Newscast - Africa

The federal government says Nigeria’s 2050 Long-term Low Emission Vision document was a demonstration of the nation’s commitment to play a leading role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Minister of State for the Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, described the document as a landmark for actualising Nigeria’s quest for mitigating the negative effects of climate change and a road path to meeting its decarbonisation targets.
Ikeazor explained that the LTV 2050 was the initial step towards the development of the Long-Term Strategies which explores options to lower GHG emissions and contribute to the objective of reaching net-zero GHG emissions globally around the middle of the century.

Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, declared 19 individuals wanted for operating illegal crude oil refining sites which are responsible for the black soot menace in Rivers State.
The governor directed the Rivers State Head of Service to query Mr Temple Amakiri, a Director in the Ministry of Energy, for abetting bunkering activities and hand him over to the police for investigation and possible prosecution.
He assured the people of Rivers State that his government is determined to effectively tackle the soot menace by destroying and closing down all identified illegal crude oil refining sites and activities across the state.

The Philippines on Thursday passed a law banning child marriage as the practice took effect in a country where one in six girls enters wedlock before the age of 18.
A new law, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte and released to the public on Thursday, lays out prison terms of up to 12 years for marrying or cohabiting with anyone under 18.
People arranging or solemnising underage unions face the same penalty.
The government says the law is consistent with international conventions on the rights of women and children.

President Joe Biden will mark the anniversary of the January 6 storming of Congress by Donald Trump’s supporters with a plea to save the United States from becoming a country where political violence is the norm.
The president will warn of a dark future unless Americans defend democratic elections.
He urged Americans to recognize the truth and not live in the shadow of lies.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says Biden will call out Trump’s lies in propagating the conspiracy theory that he was the real winner of the election and will recall his horror at the events on that dark day.

The leaders of Australia and Japan have signed a historic defence treaty that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says would contribute to a secure and stable Indo-Pacific as China expands its military and economic clout in the region.
The treaty called the Reciprocal Access Agreement was signed during a virtual summit between Morrison and his Australian counterpart, Fumio Kishida on Thursday.
Morrison called the signing of the RAA a pivotal moment for Australia and Japan that will form an important part of the two countries’ response to the uncertainty they now face.

The Dutch government says it will no longer fund one of the six major civil society and human rights organisations in Palestine which Israel banned as terrorist groups in October 2021.
The Ramallah-based Union of Agricultural Work Committees says this is the first time a government ends its funding for Palestinian civil society based on political conditionality.
The group says it would consider legal steps to challenge the Dutch government’s harmful and unfair decision which, it warned, was likely to resonate far beyond our organisation.

Tanzania's parliament speaker Job Ndugai has resigned days after clashing with the president over the government's external loans.
The speaker says his resignation was a personal and voluntary decision taken in the interest of the nation.
President Samia Suluhu had accused him of planning to sabotage her for political reasons after he commented about the country's loans. Mr Ndugai issued a public apology to President Samia, which she rejected.
She says everything that was happening had to do with political interests in the 2025 general elections.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected suggestions that Beijing was luring African countries into debt traps by offering them massive loans, dismissing the idea as a narrative pushed by opponents to poverty reduction.
Wang says China’s considerable lending to Africa was mutually benefiting and not a strategy to extract diplomatic and commercial concessions.
He says the narrative was been created by those who do not want to see development in Africa.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China will appoint a special envoy for the Horn of Africa to help tackle security challenges in the region.
He says they will continue to play even a bigger role for peace and stability in the region.
The minister is on a tour of three countries in eastern Africa which began in Eritrea and concludes in the Indian Ocean island of Comoros.
The Chinese minister's tour to the region coincides with the visit by the US special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, who is due to arrive in Ethiopia on Thursday to discuss the 14-month civil war in the northern part of the country.

South Africa's Telkom is seeking an urgent court order to prevent telecoms regulator ICASA from holding a spectrum auction in March, which would further delay the country's rollout of 5G and expansion of 4G capacity already held back by legal action.
Telkom says it had filed an application asking the Gauteng High Court to review and set aside the invitation to apply, which outlines the auction rules, spectrum bands and licence obligations, published by ICASA last month.
It says the application includes an urgent interdict to prevent ICASA from processing any applications until the review is heard.
Telkom called the contemplated auction process unlawful, illegal, irrational and unreasonable given that the invite is tainted by a number of reviewable errors.