Newscast - Africa

Kenya’s High Court has frozen more than US$50 million in 62 bank accounts belonging to Nigerian start-up Flutterwave and four Kenyans.
The court ruling comes on the suspicion that the money was proceeds of fraud and money laundering.
Kenya's Assets Recovery Agency asked the court to stop the money from being moved or taken out until the government filed a petition to get the money back.
The agency says that their investigations showed that the money was sent as payments for goods and services.

The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning rights violations against women and girls in Afghanistan, urging the ruling Taliban to end restrictive practices described as making them invisible in society.
The council’s decisions are not legally binding but carry political weight and can lead to official investigations.
The U.S. ambassador to the council, Michèle Taylor, also voiced concern over recent measures, mentioning a new policy to punish male family members who are not enforcing restrictions that were creating an environment of constant fear.

A United States federal court has sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating the civil rights of George Floyd, a Black man killed when Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes in an incident that sparked mass protests.
US District Judge Paul Magnuson rebuked Chauvin at the sentencing hearing calling the ex-policeman’s actions when he killed Floyd in May 2020 offensive.
Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those who violate the Constitution, and to safeguarding the civil rights of all Americans.

New Zealand’s central bank issued a formal warning to National Australia Bank Ltd’s local unit for failing to report approximately 50,000 transactions as required by anti-money laundering and counterterrorism laws.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand says NAB’s Bank of New Zealand did not report accurate locations for about 50,000 local and physical cash transactions between November 2018 and April 2020.
BNZ says it had reported the error to the Reserve Bank after becoming aware of the issue in August 2020 and set about fixing it immediately.

Sierra Leone’s information minister has defended plans to decriminalise abortion.
Rahman Swaray says it was not a gimmick and the government intended to pass the legislation.
He says that 14% of those who die during childbirth did so because of unsafe abortions - many of them teenagers.
President Julius Maada Bio says his government would try again at a time when sexual reproductive rights for women were under attack - a reference to the US Supreme Court's recent overturning a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Africa’s top public health agency says it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Pfizer for countries on the continent to receive supplies of the Paxlovid pill to treat COVID-19.
The acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, says the MOU would allow African countries to access Paxlovid at cost.
The World Health Organization says that deaths in the continent from COVID-19 are expected to fall by nearly 94 per cent in 2022 compared with last year.

Nigeria's Lagos state has suspended new guidelines on safe abortion to allow for more consultations.
The guidelines were developed over four years and were meant to guide healthcare providers to provide safe and lawful abortion services within existing laws however religious leaders said they were not consulted.
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos early this week was quoted as saying the guidelines would legalise abortion through the backdoor.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says further sensitisation of the public and stakeholders was needed to ensure a clearer understanding of the guidelines.

The UK high court of justice has blocked the Federal Government from appealing last month's ruling dismissing a $1.7 billion claim against JP Morgan Chase Bank over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 in 2011.
The high court says there was no real prospect of overturning the ruling.
Judge Sara Cockerill ruled that the Nigerian government could not prove that it was defrauded, saying it might be that with the benefit of hindsight.
The US Department of Justice previously investigated the OPL 245 deal and announced in October 2019 that it was closing the case.

President Muhammadu Buhari joined African leaders in Dakar, Senegal to launch the largest financial package ever mobilised in the history of the International Development Association $93billion geared toward a robust and resilient economy for Africa.
President Buhari stressed that in view of the current challenges faced by world economies, the Nigerian government is determined to ensure that the economy is able to withstand the shocks by building a resilient economy capable of creating jobs.
He called on global partners for concerted efforts to help in the realisation of these objectives.

The Westminster Magistrates Court, the United Kingdom accepted that the kidney donor in the case of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice is not a minor.
The police authorities had accused the lawmaker of conspiring to bring a child to the United Kingdom for organ harvesting, saying the victim was a 15-year-old boy.
The prosecution accepted that he is 21 years old, contrary to earlier claims that he is 15 years old.