The presidents of Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire joined South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for engagements on Wednesday and Thursday in solidarity following the imposition of a travel ban on that country by President Joe Biden and leaders of European and Middle Eastern states this week.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday denounced President Joe Biden’s ban on travel from southern Africa, and similar measures hastily imposed by other nations after the Omicron coronavirus outbreak, as “travel apartheid” – in other words, racist mistreatment of Africans.
Presumed Islamic militants sent a letter this week to Nigerian Christian leaders threatening attacks unless all churches in Zamfara state are closed to worship, the Barnabas Fund reported.
The director of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) told Reuters on Tuesday the new coronavirus variant Omicron could “outcompete Delta,” a highly-transmissible strain of coronavirus that emerged before Omicron in India in December 2020.
Nigerian Minister of State for Labor and Employment Festus Keyamo said on Monday that Twitter has agreed to all of the conditions for reinstatement laid out when President Muhammadu Buhari banned the social media platform in June.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, discouraged countries on Tuesday from enacting travel bans on African countries that had contributed to identifying the Omicron variant of Chinese coronavirus, which the U.N. agency branded a “variant of concern” last week.
The governments of the Netherlands and Nigeria revealed between Tuesday and Wednesday that they had found evidence of people in their countries testing positive for the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus prior to scientists in South Africa confirming its existence.
Senegal welcomes “China’s influence” to help combat Islamist terrorism throughout the country and its surrounding region of West Africa, Senegal Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall told reporters at a summit with her Chinese counterpart in Dakar on Sunday.
South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Monday there is “absolutely no need to panic” over the Omicron variant of the Wuhan coronavirus.
More African leaders on Monday joined South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera in condemning travel bans against their nations – imposed hurriedly by U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western and Asian governments after the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant – as unreasonable actions driven by virus panic and racist animosity towards Africans.
Chinese and Ugandan officials on Monday denied reports that China is preparing to take control of Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport after the Ugandan government defaults on Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) loans.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned travel bans rapidly imposed in the past week on southern African countries in response to the discovery of a new Chinese coronavirus variant, stating on Monday that he was “deeply concerned” about policies such as that enacted by President Joe Biden.
Noah, who spent four years bashing President Donald Trump as a racist, is experiencing the same shock as many other South Africans upon discovering belatedly that the man they backed as his replacement has little compassion for Africans at all.
China’s state-run Global Times dismissed the mRNA technology vaccines against Chinese coronavirus used in America as too “high-priced” and “complicated” for Africa on Monday, shortly before dictator Xi Jinping announced China would give the continent 1 billion doses of its low-quality alternatives.
Botswana Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti told reporters Sunday the new coronavirus variant Omicron did not “originate” in Botswana but rather was first “detected” in a group of foreign diplomats who traveled to Botswana from an undisclosed location.
Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera on Sunday denounced bans on Africa travel imposed by the Biden administration and several other governments, in response to the Omicron coronavirus variant, as “Afrophobia.”
South African citizens complained over the weekend that the Chinese coronavirus’s latest superstar variant, now generally referred to as the “Omicron variant,” has been closely identified with their nation.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, condemned on Sunday what he repeatedly called “unjustified” travel bans on citizens of his country and its neighbors by much of the West and the Middle East in response to the discovery of a new Chinese coronavirus variant known as “Omicron.”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for ending an Ethiopian war with Eritrea — is currently leading federal Ethiopian troops on the “frontline” of the country’s latest battle against separatist forces from northern
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of late dictator Muammar Qaddafi, was disqualified Wednesday from running in Libya’s upcoming presidential election.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has blasted a decision by the U.S. State Department to remove Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), calling the move “a retreat from the noble and necessary fight to protect victims of religious persecution.”
The president remains on his extended Thanksgiving vacation on Nantucket island at a $30 million compound with his extended family, having no events on his public schedule.
World Health Organization (W.H.O.) officials will meet Friday to address concerns regarding the latest coronavirus variant on the rise in South Africa.
The UK announced that it was banning flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries effective at noon on Friday, and that anyone who had recently arrived from those countries would be asked to take a coronavirus test.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli Health Ministry says it has detected the country’s first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveler who returned from Malawi.
A frigate sailing off West African on an international anti-piracy mission killed four suspected pirates, and injured one.
State armies and non-state armed groups in West and Central Africa recruit the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world according to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released Tuesday.
The Nigerian terror group Boko Haram released video footage on Monday appearing to show four male hostages in their custody in northeastern Nigeria, one of whom said he was an employee of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria’s Premium Times reported.
The World Health Organization said that corona cases jumped by 11% in Europe last week, the only region with an increase since mid-October.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, announced on Monday he will head for the front lines of battle and take direct command of his troops to fight the Tigrayan insurrection.
Cuba’s communist regime said Monday it will resume plans to build a vaccine manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe halted by the coronavirus pandemic, adding it is “possible” the plant may produce a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Cuba, the Herald, a Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper, reported.
A Nigerian Christian journalist has been imprisoned following his reporting of attacks on Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and his criticism of the government’s response, the Barnabas Fund reported Monday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted the Biden administration’s eagerness to invest in Africa during a weekend trip to the continent, obliquely criticizing China’s debt-fueled infrastructure projects without directly naming them and downplaying long-standing U.S. human rights criticisms of certain African governments.
The Sudan military announced Sunday it would reinstate Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, roughly a month after it deposed him and seized power from the transitional government he presided over.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed Nigeria from the U.S. list of countries that engage in severe religious freedom violations, drawing the consternation of an international Christian persecution watchdog group this week.
Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, will take part in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel despite attacks by anti-Israel activists calling on the beauty queen to boycott the event.
A local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda’s national capital, on Tuesday that killed three people and forced an evacuation of the nation’s parliament, Uganda’s Daily Monitor reported.
Ten people were found dead at the bottom of an overcrowded wooden boat packed with 99 surviving migrants and refugees.
Egypt’s government on Monday imposed a coronavirus vaccine mandate on all public sector employees and public university students, requiring them to present proof of vaccination as a prerequisite for entry into any state-owned building, Reuters reported.
Libyan Gen. Khalifa Haftar announced on Tuesday that he is officially a candidate for the presidency of the government he tried to overthrow by force less than two years ago.
