Newscast - Africa

The Academic Staff Union of Universities extended its six-month-old strike indefinitely until the Federal Government meets its demands.
A member of the union says the union extended the industrial action after reviewing progress reports on ongoing negotiations with the Federal Government in the last four weeks when ASUU rolled over the strike.
ASUU embarked on the strike on February 14th, 2022. It had then declared a four-week warning strike. But after a month, the lecturers extended it by eight weeks, saying the government needs more time to look at its demands.

A Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown out a suit by the Federal Government to extradite the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, to the United States of America.
Justice Inyang Ekwo struck out the suit filed by Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, on the ground that the application is incompetent, lacked merit and was instituted in bad faith.
Justice Ekwo insisted that the current administration has no basis to file the extradition request having commenced trial in a case filed against the embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

The Federal Government says it had entered into a partnership with the Turkish energy firm, EXIST (Energy Exchange Istanbul), to design a functional trading structure for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, among others.
It says the partnership came on the heels of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc with EXIST to boost cooperation and knowledge exchange between the two countries.
The government says the cooperation agreement, signed between NBET and EXIST at the latter’s campus in Maslak, Turkey, was designed to explore mutually beneficial opportunities for growth between both agencies.

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has commenced an investigation of extra-budgetary spending by Nigeria’s foreign missions and their refusal to remit Internally Generated Revenue despite cries of the paucity of funds by the embassies and high commissions.
The Office of the Auditor General for the Federation decried that efforts to audit the accounts of some of the missions were frustrated by the officials who acted on a directive by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Auditor-General, in the over 450-page document containing a list of audit queries against the missions, raised the alarm over their habit of making spending outside their budgets and without the approval of the National Assembly.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says European Union foreign ministers are unlikely to unanimously back a ban on visas for all Russians when they meet later this week.
Borrell says cutting the relationship with the Russian civilian population will not help and will have the required unanimity.
The foreign ministers would need to reach a unanimous agreement to implement a ban, which would be the bloc’s latest action intended to publish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Colombia’s new left-wing government says it will suspend aerial bombings targeting armed groups, in an effort to minimise the deaths of civilians and children who have been forcibly recruited into the organisations.
Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez says that the move was a symbol of the government’s willingness to engage in possible talks with armed groups.
Velasquez says they are going to evaluate the specific moment in which an absolute guideline can be established.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase the headcount of the country’s army, as Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine enters its seventh month.
Putin last set the army headcount in 2017 at around 1.9 million people with 1.01 million soldiers.
The decree comes at a time of soaring tensions between Moscow and Western countries that have sanctioned Russia over its operation in Ukraine

The World Bank has approved the equivalent of $250m from the International Development Association for Mozambique to improve transport in the capital, Maputo.
World Bank Director for Mozambique Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough says the funds will be used to improve road access to poor neighbourhoods and improve the country's transport system and other infrastructure projects.
She says the operation will ultimately contribute to expanding economic opportunity and social inclusion. Poor access to jobs and services is a major constraint on urban economic productivity.

Kenya Airways Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka says the amount of money Kenya’s national airline is trying to repatriate from Ethiopia, Malawi and Nigeria is $28m.
The airline says it is relying on diplomatic talks led by the Kenyan authorities for the funds in Ethiopia, Malawi and Nigeria to be released.
The International Air Transport Association says up to $1bn is owed to airlines across Africa, which poses yet another risk to the aviation industry already hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Germany has signed an agreement to transfer ownership of 512 Benin Bronzes, hailed as the largest return of cultural artefacts looted from the continent in the 19th century.
The agreement was signed between the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage and Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
The foundation says the first objects will be returned to Nigeria this year from the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.