Chad’s army spokesman said the military junta that took power in Chad last month after the shock death of veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno named a transition government on Sunday.The Transitional Military Council had pledged to restore democracy to the poor Sahel country within 18 months after what the opposition condemned as an institutional coup.Junta spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna in a televised statement says Deby’s son Mahamat, the country’s new strongman, named a government comprising 40 ministers and a deputy minister.Deby also created a new national reconciliation ministry to be headed by Acheick Ibn Oumar, a former rebel chief who became a diplomatic adviser to the presidency in 2019.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in two provinces.Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya says the objective is to swiftly end the insecurity which is killing our fellow citizens in that part of the country on a daily basis.He did not say what steps would be taken next under the state of siege.A Ugandan insurgent faction active in eastern Congo since the 1990s called the Allied Democratic Forces is believed to be responsible for much of the recent bloodshed.

Nigeria will ban travellers coming from India, Brazil and Turkey because of concerns about the rampant spread of coronavirus in those countries.Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential committee says Non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited Brazil, India or Turkey within Fourteen days preceding travel to Nigeria, shall be denied entry into Nigeria.He says the ban will take effect from May 4.

The Kaduna State University Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the students have rejected the proposed 500 per cent increase in tuition fees by the government.They stated that if a monumental school fees increase was allowed to stand, it would force about 75 per cent of the university’s students to drop out of school, causing massive youth unemployment and restiveness.ASUU Branch Chairman, Dr Peter Adamu, decried that the consequences of the upward review of the school fees would be unquantifiable.He urged the state government to rescind the decision, stressing that it was not the best time to increase tuition fees due to the present economic instability in the country.Adamu argued that public education should not be for revenue generation and asked the government to look for other better ways of funding the system.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has faulted governors yet to pay the new minimum wage to workers in their states.He stated this Channels Television’s Sunday Politics saying that any employer paying its employee below N30,000 was doing so in contravention of the law.The minister says the law does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must and the state governors not paying are breaching the law of the land.The Minister of Labour says he is authorized or any person nominated or designated by the minister to take action against such an employer on behalf of the worker to recover the balance of the wages.

The Department of State Services says it will begin a clampdown on agents of anarchy in various parts of the country.The spokesman, Peter Afunanyai in a statement says the service faulted those said to be creating instability through comments that threaten the sovereignty and corporate existence of the nation.It also condemned what it called the unnecessary vituperations and activities of some religious and past political leaders who have either called for a forceful change of government or mass action against it.The agency, however, says it was working with other security and law enforcement agencies to ensure the maintenance of peace and internal security in the country.

Nigeria’s Security forces have uncovered a plot by insurgents to infiltrate the nation’s capital, the Federal Capital Territory using tinted vehicles and covered plate numbers.The joint security task force, comprising the military, police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and intelligence agencies, however, has intensified patrols and surveillance in and around Abuja.The investigation also revealed that the meetings of the joint security task force under the office of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, continued at the weekend.A statement by the command says while security forces sustained pre-emptive measures against any eventuality, the reported attack on FCT was a clash of cultists in Mpape, an outskirt of Abuja and not an attack by terrorists.

President Muhammadu Buhari and the President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, have urged the media to express its freedom with responsibility.Buhari called for responsible press freedom among media professionals in the country and urged the media to purge itself of bad eggs, promising that the National Assembly won’t pass anti-press legislations.Buhari stressed the commitment of his administration to the freedom of the press.He, however, urged journalists to wield their freedom responsibly and without licentiousness.He says freedom of the press is a minimum feature of a democracy that would flourish, adding that freedom must be used responsibly.He charged those who manage government information to do everything in the public interest, while also encouraging the media to use the Freedom of Information Act to make its jobs easier.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed planned parliamentary elections next month amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and splits in his Fatah party.Abbas blamed Israel for uncertainty about whether it would allow the legislative election to proceed in Jerusalem as well as in the occupied West Bank and Gaza on Friday.The decision came three months after he announced the first national elections in 15 years in what was widely seen as a response to criticism of the democratic legitimacy of Palestinian institutions, including his own presidency.

Former US President Donald Trump complained Thursday that an FBI raid on the New York apartment of his ex-personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was so unfair.Federal investigators with search warrants combed Giuliani’s Manhattan residence and a separate office on Wednesday, seizing electronic devices as part of a probe into his dealings in Ukraine.Trump told Fox Business that Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot and loves the country.Giuliani, himself once a top New York prosecutor and then mayor of the city, was a personal lawyer for Trump when the president was impeached in December 2019 for seeking political help from Ukraine.