Newscast - Africa

Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, says the 36 governors in Nigeria are helpless when it comes to tackling insecurity.
Ishaku says that the country’s security structure does not leave enough room for governors to deal decisively with criminality in their states because the powers have been vested in the Federal Government.
His comments were in response to a recent attack in Taraba by some suspected Ambazonian soldiers from the Republic of Cameroon.
Ishaku says he has complained severally to the Nigerian military, seeking help to secure the border.
The governor further stated that his pleas have gone unheard for quite a while, leaving the community prone to attacks such as was recently experienced.

The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives says it has reviewed the Lagos EndSARS report and observed that the Federal Government has questions to answer.
The lawmakers in a statement said the report has confirmed that there was indeed a massacre at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, despite the earlier denial of killings.
The Minority caucus also flayed the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed for rushing to the media, ahead of the judicial panel, to insist that there were no killings at Lekki Tollgate, even in the face of testimonies of witnesses at the sad event.
They described it as a shocking attempt to cover up details of the October 20 event demanding that justice be served.

The United States imposed an entry ban on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, his vice-president wife and his government, after elections that were internationally dismissed as illegitimate.
President Joe Biden says the repressive and abusive acts of the Ortega government and those who support it compel the United States to act.
He says the Ortega government’s undemocratic, authoritarian actions have crippled the electoral process and stripped away the right of Nicaraguan citizens to choose their leaders in free and fair elections.

The Libyan general, Khalifa Haftar has announced that he intends to run in the presidential election due next month.
Gen Haftar says elections were the only way out of Libya's severe crisis.
The military prosecutor, Mohamed Gharouda, had already asked the electoral authorities to reject Gen Haftar's possible candidacy, because of the offensive he launched against the capital, Tripoli, in 2019.

The US State Department has warned American citizens in Ethiopia that it will not be able to evacuate them if the security situation worsens suddenly.
A senior US official urged American citizens to leave Ethiopia immediately, saying that Washington had no plans to organise a mass evacuation, as it did in Afghanistan.
The US and the African Union have been pressuring the Ethiopian government and rebels in the Tigray region to end their conflict, which has killed several thousand people and displaced two million since it started a year ago.
American officials say the US has held off approving sanctions against the warring parties because peace negotiations are still active.

The government in Kenya says security officials are on high alert following the twin explosions in neighbouring Uganda on Tuesday.
Government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna urged citizens to be vigilant and report any suspicious characters or movements.
The alert comes days after three prisoners who were convicted for terrorism-related charges escaped from a prison in the capital Nairobi.
Three other suspected suicide bombers were killed in Uganda in two explosion sites where three other people died.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Kenya for regional security talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

A UN spokesman says the Ethiopian government has released about half of the UN's contracted aid drivers arrested last week.
Farhan Haq says on Monday that 34 drivers had been released but 36 others were still being detained.
He hoped that the remaining contract workers and 10 UN national staff arrested by the authorities on Friday would be freed.
The UN spokesman also announced that the UN had released $40m (£29.8m) in emergency funds to Ethiopians.
The spokesman says the funds will help scale up emergency operations in Ethiopia's conflict-affected northern regions and support early response to the drought in southern Ethiopia.

Human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has urged the Lagos State Government to implement the recommendations of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, set up to investigate cases of police brutality and other SARS-related crimes.
He says members of the Okuwobi Judicial Commission of Inquiry deserve commendation for the thorough investigation of police brutality in Lagos State, adding that a copy of the report should be sent to the President.
The says the revelation that some of the 99 dead bodies dumped in the various mortuaries in Lagos by soldiers were traced to the Lekki Toll Gate has exposed the official lie that the report of the brutal killing was a figment of the imagination of the protesters.

The United States says it was looking forward to a response from the Lagos State Government after the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry submitted its final report.
A statement from the US Embassy in Lagos says the United States welcomes the conclusion of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry with the transmission of its final report
The statement added that they look forward to the Lagos State government’s response as part of a process that represents an important mechanism of accountability regarding the #EndSARS protests and the events that took place near the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest massacre of 15 people in Goronyo and Illela Local Government Areas of Sokoto.
The President says the military was deploying advanced technology to crush the bandits carrying out the attacks.
He says the persistent and unprovoked violence against unarmed civilians must be met with a fierce response by the government.
He added that they are taking delivery of military equipment to improve the capacity of the security forces to effectively deal with this issue adding that the military is also deploying advanced technology to enhance surveillance and related operations to locate and crush these criminals and enemies of our common humanity.