Newscast - Africa

The Democratic Republic of Congo has condemned Rwanda for saying it will no longer take in people fleeing conflict in the eastern part of DR Congo.
A spokesman for the Congolese government says the remarks by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame proved that human rights were of no value to him.
He accused Kigali of blackmailing the international community by using refugees for political purposes.
Patrick Muyaya says even though President Kagame had attempted to walk back on his remarks on the subject, he had revealed his true intentions.

The French and German foreign ministers have arrived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to support the peace agreement that's ended two years of fighting in the northern Tigray region.
Germany's Annalena Baerbock, says the pair would be discussing the need for lasting peace and accountability, food security in the region as well as the wider partnership between the European and African Unions.
Tens of thousands of combatants and Tigrayan civilians died during months of brutal fighting, marked by numerous allegations of war crimes.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's army has denied the presence of fighters from Russia's mercenary Wagner Group in the country, in response to claims by a rebel group.
The army has been struggling to contain the M23 rebel group that has in recent months captured swathes of territory in the eastern part of the country.
Reports have suggested the presence of Russian mercenaries in North Kivu province on the government’s invitation to help deal with the rebel group.
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma says that they had fought a joint team of the Congolese army and the mercenaries last week in Tongo and Nyamilima fronts in the Rutshuru area.

Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi, says the Ukrainian government expressed its readiness to establish grain hubs in Nigeria and other African countries to boost bilateral ties.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama lauded Ukraine for the grain donation, adding that the gesture was coming even when the country is still at war. at the meeting.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abubakar, says that Nigeria is very willing and ready to provide the appropriate ports for the grain hub in the country.
Abubakar added that the purpose of the grain hubs is to have a center where Ukraine would be bringing grains and Nigeria will be helping other African countries, which would be useful in case of emergency and even for donations to other countries.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu met with the leadership of the 18 political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The commission chairman presented the 2023 voter register to the parties ahead of the elections as required by the 2022 Electoral Act.
The commission presented a register containing 93,469,008 voters for the 2023 general elections. The voter distribution also reveals that 44,414,846 registered voters are females, and 49,054,162 are males.
The INEC chairman says with the presentation of voter register, the commission has successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities scheduled for the 2023 general elections.

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that the 2023 general elections will hold across the country.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed says the position of the Federal Government remains that the 2023 elections will be held as planned and nothing has happened to change that position.
He says they are aware that INEC is working with the security agencies to ensure that the elections are successfully held across the country.
The minister’s assurance followed killings by gunmen and bandits in several parts of the country.

The Church of England says it will spend £100m over the next nine years on communities affected by historic slavery.
The announcement comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury apologized last year, following research that showed that the Church of England's investment fund had links to the slave trade.
The Church of England says the £100m would be in a new investment fund that would hopefully "grow over time, reinvesting returns to enable it to have a positive legacy that will exist in perpetuity.
The fund, known in the 18th Century as Queen Anne's Bounty, had developed into a £10.1bn investment trust.

The leaders of Brazil’s three branches of government have issued a rare joint statement condemning the storming of government buildings by supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joined the heads of the Supreme Court and the two houses of Congress to reject the acts of political violence that shook the capital, Brasilia, a day earlier.
The leaders called for calm in defence of peace and democracy and said they reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred” in the statement shared on social media.

Donors from around the world have pledged more than $9bn to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods that hit the country last year.
It amounts to more than half of the estimated $16.3bn Pakistan needs to recover from the disaster.
The pledges come as Pakistan continues negotiations over the next installment of an international bailout.
Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's minister of state for foreign affairs says the world will stand by those who go through any national calamity.

The World Bank cuts its economic forecast due to a perilous close to falling into recession.
BBC reports that it expects the world economy to grow by just 1.7 per cent this year – a sharp decrease from the 3 per cent it predicted in June.
World Bank president David Malpass says the downturn would be broad-based and growth in people’s earnings in almost every part of the world was likely to be slower than it was during the decade before Covid-19.
The World Bank says the US, the Eurozone and China – the three most influential parts of the world for economic growth – were all undergoing a period of pronounced weakness, a downturn that was worsening the problems faced by poorer countries.