Category: Foreign

Athletes of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have said the closed-loop management and COVID-19 epidemic control measures have made them feel safe, allowing them to fully focus on preparing for the upcoming competitions.

Australian freestyle moguls skier Britteny Cox said the measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 make her feel secure and the loop is like a safe haven for athletes.

“I think the fact that every single person is doing tests every day gives me a lot of peace of mind. It just allows us to focus on what we’re here for and that’s competing. And I think the Chinese and the Olympic committee have done an incredible job at making sure that we’re all safe and healthy, both for the local community here in China and for all the athletes and everyone involved in the games,” she said during a news conference on Monday.

Kristin Skaslien, an athlete with Norway’s mixed-doubles curling team said at a news conference on Monday that she has felt safe within the closed-loop upon her arrival. “It feels safe at the village. Due to the tight schedule of the competition, we won’t have time to see the city even if we could.”

Her teammate Magnus Nedregotten said the daily testing for COVID-19 required by the Playbook isn’t a bother for him. “Although we need to be tested every day, it’s a quick in-and-out process.”

Australian chef de mission Geoff Lipshut said on Monday that he believes the testing is good because it helps keep everybody safe.

Read Also: Safety first for Olympics participants

“Our athletes have been travelling to qualify for the Games for the past 18 months and they’ve been really careful every step of the way. It’s part of how they go about their sport now. It’s a matter of just doing what we’ve always done, which is be really careful, follow the rules, and that’s our best protection, clearly,” Lipshut said.

Victoria Persinger, a mixed doubles curling athlete from the United States, said:”The protocols coming here have been great. We’re both a little paranoid but we’ve felt so safe with everything. I don’t like the tests any more than I did the first time, but we’ve felt super safe with everything around COVID and I’m super grateful that these Games can happen.”

The vast majority of people who’ve tested positive so far are well, with a lot asymptomatic. There have been 11 people hospitalized because they had shown symptoms. None of those are seriously ill, Brian McCloskey,chief of the Beijing 2022 Medical Expert Panel, said during a news conference on Wednesday.

“At the moment we’ve seen no signs (of a spread) within the closed loop. It’s early days to look at all the gene sequencing, but at present that’s not a problem we’re particularly worried about,” McCloskey said.

The main challenge is not the number of cases, it’s an indication of whether there is spread within the closed loop. What we look for is indications of cases being linked to each other, he added.

The overall situation in terms of COVID-19 prevention is under control within the closed loop of the Beijing Winter Olympics and it is safe for all Games participants, organizers said on Tuesday.

Huang Chun, deputy director-general of the pandemic prevention and control office of the Beijing organizing committee, said during a briefing on the Games that although there are more positive cases reported as more participants arrive, due to the strict management in the Games’ closed loop, strict personnel protection and frequent nucleic acid testing, there is no large-scale spread within the closed loop.

“During the past two days, we had fewer athletes and participants arriving and also fewer positive cases. We can see that the change in number is related to the number of participants arriving,” Huang said.

“We think the overall situation is under control. It is safe for all participants of the Games and there’s no need to worry. We’re not considering major adjustments to countermeasures because we think it’s effective so far.”

According to the organizers, on Monday, 1,438 Olympic-related arrivals entered China at the airport, including 379 athletes and team officials and 1,059 other stakeholders. Among them, 18 were confirmed COVID-19 positive, with 11 being from athletes and team officials and seven from other stakeholders.

In the closed loop during the same time, 63,548 tests had been taken, 3,103 by athletes and team officials and 60,445 by other stakeholders. Six were confirmed positive after the tests, with five being from athletes and team officials and one from other stakeholders.

All Olympic-related personnel who have entered China and Games staff implement closed-loop management and are completely separated from main society.

UNITED Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Benjamin Sawyerr of Nigeria as the Force Commander for the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Sawyerr succeeds Maj. Gen. Kefyalew Amde Tessema of Ethiopia to whom the secretary-general is grateful for his dedication, invaluable service and effective leadership during his appointment with UNISFA.

Abyei is an area of 10,546 km2 on the border between South Sudan and the Sudan that had been accorded “special administrative status” by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict (Abyei Protocol) in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War.

Maj. Gen. Sawyerr has a military career spanning more than 34 years with the Nigerian Army, including as the Director of Defence Information since 2021.

Previously, he served as Commandant of the Nigerian Army Armour School in Bauchi State (2020-2021).

He held the position of Brigade Commander twice in North East Nigeria, and was Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Battalion with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (2009-2010).

He also served as the Director of Plans at the Nigerian Army Headquarters (2019-2020) and Deputy Director of Doctrine and Combat Development (2017-2018).

Sawyerr holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in Nigeria and a Masters in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras in India. He is fluent in English, with a working knowledge of Hausa and basic French.

President Muhammadu Buhari will today head to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to participate in the 35th Ordinary Session of Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government.

A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said President Buhari will join other African leaders in finding solutions to political, economic and social challenges facing the continent, guided by the theme, “Building Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthen Agriculture, Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development.”

On the sideline of the AU meetings, President Buhari will hold bilateral meetings with some leaders, with shared interest in improving trade relations, partnering to tackle security challenges, and maintaining relations with multilateral institutions for sustainable growth.

The President will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar and Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the coup attempt by the military in Guinea-Bissau, commending the loyal troops for foiling the move.

The President spoke Tuesday evening during a telephone conversation with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, who survived the coup attempt on his administration, same day.

President Buhari’s conversation with Embalo was captured in a statement yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu,.

He congratulated Embalo on surviving the coup attempt and commended the loyal troops in Guinea Bissau for the show of patriotism leading to their “spectacular victory” over the disloyal elements of the military.

