Newscast - Africa

Nigeria’s consumer price index has increased to 15.70 per cent for the month of February.
The National Bureau of Statistics in a report state that this is 1.63 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2021per cent, indicative that the headline inflation rate slowed down in February when compared to the same month in the previous year.
There were increases in all COICOP divisions that yielded the Headline index. On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased to 1.63 per cent in February 2022, this is a 0.16 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 per cent.

Iran’s foreign ministry says the country will not tolerate security threats emanating from Iraqi soil a day after the elite Revolutionary Guards launched ballistic missiles on purported Israeli targets in the Kurdish capital, Erbil.
Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed Israel has repeatedly created security problems for Iran through Iraqi soil by organising anti-establishment rallies and terrorist groups in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the missile attack in northern Iraq, saying it targeted an Israeli strategic centre for conspiracy in the country.

A United States official says Russia has asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, a request that heightened tensions about the ongoing war before a meeting between the senior US and Chinese officials in Rome.
White House NSA Jake Sullivan bluntly warned China to avoid helping Russia evade punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy.
The White House says the talks in the Italian capital will focus on the direct effect of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security.
A US official says in recent days, Russia had requested support from China –including military equipment to press forward in its ongoing war with Ukraine.

The Philippines confronts Beijing’s ambassador after a Chinese navy ship was caught illegally lingering in the Southeast Asian nation’s waters, in the latest diplomatic row between the two countries.
Manila and Beijing are locked in a territorial dispute over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost its entirety, but the Philippines’ foreign ministry said the Chinese vessel entered its archipelagic waters without permission.
The vessel claimed it was exercising innocent passage as it reached the Cuyo islands off Palawan and Apo island off Mindoro.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade pass annually, with competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian authorities have threatened foreign companies hoping to withdraw from the country with arrests and asset seizures.
Russian prosecutors have issued warnings to several foreign entities including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut.
They have threatened to arrest officials who have criticized the government or to seize assets, including intellectual property.
The Russian embassy in the United States however dismissed the report as fake.
It added that the decision to continue business activities in Russia is entirely up to the Americans.

Elon Musk challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of Moscow’s brutal invasion, at stake.
The billionaire took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person rather than through his country’s forces fighting across the border.
Musk says If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge however he will not.

Cameroon has banned the smoking of shisha pipes, saying it poses a health risk to mostly young people who use it in bars and at home.
The health ministry says about 46% of young Cameroonians smoke the substance which is typically a mix of tobacco, molasses, glycerine and flavourings.
Doctors say there is a misconception that shishas are not as harmful as cigarettes and the British Heart Foundation says an hour-long shisha session can be the equivalent of smoking more than 100 cigarettes.

Kenyans will pay more for fuel as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to affect the price of crude oil and refined products.
The East African country’s petroleum regulator says the price of petrol and diesel will increase by five Kenyan shillings
The fuel prices regulator says the price of kerosene, which is used in many poor Kenyan households to cook, remains unchanged.
Kenya’s petroleum subsidy programme has kept fuel prices unchanged for four months in a row.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sealed off the premises of Oxford International Group, Farmforte Agro-Allied Solutions Limited as well as Vektr Capital Investment for alleged illegal involvement in capital market activities.
The commission says the offices of the companies in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja were shut down for carrying out investment operations that fall within the ambit of fund management without registration with the apex regulator contrary to the provisions of the Investments and Securities Act, 2007.
The commission strongly advised members of the public to always confirm from it whether an entity providing investment services had been duly registered and whether the investment schemes are authorised by the Commission.

Shell Plc and Eni both declared force majeure on key oil flows from Nigeria, threatening to disrupt supplies in a market already fretting about the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Eni relates to Brass crude cargoes and followed a pipeline blast in the Bayelsa state in the country’s Niger Delta.
Some oil companies have stopped buying new cargoes from Moscow and some governments have announced that they are imposing bans on petroleum imports from Russia.
Shell says it will try to go elsewhere for barrels.