The European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged member states to consider imposing sanctions over the crisis in the Ethiopian region of Tigray.
He believes that the situation in Ethiopia would certainly require that they consider the possibility of all options at our disposal, and the option of restrictive measures.
Mr Borrell says the EU wanted a ceasefire declared by the Ethiopian government to be implemented on the ground.
He says the region was instead being cut off from the rest of the world. Last month rebel fighters retook large parts of Tigray.
The Ethiopian government has been accused of shutting down essential services there - including electricity and telecommunications.

South African chemists helping the government’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign warned that the unrest gripping the country would slow inoculations in the continent’s worst-hit country by the pandemic.
An association representing more than 1,100 pharmacies says the violence had left drugstores looted and destroyed with millions of rand of much-needed medication lost.
The Independent Community Pharmacy Association however says vaccination is now impossible since pharmacy vaccination sites have been destroyed and looted.
It also warned that the frenzied looting itself created potential super-spreaders gatherings.

The World Bank is set to disburse an additional $750 million to strengthen the implementation of the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability scheme.
The scheme was approved for Nigeria in December 2020 to support the implementation of the National Executive Council’s COVID-19 Plan.
Programme Manager of the SFTAS/Open Government Partnership, Nigeria, Mr Andrew Onyeanakwe, says additional financing of $ 750 million to expand the programme to support state governments to implement the NEC COVID-19 Plan in response to COVID-19 was approved by the World Bank Board in December 2020.
He added that the disbursement is a loan from the World Bank to the federal government to be provided as conditional performance-based grants to state governments that actually achieved results under the SFTAS programme.

The federal government has earmarked N4.8 billion for the National Intelligence Agency to monitor WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging application, and Thuraya, a satellite telephone.
The provision seen by an online newspaper, TheCable, is contained in the supplementary 2021 budget passed by the National Assembly.
The National Assembly had approved the sum of N982 billion as the supplementary budget for 2021. While N123 billion was approved for recurrent expenditure, N895 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure.
The budget is meant to boost military operations and to facilitate the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The line items of the budget showed that police “commands and formation” got N33.6 billion for some projects, including the fumigation of 19 training institutes at N200 million.

The federal government pledged its renewed commitment to full compliance with the country’s crude oil production quota, which is pegged at 1.554 million barrels per day in June.
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva says that rationing production was the right thing to do at the moment.
The minister stated that apportioning quotas did not hurt the country’s production, adding that if not because of the cartel’s intervention, the price of crude oil would still fall below.
Sylva says the 1.554 million barrels per day which were allocated to Nigeria for June, excluded condensates, stressing that as of today Nigeria has fully complied without exceeding the total allocated to the country since the OPEC member countries agreed to cut production.
He stated that it is the way things work in OPEC wherein every member has to agree on every issue before it can be resolved.

Several newspapers in Nigeria on Monday published an advertorial against media regulations bills being considered at the National Assembly.
The advertorial was sponsored by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria.
The advertorial says the NPC and NBC (Media) Act amendment bills being considered by federal lawmakers was geared against the right of citizens to information.
The bills, which are already at the public hearing stage, are being sponsored by Olusegun Odebunmi, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values.

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has welcomed the formation of a legal team by Ohanaeze Ndigbo to monitor the proceedings at the trial of the self-acclaimed IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
A communique by the AGF’s spokesman, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu noted that the group showed a mature departure from the mindset of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra while channelling concerns and presenting demands.
Malami says by urging the youths to be law-abiding and sheath their sword as well as asking them to try to obtain voter’s cards to enable them to contribute to national development, the position of Ohanaeze becomes glaringly constitutional and commendable.

The Governor of Sokoto State and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has backed the calls for the electronic transmission of votes.
Tambuwal in a statement stressed the need for the lawmakers to give the country an electoral law that allows free, fair, and credible polls.
He also faulted the alleged plan by the federal parliament to disempower the Independent National Electoral Commission from transmitting results of elections electronically.
He says some have argued that internet penetration in all parts of Nigeria is not assured.

The Suez Canal netted Egypt a record $5.84 bn in the last tax year despite the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on world trade as well as a six-day blockage of the busy waterway by a giant cargo ship.
Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority says despite various challenges, revenues from the canal rose sharply in the fiscal year ending June 30.
He says authorities netted the highest revenues in the history of the canal, hitting $5.84 billion more than two per cent up from the previous year.
Rabie says the SCA’s marketing and flexible pricing policies helped maintain a good rate of traffic through the canal and earned the trust of our partners.

Peru has extended until the end of August a coronavirus-related state of emergency that allows the government to impose restrictions in an effort to stem infections.
Interim President Francisco Sagasti and his government’s resolution extended the order, which was expected to be lifted on July 31, until the end of next month.
That means that restrictions including a nighttime curfew in place since March last year would continue.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that Peru has struggled to contain surging coronavirus cases and deaths in recent months, with the country recording more than 2.07 million infections and more than 193,000 deaths since the pandemic began.