Newscast - Africa

A group of 36 UN human rights experts say Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are institutionalising large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls.
The experts say they are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country.
These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan.”
Taxi drivers have been directed not to pick up female passengers who are not wearing a specific hijab.

Amazon has dropped plans to block UK Visa credit card payments this week, as the two sides continue to try to resolve a dispute over payment fees.
Amazon says the expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19 adding that it was working closely to reach an agreement.
Visa however accused Amazon of threatening to restrict consumer choice. Amazon said it was working closely with Visa on a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk.

The long-awaited Pan-African Payments and Settlement System was launched in Accra, Ghana, in a virtual event.
The new system allows a buyer in one African country to make payment in his or her national currency and the seller in another country receives payment in their local currency.
The Chief Technical Advisor at the AfCFTA Secretariat, Prudence Sebahizi, says the new system will allow a customer or a buyer to make payment in a national currency and the seller will receive the payment in their own currency.
He noted that this is way easier and less costly than changing the Kenyan shilling to the US dollar and then converting the US dollar to the Ghanaian cedi, as has been the case.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reprimanded a senior minister after she slammed the constitution and mentally colonised judges in a scathing attack that has fuelled speculation about new rivalries within the ruling party.
Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu launched her extraordinary attack on both the judiciary and the constitution in opinion pieces on the Independent Online news site in recent days.
Sisulu attacked the ground-breaking post-apartheid constitution, saying that it had has not helped improve the lot of the majority of black South Africans still living in poverty.

The Executive Secretary National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, says to ensure adequate enjoyment of children rights to health, health care services have to be provided for them by the government and relevant stakeholders.
Ojukwu however, called on government and relevant stakeholders to do more in providing healthcare services for children in order to ensure adequate enjoyment of their rights to health.
The Executive Secretary, says although the Nigerian government has put many policies in place for the advancement of the child’s rights to health, there is still more to be done.

The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has stressed the need for the country to be restructured into different regional governments in order to ease the socio-economic and security challenges affecting the country.
He says this would reduce all the agitation for secession from various ethnic groups in the country and also allow for favourable competition and true cohesion among regional areas.
He added that on their demands on regionalism, the federal government and political players would pick either regionalism or secession.
Adams noted that the issue can only be sorted out by proper true federalism as stated in the 1960 Constitution.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has commenced the enforcement of the No Vaccination Card restriction or Proof-of-Negative-Test-Result for entry into public facilities.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of FCT on Monitoring and Enforcement, Mr Attah Ikaro, says the exercise became necessary to ensure that the spread of the infection in the FCT is curtailed.
He says the FCT did not begin enforcement on December 1st, 2021 when the Federal Government began its enforcement because it wanted to give time to the civil servants to get vaccinated.
He says, many, however, refused to comply, hence the need for the commencement.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila believes the current constitutional provision where the educational qualification for elective offices is pegged at secondary school certificate should be increased.
The Speaker sincerely believe that the National Assembly needs to look into section 131 of the 1999 constitution with a view to increasing the minimum educational qualification for persons aspiring to be future Presidents of Nigeria and other top offices including the National Assembly.
The Speaker said he is of the opinion that the foundations of Nigeria’s educational system are still rooted in a different age.

Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure Nigeria’s security architecture.
The governors noted that the strategies deployed to confront terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and other criminals is still a major problem for the current administration.
The governors want Mr President to reconsider his position and consider decentralisation and restructuring of the security architecture as the most viable solution, together with proper arming, funding and training requirements for security agencies.

Ukraine says it has evidence that Russia was behind a cyberattack that defaced its government websites and alleged that Moscow is engaged in an increasingly hybrid war against it.
Microsoft says dozens of computer systems at an unspecified number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware.
The Ministry of Digital Development says Moscow continues to wage a hybrid war and is actively building up its forces in the information and cyberspaces.