Category: Foreign

HE United States (U.S.) has applauded the recent United Nations’ sanctions against the Islamic State in West Africa (ISIS-WA) and ISIS-Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS).

Spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State Morgan Ortagus  said in a statement yesterday that the move was a necessary step in the global fight to defeat ISIS.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the UN’s action came through the al-Qa’ida and ISIL (Da’esh) Sanctions Committee of the Security Council Committee on Sunday.

In a statement, the committee announced its decision to add ISIS-WA and ISIS-GS to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List.

The sanctions come with assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo under paragraph 1 of the Security Council resolution 2368 (2017).

It coincided with reports that al-Qaeda and ISIL-linked groups were joining forces to take control of territories across West Africa.

Ortagus said ISIS affiliates around the world remained a “significant terrorist threat including in Africa”, in spite of the complete liberation of ISIS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.

She said the international community must work together to cut off their sources of funding, arms and other resources.

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“ISIS-WA is responsible for killing hundreds of innocent civilians in dozens of attacks since its inception in 2015.

“ISIS-GS has also carried out numerous attacks since its formation in 2015, including the October 2017 attack that killed four U.S. soldiers in Niger.

“This UN designation obligates all member states to implement an arms embargo, a global travel ban, and asset freeze on ISIS-WA and ISIS-GS, actions that will cut the groups off from the resources they need to continue their terrorist activities.

“The United States remains fully engaged with our African partners to address security challenges and to advance peace and security on the continent,” she said.

EGYPT held a military funeral on Wednesday for its former president Hosni Mubarak, bestowing the state’s final rehabilitation on the man who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in disgrace in a 2011 popular uprising.

Horses drew Mubarak’s coffin draped in the Egyptian flag at a mosque complex as canons fired into the air, followed by a procession led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal.

The funeral march was attended by key political figures from Mubarak’s years in power, some of whom had been scarcely seen in public since he was removed from office. Sisi stayed for the duration of the procession, offering condolences to Alaa, Gamal and Mubarak’s wife Suzanne before his departure.

Mubarak died on Tuesday in intensive care weeks after undergoing surgery, leaving Egyptians divided over the legacy of his era, marked by stagnation and repression but recalled by some as more stable than the chaos that followed.

The stately funeral was a contrast from the rejoicing on the streets in 2011 when he was swept out of power as an early victim of the “Arab Spring” revolutions across the region.

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He spent many of the subsequent years moving between jail and military hospitals before being freed in 2017 under Sisi, a fellow military officer risen to the presidency, who has jailed Islamist and liberal opponents in the name of stability.

Egypt’s presidency and armed forces mourned the former air force officer as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The presidency declared three days of national mourning.

Mubarak’s coffin was airlifted to the family burial compound from the funeral at Field Marshall Tantawi mosque – named for Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years, who presided over an abortive transition to democracy after Mubarak resigned.

Dozens of Mubarak supporters, some from his home village Kafr al-Meselha in the Nile Delta, gathered outside the mosque.

Sisi, who came to power after leading the overthrow of Mubarak’s Islamist successor, Mohamed Mursi, has overseen a broad crackdown on dissent, which rights groups say is the most severe in recent memory.

By Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

Asia reported hundreds of new coronavirus cases yesterday, including an American soldier stationed in South Korea, as the United States warned of a pandemic, the disease spread in Europe and Brazil confirmed Latin America’s first infection.

World stocks tumbled for the fifth day on fears of prolonged disruption to global supply chains, while safe-haven gold rose back toward seven-year highs.

Stock markets globally have wiped out $3.3 trillion of value in the past four trading sessions, as measured by the MSCI all-country index.

The disease is believed to have originated in a market selling wildlife in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has infected about 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to prepare, saying that while the immediate risk there was low, the global situation suggested a pandemic was likely.

“It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when and how many people will be infected,” the CDC’s principal deputy director, Anne Schuchat, said on Tuesday.

In Europe, Italy has become a front line in the global outbreak with 322 cases. Italians or people, who had recently visited the country, have tested positive in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Spain and Switzerland.

The Algeria’s case is now the second infection in Africa.

