The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • EU to set up new mission on Libyan arms embargo

    Agency Reporter

    EUROPEAN Union (EU) Foreign Ministers have resolved to set up a new mission to monitor the failing United Nations (UN) embargo on arms flowing into conflict-torn Libya in a surprise breakthrough at talks in Brussels.

    Germany Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was a major support for the Berlin peace process, which at its core was about keeping the parties in the civil war away from their backers.

    According to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Maio, the new mission is to involve aerial, land and naval assets. The details are to be worked out within a short time.

    Read Also: Brexit: European Parliament backs terms of UK’s exit

     

    However, key to the breakthrough was the inclusion of measures to allay concerns that the presence of European ships in the Mediterranean Sea would create a pull factor for migrants seeking to reach the Europe from Libya.

    Maio said the measures included deploying the vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean, away from migrant crossing routes, as well as pledging to suspend the naval operations if a surge in attempted crossings was detected.

    Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said it would be a totally new mission replacing the EU’s suspended `Operation Sophia`.

    However, the EU pledged to do its utmost to prevent arms from entering Libya after an international conference on the conflict in January, raising the prospect of reactivating `Operation Sophia`.

    Meanwhile, the mission’s official purpose was to break up people-smuggling networks and monitor the embargo, but its naval vessels also picked up migrants stranded at sea, in line with international maritime obligations.

    However, the mission’s purpose was suspended in 2019, over a spat about where rescued people should disembark.

  • ‘10,200 schools closed in Nigeria, seven other African countries over conflicts’

    From Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

    NO fewer than 10,200 schools are closed in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad as a result of conflict, a global body, Save the Children international, has said.

    In its latest report, entitled: “Stop the War on Children 2020: Gender Matters”, the organisation noted that Africa had the highest number of children in conflict globally with 170 million children living across the continent in conflict zones.

    This figure, according to the organisation, was equivalent to one in every four African children – the highest absolute number of any region in the world.

    “Whilst fewer children are living in conflict affected areas, those who do, run the highest risk of falling victims to serious violence since records began,” said Vishna Shah, Regional Head of Advocacy, Campaign for West and Central Africa at Save the Children, in a statement in Abuja.

    The report said available data also revealed that in conflict situations, girls were far more likely to be raped or fall victim to other forms of sexual abuse than boys.

    Read Also: Delta schools where children of the poor learn with tears

     

    It noted that 87 percent of all verified cases involved girls and 15 percent of the sexual violence targeted boys.

    It indicated that successive generations of children across the continent have grown up knowing nothing other than conflict, including in the three West and Central Africa countries that are included in the list of the top 10 worst conflict-affected countries to be a child – DRC, Mali, and Nigeria.

    Shah said: “The increasingly protracted nature of conflicts has changed the risks that children face, and the effects of this are wide-ranging.

    “Particularly in Sahel countries, schools are targeted. This is serious enough when we know that children living in a context of humanitarian crisis consider education as a priority.

    “Children have nothing to do with the causes of armed conflicts, yet we are the ones most affected by it – exposed to hunger and disease, displaced, tortured, killed, sexually-abused, deprived of education, trafficked, separated from parents, recruited as child soldiers. When will children’s suffering end? Leaders should understand that if we are not heard today, we cannot speak tomorrow.”

  • US threatens to withdraw $380 Abacha loot

    By Robert Egbe

    The United States Government has warned that it will recover the over $308million looted and stashed abroad by former Head of State, the late Gen Sani Abacha, if it is re-stolen in Nigeria.

    The threat followed a February 4 repatriation pact the Federal Government signed with the Americans and the government of Jersey to return the money.

    The pact was sealed 22 years after Abacha’s death and after almost two decades of litigation involving the three parties.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which partook in what is being regarded as the world’s largest asset recovery across borders, said the foreigners warned against the money being re-looted.

    The Commission’s Secretary, Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, stated this in Lagos last Friday during an anti-corruption walk organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

    Olukoyede said: “Two weeks ago, I was privileged to be on the team that went to recover $308million for Nigeria. They are from Washington.

    “You know what the Oyinbos told us when we wanted to sign the treaty? They had the audacity to look into our eyes and said: ‘If you people steal this money again, we will collect it back from you.’

