Newscast - Africa

The United Nations Refugee Agency is appealing for nearly $60 million for tens of thousands of victims of intercommunal clashes over dwindling resources in Cameroon's Far North region.
UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says the appeal will provide critically needed relief over the next six months for both the displaced and those sheltering them in Chad and Cameroon.
Cheshirkov says the situation has calmed down in the last few weeks. He says security has been reinforced.
He notes government-led reconciliation efforts, supported by the UNHCR are underway adding that urgent action is needed to address the root causes of the conflict.

The Swazi Observer newspaper reports that Eswatini will destroy 10,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines that have expired.
The country's health ministry says that AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are still available and therefore vaccination will continue.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccines expired on Tuesday last week. The newspaper reports that the current batch of Pfizer doses expires next week.

Shell Petroleum Development Company will attempt to convince the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, to upturn an N800 billion judgement against the oil giant by a Federal High Court in the state in 2020.
The company however was expected to tell the appeal court that the lower court failed to listen to its argument that the oil spill claim was unsubstantiated.
SPDC had appealed against the judgement and applied to suspend its enforcement.
SPDC argued that the court was duty-bound to hear evidence to determine, first, if the spill occurred and the alleged cause before proceeding to fix liability and compensation, which it noted, didn’t happen in the case.

Aliko Dangote, says mechanical work on his much-awaited crude oil refinery had been completed and the facility would begin to run between August and September this year.
Dangote says full production at the refinery could commence by the end of the year or the beginning of 2023.
He says that Dangote Group would continue to do more towards strengthening investment in the country, stating that the company has been meeting its tax obligations.
Dangote added that the Dangote Group had revitalised road infrastructure within Apapa and Isolo in Lagos, and also in Ogun and Kaduna, stressing that the group is equally involved in the development of deep seaports and other infrastructural projects across the country.

The Central Bank of Nigeria says that effective February 1, 2022, all import and export operations would require the submission of an electronic invoice authenticated by Authorised Dealer Banks on the Nigeria Single Window Price Portal – Trade Monitoring System.
The apex bank explained that the introduction of the e-valuator and e-Invoice would replace hard copy final invoice as part of the documentation required for all import and export transactions going forward.
The CBN Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Dr Ozoemena Nnaji pointed out that the new regulation aims to achieve accurate value from import and export items in and out of the country.

Chairman of the council, Samuel Nwanosike says that at least 112 illegal refineries have been discovered in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
He says that 99% of the discoveries were made in a particular community located along the OML 17 trunk lines.
Governor Nyesom Wike had pledged N460 million to the 23 local government area chairmen to fight oil bunkering in the state.
Each chairman will receive N20 million to destroy illegal refinery sites that have been identified in their respective domains.

Russia’s central bank proposed a blanket ban on the use and creation of all cryptocurrencies within one of the world’s biggest crypto-mining nations, citing the dangers posed to the country’s financial system and environment.
The central bank also took aim at mining, which it said hurts the country’s green agenda, jeopardizes Russia’s energy supply and amplifies the negative effects of the spread of cryptocurrencies, creating incentives for circumventing attempts at regulation.
The Central Bank called for individuals and businesses that flaunt the rules to be held to account, citing estimates that put Russia’s crypto trading turnover at about $5 billion a year.

South Korea unveiled a 14 trillion won supplementary budget on Friday to support the self-employed and small businesses that have taken a heavy hit from extended COVID-19 curbs.
The finance ministry says some 11.5 trillion won will be used to help small business owners and compensate their losses caused by the extension of virus-related measures.
Another 1.5 trillion won is earmarked to secure COVID-19 treatment pills for 400,000 people and 25,000 hospital beds.
The other 1 trillion won will be used as contingency reserves should the Omicron coronavirus variant spread further and require more support.

China and Russia blocked a US push to impose United Nations sanctions on five North Koreans in response to recent missile launches by Pyongyang.
China’s block came before a new closed-door council meeting on North Korea, also requested by Washington, and was followed by Russia’s decision to similarly oppose the American proposal.
The US Treasury Department says one of the North Koreans being sanctioned, Choe Myong Hyon, was based in Russia and had provided support to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences which is already subject to sanctions.

The US Embassy in Khartoum says that Washington would not resume its paused economic assistance to Sudan until violence there comes to an end and a civilian-led government is restored.
The US halted $700 million in emergency assistance since the military coup in October.
The US Embassy in Khartoum says the US officials strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against protesters, especially the use of live ammunition sexual violence and the practice of arbitrary detention.