Newscast - Africa

South Sudan has given a two-week ultimatum to illegal migrants to register and meet legal requirements to stay and do business in the country.
The Director-General of Immigration, Lt Gen Atem Marol Biar, says 85% of Ugandan nationals who are residing in South Sudan entered the country without legal documents and they have not obtained work permits either.
Sources from the Business Union revealed that more than one million Ugandans are residing in South Sudan.
It says most of them are involved in the construction sector as well as in the retail sector.

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara has announced the resignation of his Prime Minister, Patrick Achi, and that of his government.
Mr Ouattara made the announcement during a cabinet meeting, saying he had decided to decrease the number of ministers in the government from 41 to 30 as well as reduce state spending.
This reshuffle had been in discussion since the beginning of the year.
The president said he would name a new prime minister next week.

The Malian army says three Europeans were among a group of suspected jihadists detained during a military operation in the central town of Diabaly over the weekend.
Mali has been in the grip of an Islamist insurgency in its northern Sahel regions for more than 10 years.
The military authority, which has ruled the West African country since 2020, faces accusations of carrying out a massacre of civilians at the beginning of this month.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has formed a unified armed forces command structure that integrates opposition commanders into the armed forces.
The president's faction has a 60% representation in the command structure while the opposition occupies the remaining 40%.
The deal was signed following mediation by neighbouring Sudan, which is the current chair of the regional bloc Igad.

The Federal Government has reiterated that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is not and will not be a threat to the media.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed says Nigeria has one of the most vibrant and free presses in the world and the administration was not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her constitutionally guaranteed rights.
He clarified that some people have misconstrued the government’s efforts to ensure responsible use of social media as an attempt to tamper with press freedom or threaten independent journalism.

Lawmakers in the Senate have again passed the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill, four years after President Muhammadu Buhari rejected the proposed legislation.
This followed the consideration of two reports on the bills by the Committee on Interior during Tuesday’s plenary at the upper chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja.
The lawmakers resolved into a committee of the whole to consider the two reports ‘clause by clause’ and after they reverts to plenary to report progress, both bills were read the third time and passed.

Italy and Algeria have signed agreements to strengthen energy ties and increase the north African state’s energy exports to Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced the deals in Algeria adding that they were a significant step in Italy’s drive to reduce its dependency on Russian gas.
Draghi says the gas deal with Algeria had been signed by the two country’s dominant energy players, Eni and Sonatrach.
Draghi added that Italy was ready to work with Algeria to develop renewable energy and green hydrogen.

Shanghai has eased the citywide lockdown that it imposed to break a surge in cases to stamp out the disease wherever it appears.
Authorities in Shanghai introduced the three-tier disease control system on Monday, allowing residents in areas where no cases have been reported for 14 days to leave their homes so long as they follow health protocols and remain in their sub-district.
City health official Wu Qianyu emphasised the need for continued controls.

United States President Joe Biden is set to announce a new Department of Justice rule meant to crack down on so-called ghost guns.
The White House says the weapons, which can be bought as kits to be assembled at home and lack federal tracking serial numbers, have been increasingly recovered at crime scenes across the US in recent years.
The new DoJ rule says that manufacturers of some types of ghost gun kits will be subject to the same restrictions as firearm manufacturers under the Gun Control Act.
The rule would also require federally licensed dealers and gunsmiths who receive guns without serial numbers to serialise the weapon with federal authorities before selling it to a customer.

Russia has warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato, arguing the move would not bring stability to Europe.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that the alliance remains a tool geared towards confrontation.
US officials expect the Nordic neighbours to bid for membership of the alliance, potentially as early as June.
US State Department officials said last week that discussions had taken place between Nato leaders and foreign ministers from Helsinki and Stockholm.