    “I stood up against them, I said: ‘We are not a corrupt nation. A few people might have stolen money, but Nigeria is not a corrupt nation. We have a lot of youths who are not corrupt.

    “And you know it is not their fault, (they said that) because they have seen recovered loot being looted again.”

    Public money looted by Abacha during his five years in power is estimated to be about $5 billion.

    Since 1998, Nigeria has been finding the loot mostly in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and New Jersey.

    The anti-corruption walk, tagged: “Nigerian Youth Walk against Corruption” held simultaneously across the country.

    The Lagos version featured a walk across Lagos Island and Ikoyi and included EFCC staff, NYSC members and officials, among others.

    Olukoyede also advised young people to be diligent and to shun corruption.

    He said: We have arrested so many youths. If we keep putting youths in jail, what is going to be the future of Nigeria?

    Read Also: SERAP gives FG seven days to disclose spending of recovered Abacha loot

    “So, we want to encourage you; where ever you see corrupt practice, say no to it. Resist it. If anyone is trying to lure you to it, say no. You can win by integrity. Integrity pays….

    “Very soon as Youth Corp members will start job-hunting. But where are the jobs? Why aren’t you getting the jobs? A few people have plundered the country’s resources.

    ‘But let me assure them that at the EFCC, we are not relenting. Let corruption fight back, we will stand against it. We will fight corruption. We will send them to jail. We are not going to give them any chance again in Nigeria.”

  • Five Afghan troops killed in Taliban attack

    The Taliban militants have stormed a military base in northern Afghanistan, killing at least five soldiers, according to officials.

    The attack occurred in Shora Khak area of Kunduz Province on Sunday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

    “Unfortunately, five army soldiers were martyred and three wounded,” said the statement.

    In a post on Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, put the number of fatalities among the Afghan soldiers at 19.

    According to Kunduz police, a fighting had been underway for several hours in the area.

    A police spokesman, Enhamuddin Rahmani, said the militants also suffered casualties.

    The attack came as the country is expecting a reduction in violence as negotiated between the US and the Taliban.

    US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that Washington and the Taliban had agreed on a seven-day reduction in violence that could result in the exit of US troops from Afghanistan.

    Esper, however, said the US has not yet fully set a date for when it will begin a period of reduction in violence negotiated with the Taliban.

    A US official said on Friday that it would begin “really soon,” while the a Taliban official said it was imminent.

    The two sides have been negotiating a peace deal on and off for a year in Qatar’s capital Doha.

    READ ALSO: US drone strike kills 30 farm workers in Afghanistan

    Talks restarted in Qatar last December, but were suspended again following an attack near the Bagram military base in Afghanistan, which is run by the US.

    Violent assaults in Afghanistan have meanwhile been raging, with the number of clashes jumping to record levels in the last quarter of last year.

    But in recent weeks, US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading negotiations with the Taliban, had launched a new round of shuttle diplomacy by traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan to brief officials on the status of the talks.

    A member of Taliban delegation in Doha told a local news agency on Monday that the talks had ended “successfully” with an agreement to be released before the end of the month.

    The US invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The invasion deposed the Taliban, but the group has never ceased its operations across Afghanistan, and has vowed to keep up its attacks until the withdrawal of all US forces.

    Currently, there are some 13,000 US troops as well as thousands of other NATO personnel in Afghanistan.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • ECOWAS’ meeting on Nigeria’s land borders closure ended

    A HIGH-level Ministerial Meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was held at the weekend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

    The ministers responsible for ECOWAS Affairs, Finance and Trade from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Togo met to assess the situation of the closure of land borders of Nigeria to goods, pursue the overall objective to reach an acceptable solution by all parties and propose actions for the rapid reopening of the land borders for the free movement of goods.

    Communications Division of the ECOWAS Commission, in a statement, stated that Chairman of the Task Force on the Free Movement of Persons and Goods General Salou Djibo, in his remarks at the meeting, stressed that the meeting would arrive at a solution.

    President of the ECOWAS Commission H.E. Jean-Claude Kassi Brou highlighted the importance of free movement of people and goods as the glue and foundation of any regional integration process, saying this continues to be one of the major achievements of the ECOWAS integration process.

