At least 45 people have been confirmed dead with hundreds missing as several homes collapse due to overnight floods caused by heavy rain in the South Africa coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The South African emergency service said in a statement on Tuesday, rescue workers were searching for missing people but the task has been difficult due to destruction of roads by mudslides.
“Some people in the city managed to climb up to their rooftops awaiting rescue, but local media report that only one helicopter was available to lift people away as key roads across the city were shut,” the agency said.
The mayor of eThekwini, an area including Durban and its surrounding towns, Mxolisi Kaunda, in a message of solidarity, apologised to residents who were left stranded after the emergency call centre was overwhelmed overnight.
Kaunda said efforts were underway to restore water and electricity supplies to parts of the city, after most of the city’s electricity power stations were flooded on Monday evening and a number of water treatment plants damaged.
“Residents who fear their homes may collapse should seek shelter in community halls,” the Mayor stated.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Tuesday predicted that countries in Eastern Africa would face the worst drought in the region for 40 years.
The Djibouti-based trade bloc said at a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya, that the region has recorded higher temperatures and less than normal rainfall in the last few years.
The IGAD member states are Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
The group’s Executive Secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu, said at the forum that millions of people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, including countries in the Horn of Africa, the Nile Valley and the African Great Lakes, as well as other countries in the Eastern region would experience the kind of drought not experienced in the last 40 years.
He said more than 29 million people in East Africa are currently facing high levels of food insecurity across the region, noting that between 15.5 million and 16 million people are currently in dire need of immediate food assistance.
Gebeyehu said: “The severe shortages of water and pasture are leading to smaller food production, significant losses in livestock and wildlife, and a rise in resource-based conflicts in the East African region.
“This coupled with other stress factors such as conflicts in both our region and Europe, the impact of COVID-19 and macro-economic challenges have led to acute levels of food insecurity across the Greater Horn of Africa.”
A few days after Germany and Denmark expelled Russian diplomats who were believed to be working for the Russian secret service, the French secret service (DGSI) has also kicked out six Russian agents “operating under diplomatic cover” uncovered in a “clandestine operation.”
In a statement on Monday evening, the French foreign ministry said the operation being “conducted by Russian intelligence services” on French territory had been dismantled by the DGSI.
“The operation was carried out by six Russian agents operating under diplomatic cover and whose activities proved to be contrary to our national interests,” the statement said.
The undercover Russian operation was discovered on Sunday, the day of the first round of the French presidential election, it added.
The Russian agents were declared persona non grata and the second-in-command at the Russian embassy was summoned to the ministry on Monday evening.”
The French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin who praised the work of the DGSI, said a “remarkable counterespionage operation” had been carried out by the secret service which he said “watches over our fundamental interests.”
A week earlier, 35 Russian diplomats were also expelled by France, the biggest eviction of Russian officials since the so-called Farewell Dossier in 1983, when some 40 Soviet agents were booted out after a KGB defector, Vladimir Vetrov, handed over incriminating documents to the French authorities.
Rwanda is one of the few countries in Africa to vaccinate over 60 percent of its population for CCOVID-19, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The global health agency said in its report on Saturday that the East African nation had already administered vaccine doses to more than 40 percent of its 12 million population as at the end of 2021.
However, Rwanda trails the island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius where the rate of infections are very minimal due to strict compliance with restrictions and regulations.
“Rwanda has joined Seychelles and Mauritius as the first African countries to vaccinate 60 percent of its population in line with WHO‘s target,” the organisation said on Twitter.
So far, Rwanda remains an exception as about only 15 percent of the African continent’s population is fully vaccinated.”
The country achieved the feat by aggressively pursuing the vaccination of its citizens including setting up vaccination site in busy public places like bus stations and taxi ranks in the capital, Kigali.
Medical staff said between 200 and 400 residents received jabs each day and many of them had already registered for booster shots which is expected to kick off soon across the country.
In a rare moment of admission, Russia has admitted that it has suffered significant losses in the ongoing war in Ukraine which amounts to a “huge tragedy” for the country, according to Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
In a statement on Friday following the expulsion of Russia by the UN Security Council, Peskov said: “Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a massive military offensive on February 24, was expected to last a few days due to its military might but more than eight weeks after, the war is yet to end with both sides suffering severe casualties.
The war has also caused the world’s fastest refugee crisis with more than 4.3 million fleeing Ukraine to neighbouring countries, while at least 1,500 civilians have been killed so far, according to the United Nations.
Casualties on the Russian side have been harder to assess with the country’s Defence Minister saying on March 25 that 1,351 of its soldiers have been killed in combat, while 3,825 were wounded.
