Newscast - Africa

Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will join the contest to replace Liz Truss as British prime minister and Conservative Party leader after economic turmoil forced Truss to resign after serving just 44 days in office.
Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in the UK’s history after she resigned on Thursday following her disastrous tax cuts plans and policy U-turns plunged the markets into chaos, with the pound plunging to its lowest value.
The unprecedented economic crisis drew a rare intervention from the Bank of England.
The market turmoil forced Truss to sack her then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng and replace him with Jeremy Hunt who swiftly scrapped all of Kwarteng’s economic agenda.

Britain’s Boris Johnson dramatically ended an audacious bid to return to power within weeks of having been ousted, announcing he would not run to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss.
The surprise decision, which the ex-leader says he had reached reluctantly after recognizing he would not lead a united party in parliament, removes a major obstacle to his political foe, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, becoming prime minister.
Johnson says he had reached out to both Sunak and cabinet member Penny Mordaunt to come together in the national interest.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have announced a visa ban slapped on Ugandans and 20 other nationalities seeking to visit Dubai with immediate effect.
Other countries affected by the visa ban include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Comoros, and the Dominican Republic.
In a notice issued to trade partners including travel agents, authorities indicated that all applications should be rejected.
The development is the latest development in efforts by UAE while tighten the noose for foreigners into the country.

President William Ruto has urged Kenyans to pay taxes to enable the government to fulfill its mandate for Kenya to be an independent nation.
The Head of State stated that will be the viable solution to steer development in the country without huge reliance on foreign debts.
President Ruto mentioned that his regime is working to solve the huge debt crisis due to the ballooning debt in the country which now stands at Sh8.2 trillion.
He revealed that the government is focused on financing development projects using taxes pointing out that the government is currently paying more than Sh1 trillion to service the huge loans currently.

Uganda and Tanzania are set to begin work on a massive crude oil pipeline a year after the International Energy Agency warned that the world risked not meeting its climate goals if new fossil fuel projects were not stopped.
The two East African countries say their priority is economic development.
Some of the inhabitants of the Chongoleani peninsula, some 18km north of Tanzania's port city of Tanga, sold their land for compensation two years ago, after the government signed a deal to construct a pipeline to transport crude oil from the shores of Lake Albert in western Uganda

Four Kenyan policemen accused of being behind a spate of murders, abductions, and torture across the country are set to go on trial on Monday in the capital, Nairobi.
They were part of an elite squad that was disbanded by President William Ruto for allegedly carrying out extrajudicial killings and disappearances of suspects over several years.
Human Rights groups say their independent investigations have linked the squad and other police units to the death of more than 600 people over the past four years.
Some of the bodies were later recovered in rivers in western and northern Kenya.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has addressed the nation detailing the steps his government will be taking in implementing a commission's report on state capture.
The six-part report sought to uncover corruption, fraud, and the weakening of state institutions under the administration of former president Jacob Zuma.
President Ramaphosa accepted the findings by the commission of inquiry led by Judge Raymond Zondo that state capture did happen.
He announced that the commission made over 300 recommendations, some of which the government was responding to ranging from criminal prosecutions of accused persons, legislative changes, as well the establishment of an anti-corruption commission.
Mr. Ramaphosa says the stolen money robbed South Africans of their future.

The Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission is set to make at least $1.09bn from the sale of four 5G spectrums.
The NCC revealed in a new Information Memorandum on the 3.5 GHz Spectrum Auction that it has set the reserve price for two more 5G spectrum licenses at $273.60m a piece.
It says the reserve price is the minimum price for one Lot of 100MHz TDD for a 10-year license tenure fixed at $273.60m or its equivalent in Naira at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria rates at the time of the auction.
The final cost of the available spectrum is expected to rise during the actual auction. The NCC set the reserve price for the 5G licenses that MTN and Mafab won at $197.4m, but they eventually paid $273.60m each for their licenses.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited says the Federal Government has stepped up its probe into the massive crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, as all those found guilty are going to face prosecution.
It says the oil company was also working with security agencies and the private firm contracted to carry out pipeline surveillance in the oil-rich region.
The former leader of the militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, told journalists recently in Delta State that a 4km illegal oil pipeline was discovered in the Forcados area of the state.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC Limited, Garba-Deen Muhammad, said culprits would be prosecuted.

The pound rose against the dollar and government borrowing costs dipped as investors reacted to Prime Minister Liz Truss's resignation.
One analyst says the reaction suggested investors were "relieved" by the news, despite a lot of uncertainty remaining.
Business groups said the new prime minister would have to act quickly to restore confidence.
Government borrowing costs rose sharply last month after the government promised huge tax cuts in its mini-budget without saying how it would pay for them.
Mr. Hunt is due to announce plans for spending and tax on 31 October in his economic plan, which the Treasury confirmed was set to go ahead.