Newscast - Africa

World leaders have hailed the deal signed by the two sides in Ethiopia’s civil war ending hostilities in the two-year conflict.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the truce and has urged all Ethiopians and the international community to support the bold step taken by the two warring parties.
Mr. Guterres says the agreement is a critical first step towards ending the devastating two-year-old conflict in which the lives and livelihoods of so many Ethiopians have been lost.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the momentous step and noted that his country would remain closely engaged to support the continued AU-led efforts in the weeks ahead.

Turkey's president says a deal to free up grain exports from Ukraine will consider African countries struggling with supplies.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had discussed sending grain to African countries.
Mr. Erdogan says the situation in Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan is not good at all. If there is a problem in any other less developed countries.
The grain deal was brokered by the UN and Turkey in July, bringing to an end a five-month Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that trapped millions of tonnes of grain and sunflower oil and sent food prices soaring.
The deal ends on 19 November and those involved still have to agree on extending it.

The warring sides in Ethiopia announced an agreement to silence their guns after two years of devastating conflict that have claimed thousands of lives and left millions needing aid in Africa’s second most populous country.
The surprise deal between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and Tigrayan rebels was unveiled after little over a week of negotiations led by the African Union in South Africa and was hailed by the UN and the US among others.
The breakthrough was announced by the African Union’s mediator, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, almost exactly two years to the day since the war erupted in November 2020.
They also agreed on the restoration of law and order, restoration of services, unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, and protection of civilians among other areas of agreement.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq says that from the assessment carried out so far by the ministry, Bayelsa State is not among the top ten most affected states by the recent floods.
The minister says instead, Jigawa is ranked the number one most-hit state.
The ministry says the criteria used to arrive at the conclusion are based on the following indices: the number of deaths recorded and displaced persons per state, number of injuries, partially damaged, houses totally damaged, and farmlands partially a d totally damaged.

The Senate Committee on Power has summoned Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to over N147 billion included in the capital project of the Ministry of Power.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam, claimed that the committee could not explain how the funds for the multilateral projects in the power sector were being expended.
Suswam says the actual capital budget of the Ministry of power for the 2023 is N44 billion while N147 billion is meant for bilateral and multilateral projects.

A billionaire Russian banker, Oleg Tinkov, has given up his Russian citizenship because of the war in Ukraine and condemned Putin fascism.
Mr Tinkov founded the online Tinkoff Bank, one of Russia's largest lenders, with about 20 million customers.
An independent Russian news source, Sota Vision, tweeted a photo of Mr Tinkov's certificate showing his Russian citizenship terminated, as well as his tirade on Instagram against President Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The banker says it is a shame for to continue to hold this passport.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is suspending - but not ending - its participation in a deal that allows safe passage to vessels carrying Ukrainian grain exports.
Moscow pulled out of the UN-brokered agreement on Saturday, alleging that Ukraine had used a safety corridor in the Black Sea to attack its fleet.
The UN says there were no ships inside the corridor that night.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the deal would be honoured and accused Russia of blackmailing the world with hunger.

A US court has blocked a $2.2bn merger between the world's largest book publisher Penguin Random House and it's rival Simon & Schuster.
US District Judge Florence Pan says the deal could substantially lessen competition in the publishing industry.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to stop the deal last November.
Judge Pan says the court finds that the United States has shown that the effect of the proposed merger may be substantial to lessen competition in the market for the US publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books.
Penguin says that it would appeal against the decision, calling it an unfortunate setback for readers and authors.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission reports that Elon Musk has become Twitter’s sole director after finalizing his $44 billion purchase of the social media site and dissolving its corporate board.
The documents state that the consummation of the Merger occurred on October 27, at which point Mr. Musk became the sole director of Twitter, while the entire board, including CEO Parag Agrawal, was let go.
Musk has reassured advertisers that the site would not become a free-for-all hellscape and announced the formation of a content moderation council.

Kenyan President William Ruto has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to end extra-judicial killings in the country, by ordering a police watchdog to draw up plans for reforms with civilian oversight.
Reports say the move followed an investigation into the disappearance of two Indian nationals and their local driver in July.
Kenyan police were in the spotlight this past week over the killing of Pakistani journalist Ashrad Sharif in what they claim was a case of mistaken identity.