into the troubled but gold-rich Liptako-Gourma tri-borders area between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso that has been ravaged by extremist attacks in recent years.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, five of whom are permanent and have veto-wielding power: the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain.

The other 10 positions are filled by other countries for two-year stints, five of which are announced each year.

The United Nations has called for financial support from donors to assist Chad, where 340,000 people have now been impacted by catastrophic flooding in 11 of the country’s 23 provinces.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric made the call at a news conference in New York.

Dujarric said the humanitarian needs prior to the floods were only funded at 34 per cent as of mid-August – with $171 million received out of $510 million needed.

“As of Aug. 16, the flooding had killed 22 people and caused extensive damage to homes, infrastructure, agricultural lands and livestock,’’ he said.

The spokesperson said the situation also made the rates of malaria skyrocketing and had heightened fears of cholera outbreaks.

“We, along with our humanitarian partners, are supporting the Government-led response to provide life-saving assistance, including food, health services, shelter and other essential supplies.

“So far, we have reached around 30,000 in the East and N’Djamena. We are ramping up our efforts to reach more people,’’ he said.

Briefing on Horn of Africa, Dujarric said the World Meteorological Organisation had reported that parts of the Greater Horn of Africa, already experiencing drought, were bracing for a fifth consecutive failed rainy season.

Raila Odinga, who came second in Kenya’s presidential election, has gone to court to challenge the result, describing it as “fraudulent”.

In a scathing 70-page legal argument, he alleges there was a pre-planned effort to alter the outcome.

According to the electoral commission, Odinga took 48.8% of the vote, losing to William Ruto‘s 50.5%.

An independent monitoring organisation said the commission’s final result was in line with its own projection.

However, four of the seven electoral commissioners refused to endorse the outcome, alleging that the way the final results were tallied was “opaque”.

The seven judges at the Supreme Court will have 14 days to make a ruling.

Crowds of Odinga’s supporters sang and chanted outside the court in a suburb of the capital, Nairobi, as the presidential candidate arrived to deliver the document, along with dozens of boxes of evidence.

His legal petition, one of nine handed over, described the alleged attempt to alter the final result as “premeditated, unlawful and criminal”.

It also:

• calls Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati “rogue”;
• argues that he did not have the right to announce a result without the backing of the other commissioners;
• alleges he was involved in the plan to “secure a fraudulent result”;
• says the plan was carried out with Ruto’s knowledge but does not provide evidence to back this up
• raises questions about the tallying process;
• says there is evidence that the results from some polling stations were altered; and
• argues that the voter turnout figure was manipulated to ensure that Ruto crossed the 50%-plus-one-vote threshold to avoid a second-round run-off.

Neither Ruto nor Chebukati have responded to the allegations.

Speaking after handing the petition over to the Supreme Court, Odinga said “corruption cartels” were undermining democracy, but did not specify who he meant.

This was the fifth time that the 77 year old had run for president. Previously he had been the opposition candidate, but this time he was backed by outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta.

For the third time in a row he has gone to court to get an outcome overturned.

In 2017, the veteran politician successfully challenged the result of that year’s presidential election, which he lost to Kenyatta, and the Supreme Court ordered a re-run.

Mali’s military junta has appointed a colonel, Abdoulaye Maiga, as interim replacement for the country’s civilian prime minister, who has been admitted to hospital.

Colonel Maiga is also government spokesman and minister of territorial administration and decentralisation.

His appointment was announced in a decree read on state television.

He provisionally replaces a veteran civilian politician, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, 64, who was named premier after the junta, which took power in August 2020, carried out a second coup in May 2021.

Maiga, who shares the same name as his interim successor, had served several times as minister in previous governments.

He was an unsuccessful candidate in presidential elections in 2002, 2013 and 2018.

He was a founder member of the June 5 Movement – a coalition that had launched a wave of protests against Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, before he was toppled in 2020.

In recent months, Maiga has come under criticism from many of his former allies for following the junta’s line.

His replacement by a colonel means that both of Mali’s senior most government positions are currently in the hands of the military.

Junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita had himself appointed transitional president after the May 2021 coup.