The UN's human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has highlighted ethnic tensions in Ethiopia as voting continues in regional and parliamentary elections.
Nearly a fifth of the constituencies is not taking part in the poll because of insecurity and irregularities.
Ms Bachelet says the volatile situation needed to be addressed and called for a political dialogue.
She says in many other parts of Ethiopia alarming incidents of deadly ethnic and inter-communal violence and displacement are linked to increasing polarisation about longstanding grievances.
She added that the ongoing deployment of military forces is not a durable solution and encouraged comprehensive and multi-dimensional dialogue throughout the country to address the real grievances held.

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is confident that Nigeria will remain united as a strong nation to the frustration of those waiting to see the country broken into pieces.
He made the remark on Monday in Abuja at the maiden edition of the All Progressives Congress.
The Vice President acknowledged the need for all Nigerians to be guaranteed a fair chance at improving their human condition and urged the youth to be a part of conversations that will ensure this.
He asked the young generation not just to say it was time for them and for the older people to give way, stressing that such was unlikely to happen.
Professor Osinbajo, however, stated that it was the strength of the ideas and the depth of the youths’ organisation and not age that would retire those ahead of them.

The Senate dismissed insinuations that the ongoing efforts by the National Assembly to amend the National Broadcasting Commission Act and other media laws are a ploy to gag the media and stifle freedom of expression.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru says that the current efforts to amend the NBC Act and other relevant laws should not be misinterpreted as an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and free press.
He, however, said there is the need to ensure that some regulations are put in place to prevent abuse of such rights as exhibited by a few media establishments and individuals in recent times.
He stated that the current attempt to amend the NBC Act and the Press Council Act is to improve and sanitise the media industry and not to stifle the civic space.

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has listed Nigeria and South Africa among nations being considered by Africa, in conjunction with the European Union and other partners, to create regional vaccine manufacturing hubs on the continent.
Okonjo-Iweala stated that regional production hubs would offer a more promising path to preparedness for a future health crisis.
Rwandan President, Mr Paul Kagame, also confirmed at the Qatar Economic Forum that Senegal, Rwanda, and South Africa were in talks with investors to start the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
The continent of 1.3 billion people has fully vaccinated only about one per cent of its people against COVID-19 even as some wealthier countries have inoculated enough of their citizens to begin reopening their economies.

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mr George Ekpungu as the secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Dr Umar Gwandu, the spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice noted that the appointment by the President was for a fresh tenure of five years.
He says President Buhari also appointed four other persons as Board Members of the anti-graft agency.
They are Luqman Muhammad, Anumba Adaeze, Kola Adesina and Yahya Muhammad.
Gwandu stated that the appointment was in line with Section 2 (1) and Section 4 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act, 2004.
He says the EFCC has been operating without board members since 2015 and President Buhari has already directed that the names of the appointees be forwarded to the Senate for confirmation.

The Federal Government has announced the development of a National Humanitarian Development Peace Framework.
Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development explained that the National Humanitarian Coordination Technical Working Group, as directed by the National Humanitarian Coordination Committee came up with the initiative aimed at restoring peace and stability in Nigeria.
Farouq noted that the framework developed with the support of UNOCHA and other critical international and national humanitarian stakeholders would address root causes of conflict, by coherently addressing socio-economic vulnerabilities, to ensure sustainable peace, stability, and development in the country when launched.

Qatar’s prime minister announced Doha is seeking to provide one million doses of a coronavirus vaccine to fans attending the 2022 World Cup in the country.
The Gulf nation has been slowly opening up as it continues with its mass vaccination programme.
Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al-Thani says there is the possibility that some countries will not be able to vaccinate all their citizens.
He says Qatar will not allow fans to enter stadiums without being fully vaccinated against the virus.
Sheikh Khalid also said that approximately 72 per cent of Qatar’s 2.75 million population will have received at least one dose of vaccine within the next week.

A statement released by the continental organisation says CAF president Patrice Motsepe believes Africa can succeed where Europe failed and launch a Super League.
He says they have been following attempts by some top European clubs to form a Super League and will learn from their experience and pitfalls,” said the South African.
Motsepe is pushing forward after FIFA president Gianni Infantino told CAF officials last year that he favoured 20 permanent African Super League members and additional competitors through qualifying.
He did suggest, however, that each permanent member should contribute $20 mn annually — a target even the richest African clubs would find hard to meet.

Commonwealth Bank says it would sell its Australian general insurance business to South Africa’s biggest privately-owned insurer Hollard Group, marking the completion of a multi-year divestment strategy following a series of scandals.
Australia’s largest lender says it will sell CommInsure General Insurance, for an upfront cash consideration of A$625 million ($468 million), plus deferred payments.
The lender says it expected the sale would deliver a post-tax gain of A$90 million and further increase its common equity tier 1 capital by about A$400 million, which according to analysts ups the odds that CBA will return extra cash to investors.
CBA also expects to get a pre-completion dividend.

The Senator Representing Kebbi North, Yahaya Abdullahi, has blamed what he describes as a poor security arrangement in the country for the Kebbi School abduction.
Abdullahi says the number of security personnel, specifical policemen across the country, is grossly insufficient to fight the level of insecurity the country grapples with.
He says in the entire nation, there are only 350,000 policemen and a good solution would be to allow more community policing.
He believes that banditry in the country has become a recurring decimal and we should not look at it as something that is just happening today.