“I look forward to working with you to strengthen the existing bilateral ties between our sisterly nations, and the defence and promotion of democracy and its values throughout the sub region, and the entire continent,” President Buhari told Embalo.

In the course of the conversation, President Embalo assured President Buhari that the situation had been brought under control and that “all is well, and normalcy fully restored”.

Embalo said many members of the security forces had been killed while repelling the attack on democracy that may have been linked to drug trafficking.

“It wasn’t just a coup. It was an attempt to kill the president, the prime minister and all the cabinet,” he said.

He added that the attack “was well-prepared and organised and could also be related to people involved in drug trafficking”, giving no further details.

“I can assure you that no camp joined this attempted coup. It was isolated. It is linked to people we have fought against,” he said, without elaborating.

He said arrests had begun of people involved, but he did not know how many.

No fewer than six people were killed in the failed, state radio said yesterday, as residents of the capital cautiously returned to daily life.

The dead included four assailants and two members of the presidential guard, it said.

But, activist lawyer, Femi Falana(SAN), has urged ECOWAS leaders to adopt preventive measures to promote the rule of law in members states.

He said this is the only way to stop coup and end impunity of political leaders and ensure full respect for citizens’ human rights including socio-economic rights.

The cost of petrol and diesel in Germany has reached an all-time high, the ADAC motoring association said on Wednesday.

The previous day, E10 petrol cost €1.712 ($1.93) based on a nationwide daily average, breaking the previous record of €1.709 on Sept. 13, 2012, ADAC reported.

Diesel cost €1.640 per litre.

However, prices had been driven up by the oil market; the value of North Sea Brent recently exceeded $90 per barrel, its highest level in years.

The trend is driven by both economic and geopolitical factors.

READ ALSO: Two police officers shot dead during traffic check in Germany

Supply is scarce and demands is high. Meanwhile, political tensions at the Russian-Ukrainian border were pushing up the risk premium for crude oil.

Russia is one of the world’s largest oil producers.

A new carbon pricing system that went into effect at the start of the year in Germany has also made fuel more expensive

However, ADAC said the difference is relatively small at about 1.5 cents per litre.

The surge in fuel prices follows record lows registered in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the world economy. (dpa/NAN)

EUROPEAN Union has agreed to impose travel bans and freeze assets of five members of Mali’s junta after the military rulers went back on an agreement to organise elections in February.

The measures, which have political support of all 27 EU governments and should take effect soon, follow a raft of restrictions against Mali by the ECOWAS grouping of West African states that has condemned the transitional military government’s attempts to extend its rule.

The bloc was struggling to stabilise the broader Sahel region after a series of coups in Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, despite military support, high-level political attention and development aid.

As Islamist militants grow in strength, local sentiment has hardened against European involvement.

The names of the five individuals to be sanctioned were not immediately available.

Diplomats said they were junta officials also targetted by ECOWAS. Mali’s foreign and defence ministers would not be targeted in order to keep diplomatic channels open, the diplomats said.

The EU travel bans and asset freezes are unlikely to have an immediate impact on the junta in Bamako but seek to make good on the bloc’s promise to support ECOWAS, even if the measures are more limited than those of the regional bloc.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday that Mali’s junta was “illegitimate” amid escalating tensions between the West African state and its European partners following two coups.

He said it prompted Mali to expel France’s ambassador on Monday, giving him 72 hours to leave and marked low in relations after the junta went back on its agreement to organise elections in February. It proposes holding power until 2025.

The junta has also deployed Russian private military contractors, which some European countries have said was incompatible with their mission.

France’s government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Paris was consulting with its partners to re-adapt its strategy in the region within two weeks. “What’s certain is things can’t stay the way they are,” he told Franceinfo radio.

Earlier, Mali asked Denmark to withdraw its troops belonging to a European task force in the country.

France asked Mali to let the Danish troops stay, and Mali’s government spokesman told France to keep its “colonial reflexes” to itself.

The African Union (AU) has suspended Burkina Faso, following the recent military coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had on Thursday suspended the country over the same issue.

Burkina Faso junta had blamed the activities of the jihadists for the January 24 coup.

Before the suspension, AU had on Friday sent a delegation to meet with the junta.

The AU 15-member Peace and Security Council said on Twitter it had voted “to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country”.

Read Also: ECOWAS summit holds on Burkina Faso, Mali coups

Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, had already condemned the coup the day it happened and before it was clear who was taking charge.

The coup is the latest bout of turmoil in Burkina Faso, a landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.

A jihadist insurgency that spread over Mali’s border has killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes since 2015.

Mali and Guinea, also in West Africa, have also seen coups in the past 18 months that have prompted AU suspensions.

Sudan is also suspended following a coup there on October.

United Kingdom (UK) and Nigeria are holding the first meeting of their Security and Defence Partnership Dialogue in London this week.

The talks, being led by UK National Security Adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove and Nigerian National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno, are scheduled to last for three days, and will conclude tomorrow.

The dialogue will also include a series of breakout sessions covering a range of issues, including counter-terrorism, serious and organised crime, civilian policing and human rights.   Defence staff talks, led by UK Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General L.E.O. Irabor, will also talk place in parallel, and will discuss military cooperation.

The Nigeria-UK Security and Defence Partnership was agreed between the two countries in 2018. Further details of that agreement can be found on www.gov.uk.  This week’s dialogue will be the first meeting following the 2018 agreement.

Read Also: We’ll handover stable democracy, revamped security, Buhari promises

At the start of the dialogue,  UK government Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, said: “Today, we welcome our Nigerian friends as we open the first UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership dialogue in London. By building stronger security ties, we can better protect our people from shared security threats.”

British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing said: “Looking forward to the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership discussions over the next few days. Great to have this chance to expand our security and defence cooperation to improve how we respond to shared security threats.”