Africa Business News

More than 80 people died Sunday when a fire ripped through a Baghdad hospital for Covid-19 patients, sparking outrage and the suspension of top officials overseeing Iraq’s crumbling health services. Medic says the blaze at eastern Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib hospital began when badly stored oxygen cylinders blew up.The health ministry says 82 people were killed and 110 wounded, while the Iraqi Human Rights Commission says 28 of the victims were patients who had to be taken off ventilators to escape the flames.A medical source says the blaze tore across multiple floors in the middle of the night, as dozens of relatives were visiting patients in the intensive care unit.

Russian news agency TASS reported while quoting Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying Russia has put the U.S. on its list of unfriendly states.The move comes amid an escalating diplomatic row between Russia and several European countries.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law to limit the number of local staff working at foreign diplomatic missions and other agencies and ordered the government to draw up a list of unfriendly states that will be subject to the restrictions.Zakharova says the whole story began with another wave of unfriendly U.S. steps and naturally, the U.S. is on this list.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator in the ongoing Vienna talks aimed to revive the Iran nuclear deal and that his country will not allow talks of attrition.Abbas Araqchi, who heads the Iranian negotiating team in the ongoing talks with the representatives from the UK, China, France, Russia, and Germany in Vienna say the exact time cannot be predicted for the duration of talks. He says they will not allow attritional talks. If they feel that the other parties are not serious or intending to buy time or add other issues to the discussions, they will give up the negotiations. He echoed what Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said of Iran's approach to the nuclear talks: Iran will re-embrace its suspended obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action only after the United States removes its sanctions on Iran.The senior Iranian diplomat rejected again the long-abandoned plan to revive the nuclear deal.

British lawmakers on Monday called on the government to publish all communications with pharmaceutical companies to understand if private lobbying influenced its opposition to a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines.The United States and a handful of other big countries, including the United Kingdom, have blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organization involving a proposal spearheaded by India and South Africa that now has the support of 100 WTO members.The proposal would temporarily waive the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce vaccines.The waiver is opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer PFE.N, BioNTech 22UAy.DE, Moderna MRNA.O, and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N.A spokesperson for the UK government said it prioritised transparency but stakeholders had a right to expect a reasonable degree of confidentiality in their communications.

South Africa’s Health Department has announced that the country’s rollout of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will resume on Wednesday after it was temporarily placed on hold for two weeks.The move came after it was reported in the United States (US) that patients who had been administered the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, developed blood clots.The Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says it had been established that there’s a one in a million chance of getting blood clots after being jabbed and that it appears that women between the ages of 18 and 48 years old are particularly at risk. With such a low probability of developing a clot, all the regulators across the world have recommended the continued use of Johnson and Johnson.The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has recommended that pregnant women be excluded from getting the shot.Dr Zweli Mkhize further says vaccination sites will be expanded to 95 sites across the country and these sites will continue to vaccinate health care workers during the first phase of the rollout.

The UK government has urged for restraint and called for dialogue as fighting broke out in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.Rival units in the security forces and some former warlords and clan leaders clashed on Sunday.The British embassy in Somalia said the violence reports were "deeply concerning".The international community has been calling for dialogue on the election impasse in the country after parliament extended President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo's term by two years.Former Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and opposition leader Abdirahman Abdishakur said pro-government soldiers had attacked their homes.The government has since denied the accusations. Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble called for negotiations after Sunday's violence.

The Academy of Medicine Specialties, together with its Rapid-Response initiative group, has advised the federal government to shut the country’s international airports for at least two weeks to avoid the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.The President of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, noted that the transmission of the third wave was still active but at a low level.Ashiru says the low-level transmission was due largely to the lockdowns going on in Europe and some countries.He further stated that the ongoing transmission in the country was caused largely by those inbound passengers from India and those countries with surges in the cases reported daily.He recommended that Nigeria’s testing strategy should still be PCR-based. He, however, added that some other Genes should be looked out for aside from the ‘S’ gene.He recommended that Nigeria should close the international airports to all flights for at least two weeks, stressing that the third wave was affecting not only India but France, Germany, and Italy.

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called on the Federal Government to seek help where necessary to regain peace in the country and chart a way forward without using Nigerians as victims.He made the call in a statement while reacting to the killings across the country by bandits, terrorists, and other gunmen in the country.Professor Soyinka decried that these gunmen have sacrificed and traumatised the country’s youths beyond their capacity to cope.He says the country is at war and it is time to stop pretending while the government should put in more efforts to stop the killing of youths who are the future.The Nobel laureate also condemned the practice of blame trade, saying it should be left for later.

The spokesman of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Emmanuel Powerful says the Group has no connection with the recent attack on Governor Hope Uzodinma’s country home.He described those linking the incident to the secessionist group as liars, stressing that neither IPOB nor the Eastern Security Network was responsible for the incident.He says they don’t want to tell the citizens that Nigeria is almost collapsing, and IPOB has decided that nothing will stop them to back out on this course for Biafra restoration.They were, however, repelled by the security operatives attached to the governor’s house, but some vehicles parked on the premises were burnt.The attack was condemned by various individuals and groups, including members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has condemned the attack on the country home of Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.THE NGF Chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi said the governors described the incident as taking criminality to reckless and irresponsible heights.They say those responsible for the attack must be mindful that they do not have the monopoly of violence.The governor stated that all hands must be on deck to apprehend the attackers whom they said constituted a small league of persons trying to harm the nation's corporate existence.The governors believe the mantra for every Nigerian at such a challenging time should forge peace and unity across Nigeria’s divides and shun violence and wanton destruction.