Newscast - Africa

The Taliban was expected to form a government as early as Friday as it faces domestic and international pressure to rule Afghanistan with greater tolerance, especially on women’s rights.
Two Taliban sources told the AFP news agency that the announcement of a new administration could be made after Friday afternoon prayers as the group shift gears to governing the country while also trying to deflect an armed challenge from rebels in the Panjshir Valley region.
The United Nations says it had restarted humanitarian flights to parts of the country, linking the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Kandahar in the south.

Western Union Co says it is resuming money-transfer services to Afghanistan after suspending its operations in the Central Asian country two weeks ago as the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
the company says starting September 2, 2021, Western Union will be resuming its money transfer services into Afghanistan, enabling customers from 200 countries and territories to once again send money to their loved ones in the country.
The company also said it would offer a two-week, $0 transfer fee for all money transfers into Afghanistan from September 3 to 17.

The United Kingdom has announced new Myanmar sanctions, saying it was targeting a key business associate of the military government for providing arms and financial support following a coup earlier this year.
The UK’s foreign ministry says it would impose an asset freeze on conglomerate Htoo Group of Companies and its founder Tay Za, adding that the tycoon was involved in arms deals on behalf of the military.
It also said Htoo contributed funds to Rohingya clearance operations in 2017.
The UK has previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities in Myanmar following the February coup.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has announced that he will not run in a ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race later this month, setting the stage for his replacement after just one year in office.
He says running in the race and handling coronavirus countermeasures would have required an enormous amount of energy.
Suga’s support ratings sink below 30 per cent as the nation struggles with its worst wave of COVID-19 infections, ahead of a general election this year.
Toshihiro Nikai, the LDP’s secretary-general says President Suga wants to focus his efforts on anti-coronavirus measures and will not run in the leadership election.

Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea is in the final stages of developing a surface-to-surface ballistic missile as powerful as a tactical nuclear warhead as the country unveiled budget proposals aimed at bolstering its defences against North Korea.
They report that the new weapon can carry a warhead of up to three tonnes with a flight range of 350 to 400 km.
The report says it can also reach all areas of North Korea if fired from around the inter-Korean border.
The project went ahead after the full lifting of US-imposed restrictions on missile development.

The United Nations says a blockade on aid routes to Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray is bringing millions to the brink of famine.
A senior UN official says food supplies ran out two weeks ago.
He says 170 aid trucks were stranded outside Tigray and that none of the vehicles had been allowed to enter the region for the past 12 days.
The Ethiopian government denies it is blocking aid and says the vehicles are on their way to the region.
The US government's humanitarian agency says Tigrayan fighters have looted its warehouses in neighbouring Amhara region.

The European Union will return millions of Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses made in South Africa to the continent.
African Union’s special envoy Strive Masiyiwa told reporters that all the vaccines being produced in Africa will stay in Africa and be distributed to Africa.
It follows criticism that vaccines were being shipped away from a continent that has the lowest vaccination rates in the world.
Less than 3% of the continent’s population has been vaccinated.

The federal government will from September 9, 2021, commence the nationwide verification of all civil servants recruited by the Federal Civil Service Commission from 2013 to 2020.
The Director of Recruitment and Appointment, Federal Civil Service Commission, Ibrahim Anjugu, stated this in a circular dated August 27, 2021.
The circular added that the mandatory verification exercise would hold across the six geopolitical political zones of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory.
The commission threatened that any officer who fails to turn up for the verification exercise would have his or her salary automatically stopped.

Former Inspector-General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro has advised the federal government to be two steps ahead of criminals in its resolve to address the rising security challenges facing the country.
He also advised the government at the centre to adequately equip and train the nation’s security agencies in line with international standards.
Okiro says the security problem is nationwide and not limited to any particular sector or organisation.
He says the federal government really has to look into the security agencies and put them at par with what is happening in the outside world.

The federal government says that it will partner with journalists and the mass media in the campaign to eliminate and prevent child labour in the country.
The government says there was a need to create more awareness of the dangers of child labour, and the efforts to prevent and eliminate this hydra-headed monster are now more imperative than ever.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr Yerima Tarfa, says that Nigeria is working on achieving a significant milestone in the elimination of Child Labour practices.
He added that child labour and other forms of modern slavery are issues of grave concern in the global arena on account of their dire consequences, and the persistence of those consequences through generations of families.