    Brou stressed that free movement of people and goods is key to the realisation of the ECOWAS common market and the realisation of the vision of ‘ECOWAS of Peoples’, urging participants to maintain the spirit of solidarity and come up with a solution.

    Read Also: ECOWAS launches fresh move to end Nigeria’s border closure

    President of Burkina Faso and the Champion of Free Movement of ECOWAS Roch Marc Christian Kabore, whose speech was read by Paul Robert Tiendrebeogo, Minister of African Integration and Burkinabe Abroad, underscored the vision of the founding fathers of ECOWAS to make West Africa economically strong, fully integrated without barriers or borders.

    After deliberations at the meeting, the ministers arrived at some recommendations, which they presented to Kabore at the Presidency in Ouagadougou.

  • Iran won’t yield to U.S. pressure for talks, says Rouhani

    Iran will never hold talks with the United States (U.S.) under pressure, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, adding that Tehran’s help was essential in establishing security in the Middle East.

    Relations between Tehran and Washington reached crisis point in 2018 after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.

    Tensions spiked further following the killing of Iran’s most prominent military commander Qassem Soleimani on January 3 by U.S. drone attacks at Baghdad airport. In retaliation, Iran attacked U.S. targets in Iraq in January.

    Trump has adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” to force Tehran to negotiate a broader deal that further curbs Iran’s nuclear work, ends its missile programme and its involvement in regional proxy wars.

    “Iran will never negotiate under pressure … We will never yield to America’s pressure and we will not negotiate from a position of weakness,” Rouhani said in a televised news conference.

    Read Also: US tried to kill Iranian commander in Yemen same night as Soleimani strike – Officials

    Although the reimposed U.S. sanctions have crippled Iran’s economy, slashing its oil exports, Tehran has repeatedly dismissed talks over any new deal, saying they are possible only if the United States returns to the pact and lifts trade curbs.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Riyadh had contacted Iran after the killing of Soleimani, but when Iran had responded, the contact had ended. He suggested the United States had pressured Riyadh.

    Zarif’s comments were dismissed by his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, who said there had been neither private messages nor direct contacts between the two countries.

  • VISA REQUIREMENTS: France

    FRANCE

    The required documents to apply for a French visa are as follows:

    • Completed France Visa Application Form.

    Make sure you complete the right form, since there are two types of France visa application forms, one for short stays and the other for long stays.

    • Two recently taken passport-style photos. You should submit two photos alongside with the other documents. They must be no older than three months and taken according to the Schengen Visa Photo Requirements.
    • Your valid passport. Before you apply, check your passport for its validity and date of issuance. It must have been issued within the last 10 years and valid for a minimum of 3 months after the end of your planned stay in France. The passport must have at least two blank pages in order to be able to put the visa sticker on it.
    • Copies of older visas. If you have ever held any visa to any country in the world, submit copies of those visas.
    • Travel Medical Insurance. You will need to provide proof that you have medical insurance that covers any health problems that you encounter while in France. It should cover not only France, but also the whole territory of Schengen with a minimum of €30,000.
    • Complete Itinerary. A list of the things that you are planning to do while in France, including details how you are planning to reach France. Attach supporting documents as a Round Trip flight, a railroad booking or a document of a booked organized tour (where transportation is included)
    • Proof of financial means. The French authorities want to know how you will be financing yourself while in France. That is why you should submit the following documents that apply to your situation, as a part of this requirement:
    • Recent bank statements.
    • Employment contract stating your salary, if you will be working in France.
    • Income from rented property.
    • Retirement benefit plan.

    A letter of declaration from a sponsor stating the readiness to cover your costs for the period of stay, accompanied by documents that confirm possession of money of such sponsor (i.e. bank statements of last 3 months, other).

    Other documents that prove you have the means to support yourself for the whole duration of stay in France.

    • Proof of accommodation in France.
    • Proof of paid France visa fee.

  • 150 top Europeans, others defrauded of 80m euros in French hostages scam

    MANY high-profile individuals have been duped by scammers of 80 million euros purportedly to help pay ransoms to free French hostages being held by Islamist terrorists in Mali, according to the Cable News Network (CNN).

    The multi-million dollar fraud spanning two years targetted more than 150 people, including the spiritual leader Aga Khan, Niger  President, Prime Minister of Norway, Archbishop of Lyon, owner of Chateau Margaux wines, King of Belgium,  director general of UNESCO and numerous CEOs.

    Attempts to extort money from embassies and governments were also made in more than 50 countries, according to French court documents.

    CNN has obtained exclusive recordings made by often-skeptical victims showing how a group of fraudsters tried to pull off what some in France are calling the scam of the century by impersonating France’s then defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and conning wealthy individuals out of 80 million euros purportedly to help pay ransoms to free French hostages being held by Islamist terrorists.

    Some of the money has not been recovered.

    Six of the alleged fraudsters are currently on trial in Paris in connection with the Le Drian hoax and a plot to impersonate Prince Albert II of Monaco while a seventh defendant is on trial only for the Albert of Monaco plot.

    The voice of the fake Le Drian is allegedly that of Gilbert Chikli, according to prosecutors, a Franco-Israeli accused of being the mastermind behind the sting. He is charged with organised fraud and usurping a person’s identity. Chikli denies the charges.

    Meillet describes the 54-year-old as being a modern-day Victor Lustig, the notorious con man who sold the Eiffel Tower to a scrap-metal dealer in 1925, not once but twice.

    Chikli has a checkered past. In 2015, he was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison for a brazen scam where he posed as prominent French CEOs to extort millions of euros from companies. The hoax was later the subject of a movie “Thank You for Calling” that paid Chikli as a consultant, according to court documents.

    One of those targetted was Olivier de Boisset, a Frenchman who heads an IT company in Niger.

    De Boisset was asked to wire over $2 million to allegedly help some free French hostages being held by terrorists in Mali.

    A caller on a telephone  said France needed de Boisset’s help to transfer funds because officially the country does not pay ransoms and gave assurances that France’s central bank would reimburse him.

    De Boisset was suspicious, but he could never have imagined the extent of the scam that was being played on him.

    According to many of the victims, to earn their trust an initial phone call was followed up by a Skype video call. During this exchange, the con artist wore a custom-made silicone mask of Le Drian’s face and sat in a replica of the minister’s office complete with both the tricolor flag of France and a flag of Europe, pictures in the court documents show.

    Read Also: UPDATED: PDP takes protest to EU, UN, France

    Another one of those targeted in June 2016 by the bogus Le Drian was Bruno Paillard, who heads a champagne house in Reims, northern France.

    Paillard told CNN the hustle was impressive because of its elaborate nature. “The image was not very precise and the voice was a little bit strange. The excuse was that they were in a bunker in the ministry,” Paillard said.

    In addition to the Skype calls, Paillard said they communicated with him on official-looking letterheads from the ministry, but despite all their efforts, Paillard said he wasn’t convinced and went straight to the police.

    Paillard said the fake Le Drian had done his homework, he even knew how many children he had.

    Many of the victims were skeptical and went to the defense ministry to report the calls. The ministry alerted investigators in the summer of 2015 and an investigation was opened in April 2016, according to court documents.

    Lawyers for Le Drian said French embassies all over the world were warned of the scam in 2016. However, the ministry didn’t see the need for a news conference.

    After authorities opened an investigation, the con still continued.

    Turkish businessman Inan Kirac was duped in November 2016 and over the course of one month handed over $47 million in nine transfers to bank accounts in China – the largest sum to be wired to the fraudsters by one individual.

    Kirac eventually realised he was being scammed and began taping the conversations.

  • Coronavirus hits Africa as Egypt confirms first case

    Egypt on Friday confirmed a case of Coronavirus in its territory,the first in Africa since the deadly virus began ravaging China a few weeks back.

    But the sufferer is not Egyptian, the ministry of health said in Cairo.

    The ministry did not disclose the nationality of the person who is quarantined isolation in hospital.

    It merely said that it “has taken preventative measures and is monitoring the patient… who is stable.”

    Cairo has already notified the World Health Organization.

    Three hundred and one Egyptians were evacuated from Wuhan, epicentre of the virus in China, and have remained in quarantine for 14 days.

