Newscast - Africa

EU Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis pleaded for urgent reform of the World Trade Organization, saying it was high time for change at the global trade body.
Dombrovskis says he was ready to consider a major shake-up of the WTO’s dispute settlement system.
He says the face of trade has changed considerably since the foundation of the WTO in 1995 adding that the rules that govern the organisation have not.
He says the WTO is caught between a rock and hard place. Its negotiating function is paralysed. Its dispute settlement system is frozen.

Leaders of West Africa regional bloc Ecowas have imposed travel bans and a freeze of the financial assets of Guinea's coup leaders and their families.
The sanctions are expected to put more pressure on the military junta to restore constitutional rule.
The decisions were announced after an extraordinary summit in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday.
The regional bloc also wants the junta to conduct elections within six months and insists that none of the military leaders should be allowed to contest the polls.
The leaders however expressed their willingness to support the country through the transitional process.
They have called on the Africa Union, the UN, and their international partners to help enforce the travel bans and financial sanctions against the junta and their families.

Kenyans protested at a jump in fuel prices, which threaten to pile on the misery for a population already suffering economic hardship because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fuel prices are now at record levels after the country’s energy regulator this week put an end to subsidies on petrol, diesel and kerosene that were introduced earlier this year to ease anger over the surging cost of living.
The scrapping of the subsidies, which took effect on Wednesday, increased the price of petrol in Nairobi by about six per cent to a maximum of almost 135 shillings a litre.
And the cost is set to rise further with the introduction of a near five per cent excise duty on fuel from October 1.

The World Health Organization says Guinea has declared the end of an outbreak of the Marburg virus, which belongs to the same family as Ebola,
Health authorities in the country confirmed West Africa’s first recorded case of Marburg on August 9, in a man whose infection was detected after he had died a week earlier.
Guinean health authorities began monitoring the Marburg victim’s contact cases.
WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti added that Guinea’s growing expertise in responding to viral outbreaks had prevented a spillover and saved lives.

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has declared that the state government stopped dialoguing with bandits troubling the state because of their deceit.
Matawalle, however, disclosed that relative peace had since returned to the state with the people now happy and going about their normal business.
The governor Thursday told newsmen says people had started seeing results of the stringent measures put in place to restore security, adding that though the measures were tough, the people had not minded, because they are now feeling secure.
Governor Matawale had also recently proposed dialogue as a strategy for ending the violent activities of bandits and kidnappers in the state.

Nigeria has announced plans for another visit to the global market.
The Debt Management Office says that it had secured virtual meetings with investors holding from today to September 20th, 2021.
The debt management agency says meetings would also be held with local investors In order to avail domestic investors the opportunity to invest in the Eurobonds.
The DMO stated that through the Eurobond issuance, Nigeria is expected to raise up to $3 billion but no more than $6.2 billion.

The Presidency has decried a recent alliance between the Yoruba Nation agitators and the Indigenous People of Biafra, warning that such a treaty cannot be taken seriously because of the violent antecedents of the IPOB.
The Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu, says the president warned that the IPOB is a designated terrorist organization that has now publicly revealed a 50,000 strong paramilitary organization.
Mr Shehu urged the Yoruba secessionist group to quit its association with IPOB because it regularly murders security agents and innocent civilians, with a significant uptick of violent attacks this year.
He further explained that the IPOB is attempting to hold Nigerian states hostage with orders to stay at home under threat of terror.

President Muhammadu Buhari has described football as a great tool for national unity in the country, restating his government’s resolve to develop the game.
He made the comment when he received a FIFA delegation led by its President, Gianni Infantino, and the President of Confederation of African Football Patrice Motsepe, at the State House in Abuja.
President Buhari explained that the country was giving adequate attention to sports and has set up a committee to draw a 10-year plan for football.

Governors from the southern region of Nigeria have declared their support for the collection of Value Added Tax by state governments, in place of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Chairman of the Forum and Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, made the position of the governors known in a communique issued at the end of the meeting.
He says the meeting resolved to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the states.
The governors reaffirmed their commitment to fiscal federalism and stressed the need for the southern states to pursue their inclusion in the Nigerian Constitution, through the ongoing constitutional amendment.

The US Justice Department says three hackers working for a company in the United Arab Emirates for the benefit of the government in Abu Dhabi has agreed to pay $1.68m in penalties as part of a legal settlement in the United States.
The Justice Department in a statement says the suspects, two US citizens and one former American citizen, provided zero-click computer hacking services to the UAE company that could compromise a device without any action by the target.
The Justice Department says all three previously worked for the US intelligence community or the US military,.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark Lesko says Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of US law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct.