Newscast - Africa

A Cambridge University college has announced that it is to hand back a sculpture that was originally seized by British troops from the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria.
The current king or Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, welcomed the move and says it gave hope that others would expedite the return of artworks.
Germany and France have pledged to hand over hundreds of the Benin Bronzes which also include ivory carvings.

Egypt will bar unvaccinated public service workers from entering government buildings from mid next month.
A cabinet notice says workers would have to be vaccinated or take a weekly Covid test to be allowed into government buildings from 15 November.
The cabinet also allowed the opening up of bathrooms in mosques from Wednesday. The bathrooms were closed in March last year as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The government has also allocated a billion Egyptian pounds to address the pandemic.

The environmental campaign group Greenpeace has welcomed a decision by the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo to audit all forestry concessions in the country and suspend some already seen as questionable or illegal.
President Félix Tshisekedi has ordered an audit of some potentially corrupt concessions - including one for an area of more than 1.4 million hectares following pressure from environmental groups, including Greenpeace.
Some of the world's largest carbon emitters are set to pay DR Congo hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the forest however due to corruption and poor governance there are fears it is vulnerable to expanding agriculture and illegal logging.

Former Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, says that hardcore elements should face justice as part of efforts to curtail banditry activities in some parts of the country.
Usman frowned at the idea of granting amnesty to bandits.
He says that many public assets have been destroyed by both terrorists and bandits in Monguno, Baga, as well as several lives, were lost, thereby leaving many people as orphans.
The retired general called for a system that will distinguish between those bandits that committed heinous crimes from those that were coerced into seeking repentance.

Bishop of Ihiala Diocese of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Prof Israel Okoye, has warned that the insistence of the federal government to support open grazing may lead to food shortage in Nigeria.
The former academic says the controversy about open grazing in Nigeria has become an unfortunate distraction from some fundamental issues on the economy, education, justice, equity, leadership and others, that needed to be addressed.
He says although cattle rearing is the key feature of animal husbandry, their politicisation and seeming treatment as national obligations have attracted objection and resentment.

The Kogi State Government dared the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to come out with the report of its investigations on the purported N20 billion bailout funds over which a Lagos High Court reportedly froze the state’s account in August.
The state in a statement insisted that the alleged sum of N19,333,333,333.36, which Sterling Bank had undertaken to the EFCC to transfer to the Central Bank of Nigeria did not belong to the Kogi State Government and that the state did not enter into any agreement, either with Sterling Bank or the EFCC, to return any bailout funds to the CBN as being portrayed.
The government however kicked against the withdrawal by the EFCC, challenging the anti-graft body to make public its investigation of the alleged bailout funds.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued guidelines to the Advisory Committees of Experts of non-interest banks in supervising and monitoring the disposal of Non-permissible Income by the institutions.
The CBN explained that the move was part of efforts aimed at standardising the treatment and disposal of NPI by the NIB.
The apex bank noted that the NPI was not an object of ownership of the NIB and does not confer any ownership rights on it.
The CBN stated that the NPI shall be put in a dedicated NPI account and shall not be commingled with the funds of the NIB.
The apex bank added that the NIBs were under obligation to dispose of any NPI that accrues to it, pointing out that disposing the NPI to a charitable cause is regarded as proper disposal on certain conditions.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The group is asking the court to declare illegal and unconstitutional the plan by the administration to track, intercept and monitor WhatsApp messages, phone calls, and text messages of Nigerians and other people, as it severely threatens and violates the right to the preservation of privacy.”
SERAP is seeking a declaration that any monitoring of WhatsApp messages, phone calls and text messages is oppressive and draconian, as it threatens and violates sections 37 and 39 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 as amended.

The World Health Organization says its newly established task force could be the last chance to find the truth over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO’s director-general voiced his frustration over the level of access China had granted to the international mission to China.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the mission’s final report did not conduct an extensive enough assessment over the possibility the virus was introduced to humans through a laboratory incident.
The WHO announced the names of 26 nominees to join the newly established Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogensa .
The proposed team of scientists includes six people who visited China as part of the previous WHO-China mission.

United Nations diplomats say UN chief Antonio Guterres asked to postpone a virtual meeting with Southeast Asian ministers at the last minute to avoid signalling any recognition of Myanmar’s military government by being in the same online room as the military’s envoy.
Guterres asked to postpone the meeting until a time when it can be held in a mutually agreeable format, in view of the ongoing urgent international and regional issues.
UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Guterres did not want to get ahead of a decision by UN member states on who will sit in Myanmar’s seat at the world body after rival claims were made by the military and Kyaw Moe Tun, the current UN ambassador who was appointed by the elected government.