    Meanwhile, Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, said yesterday that the level of preparedness was on the high gear with a view to stopping importation of Coronavirus (Covid-19) to the country.

    Ehanire told reporters at a briefing in Abuja on government’s preparedness over Covid-19 that the Federal Government had continued to strengthen surveillance at four international airports in the country to prevent the importation of the virus.

    He added that the Ministry of Health was also in discussions with Chinese authorities and Nigerian Embassy in Beijing to guarantee the lives of Nigerians living in that country.

    He said he had met twice with the Chinese ambassador on the matter.

    Read Also: New cases of Coronavirus tested negative – FG

    He said: “He told me that there are 60 Nigerians in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak is prominent.  No Nigerian is sick and the authority is providing them with food.

    “The information is confirmed by Nigerian ambassador in Beijing and he too is taking care of Nigerians living in Wuhan.

    “As far as the two fronts are concerned, we are on safe ground and we pray we continue to be on safe ground.”

    The minister emphasized that the Federal Government had continued to strengthen surveillance at the Ikeja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja airports to prevent the virus from getting to Nigeria.

    He said that facilities were mounted in those airports to detect any passenger with high temperature for further testing, noting that the country  had capacity to test the virus in three centres of Abuja; Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); Lagos; NCDC and Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo.

    “We have enough reagents to test; Chinese ambassador said they have supplied 2,000 doses of reagents for Africa Centre for Disease Control so that any country in the continent can apply for it.

    “China has also shared the protocol for treatment of the virus with us, since they have treated 4,000 cases, we asked them for the protocol and the ambassador brought it on Friday.

    “We have sent it to NCDC and some hospitals where we have isolation centres; we have all these, and we will do all we can to make sure that Nigerians are safe.”

    In addition, he said, the ministry had been working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the agency had been supportive with information and diagnostic tools, among others.

    Ehanire said that Nigeria was also in collaboration with health ministries in West Africa to strengthen its preparedness and action plan.

    According to him, no case of coronavirus has been reported in Nigeria.

    China on Friday reported 121 more deaths from the coronavirus, 116 of which from Hubei Province alone, bringing the total number of deaths across that country to 1,380.

    The latest toll reflected the removal of some deaths that had been double counted in Hubei, the health commission said on Thursday.  Chinese health officials had already reported 1,367 deaths.

    More than 1,700 medical workers in China have been infected with the new coronavirus, and six have died, medical authorities have said.

    The vast majority of the medical workers – 1,502 out of 1,716 – have fallen ill in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, said Zeng Yixin, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission.

    It is the first time China is releasing an official count of infections among medical personnel during the Covid-19 outbreak.

  • More Cameroonians flee into Nigeria over violence

    Agency Reporter

    About 8,000 people have fled into Nigeria from Cameroon in the last two weeks to escape clashes between the security forces and armed separatists in the latter country, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency said yesterday.

    The latest arrivals are crossing the border into Taraba and Cross Rivers states, bringing the number of refugees to almost 60,000, according to a statement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

    “Refugees reported fleeing violence and some even arrived across the border with gunshot wounds,” it said.

    “According to new arrivals, most come from areas near the border and have trekked across savannah and forests to reach Nigeria.”

    In October 2017, an armed revolt erupted in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions bordering Nigeria, where insurgents want to break with the French-speaking bulk of the country.

    The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives, according to tolls compiled by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

    The UN estimates that more than 679,000 have been displaced from their homes.

    Read Also: Fleeing Army convict rearrested in Benin Republic

    Fighting at the weekend disrupted voting in parliamentary and local government elections, according to official sources and witnesses, who asked not to be named.

    Refugees in Nigeria are “being sheltered in public schools and health facilities or with local families”, the UNHCR said.

    About 51,000 registered refugees had been taken in by some 87 communities in four Nigerian states, before the latest influx.

    “In addition, there are four settlements where UNHCR and humanitarian partners are providing protection, food, livelihood, shelter and healthcare,” the statement said.

    “Refugees also need support to become self-reliant,” said the UNHCR’s deputy representative in Nigeria, Roger Hollo.

    “With access to education, health services and labour markets, they can take care of their families and give back to the local communities hosting them,” Hollo added.