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World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however, advised against referring to a pandemic, defined by the agency as the “worldwide spread” of a new disease.

“We should not be too eager to declare a pandemic without a careful and clear-minded analysis of the facts,” Tedros said in remarks to Geneva-based diplomats.

The United States has reported 57 cases of the virus. President Donald Trump, back in Washington after a visit to India, said on Twitter that he would meet U.S. officials for a briefing on the coronavirus on Wednesday.

BRITONS will receive the new post-Brexit blue passports from next month, the United Kingdom (UK) Home Office has said.

It was learnt that the passports are being made by a Franco/Dutch company at a factory in Poland, under European Union (EU) procurement rules.

Ironically, the £260 million contract, which will run for the 11-year, was won by a subsidiary of the French multinational group Thales last year, after its British competitor, De La Rue, lost out.

As a result, all the new passports will be made at the company’s factory in the Polish town of Tczew and then imported into the UK. At the time the contract was signed, the government said it would create 70 new jobs in Britain.

Ministers hailed the rollout of the new passports yesterday as a “unique opportunity to restore our national identity” after Brexit.

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UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “By returning to the iconic blue and gold design, the British passport will once again be entwined with our national identity and I cannot wait to travel on one.

“Leaving the European Union gave us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path in the world.”

The colour will be the same as the old-style British passports that were issued before 1988, when the UK adopted the burgundy EU documents. The UK could have kept the traditional dark blue but chose not to.

The colour is not the only change: the back cover will now carry the floral emblems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while the identity page will be made from the same material used to manufacture bulletproof glass.

It will be phased in for new applicants and those renewing their existing passports from next month.

The decision to award the contract to Gemalto, a subsidiary of Thales, was controversial, with Martin Sutherland, the chief executive of De La Rue, challenging Theresa May over the decision when she visited the company’s Geteshead plant. He demanded that she “explain to my dedicated workforce why it’s sensible to off-shore the manufacture of a British icon”.

De La Rue later pulled out of the passport printing business putting about 200 jobs at risk. It had spent €4 million on bidding to renew the contract that it held for producing the UK’s EU passport.

Our Reporter

HOPE Francis has urged Catholics to, in the next 40 days, make good room for the Word of God by shunning the social media and disconnecting their televisions.

He spoke on Wednesday during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square as part of the Ash Wednesday.

“Lent,” Pope Francis said to some 12,000 pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, “is a time in which to turn off the television and open the Bible.”

During his catechesis for the weekly General Audience, the Pope reflected on the 40 days spent by Jesus in the desert as he prepared for his public ministry, saying that, in a sense, it is a time for Catholics “to imitate Jesus and seek a place of silence, where we are free to hear the Lord’s word and experience His call”.

The Pope said: “In the desert, one hears the Word of God; one finds intimacy with God and the love of the Lord,” noting that Jesus taught us how to seek the Father, who speaks to us in silence.

He remarked on the fact that, for many Christians, “it is not easy to be in silence as we live in an environment that is polluted by too much verbal violence” by so many “offensive and harmful words” which are amplified by the internet.

“Lent is a time to disconnect from cell phones and connect to the Gospel,” he said, recalling that when he was a child there was no television, but his family would make a point of not listening to the radio.

“It is the time to give up useless words, chatter, rumours, gossip, and talk and to speak directly to the Lord,” he said.

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In a world in which we often struggle to distinguish the voice of the Lord, Jesus calls us into the desert and invites us to listen to what matters, Pope Francis explained. And he recalled that when the devil tempted him, Jesus replied: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Thus the desert, represented by the journey of Lent, he continued, is a place of life, a place in which to dialogue in silence with the Lord who gives us life.

The Pope also reflected on how an important part of the Lenten desert experience is the practice of fasting, “which trains us to recognise, in simplicity of heart, how often our lives are spent in empty and superficial pursuits.

“Fasting is being capable of giving up the superfluous and going to the essential. Fasting is not only losing weight, it is seeking the beauty of a simpler life,” he said.

The Pope also noted that the solitude of the desert increases our sensitivity to those who quietly cry out for help.