But Ukraine rebutted the figures, saying not less than 19,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far.
But experts say figures by both parties cannot be trusted as Kyiv is likely to inflate them to boost the morale of its troops, while Russia is probably downplaying them.
However, commenting on the Russian troop withdrawal from certain areas in Ukraine including from Kyiv’s northern region, Peskov said that it was an “act of goodwill” to “lift tensions” during negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Elon Musk has overtaken Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on the list of the richest social media owners, after his acquisition of the largest share in competing microblogging firm, Twitter.
It was gathered that the top five social media billionaires are worth almost half a trillion dollars, about $465.9 billion to be exact, however, only Musk and Zuckerberg, crossed the $100 billion mark, according to data collated by Ripples Nigeria.
Elon Musk
Zuckerberg started the year on the list of the richest social media owner. However, he fell to the second spot, behind Musk, the wealthiest man on earth, whose networth is $282 billion as of April 7, 2022.
Ripples Nigeria recalls that Musk purchased 9.2% in Twitter, which has a market valuation of $38.45 billion, to add the social media firm to his investment portfolio, which includes automotive business, Tesla, and Space company, SpaceX.
Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg, ranked second, is worth $79.6 billion, drawing his wealth from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and virtual reality business. The 15th richest man, according to Forbes, is also planning to add digital currency to his portfolio.
Although, Zuckerberg’s firm, now known as Meta Platform (Facebook), is worth $606.86 billion, according to Thursday’s trading, making it the world’s most valuable social network.
Zhang Yiming
The third spot was taken by TikTok founder, Zhang Yiming, who is an Internet entrepreneur from China. The 39-year-old’s total fortune is estimated at $49.5 billion, sitting on the 26th spot.
Yiming’s Bytedance created TikTok in 2015, and it has a market valuation of about $250 billion according to Forbes report in 2021. The billionaire also owns news aggregator, Toutiao.
Ma Huateng
The internet company of Chinese billionaire, Ma Huateng, Tencent Holdings, owns WeChat, China’s largest social media gathering, although the messaging app was created by Allen Zhang.
The 50-year-old businessman is ranked 33rd on Forbes world’s richest, with a networth estimated at $39.7 billion, which he gross from Tencent, carmaker Tesla, streaming service Spotify, and Snapchat.
Pavel Durov
Pavel Durov is the founder of Telegram, and the Russian billionaire is worth $15.1 billion, ranking 130th in the world – thanks to the over 600 million users connecting on the social app.
Durov and Telegram were both based in Russia before he relocated to become a French citizen and based his business in Dubai, following his refusal to share users’ information with Russian secret service.
More than 30 Ukrainians have been killed with 100 others seriously wounded after a Russian missile hit a crowded train station in the eastern part.
The station was crowded with civilians fleeing Russia’s onslaught in eastern Ukraine city of Kramatorsk on Friday morning.
According to Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, thousands of people were at the station at the time, as residents were being evacuated to safer regions in Ukraine.
“Police and rescuers have reported that dozens of people have been killed or wounded, after rockets hit the station,” Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram.
The chairman of Ukrainian Railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin, who also confirmed the attack, said the train station in the city of Kramatorsk is one of the busiest in the city with thousands of passengers passing through it everyday.
“The Kramatorsk train station was crowded with civilians fleeing Russia’s onslaught on eastern Ukraine at the time of the rocket strike,” Kamyshin said.
Kramatorsk is one of the easternmost stations still operating in Ukraine, and the governor of Donetsk said thousands of people were there at the time, trying to get on to trains out of the area.
Police operatives in Kogi on Thursday rescued 12 abducted passengers in the state.
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edward Egbuka, confirmed the development in a statement issued by the spokesman for the state police command, William Ovye-Aya.
Egbuka said the 12 victims were among the 16 Benue-bound passenger bus recently intercepted by suspected kidnappers along Anyigba – Ankpa road.
He said: “The Command received a distressed report that a Toyota bus, with Registration Number- Benue 192 XA, driven by one Bernard Ejeh conveying 16 passengers from Abuja to Benue State via ANKPA, ran into kidnappers at Ojuwo-Ajebgo village of Ofu Local Government Area, along Anyigba road.
“Without waste of time, the operatives of Quick Response Unit, stationed at Itobe, promptly swung into action, pursued the hoodlums into the bush and rescued 12 passengers including the driver while four other passengers are yet to be seen.
“Luckily too, I was on a visiting tour to Kogi East Senatorial Zone, so when I got the information while on my way to Ejule, I immediately moved to the scene, where I met with the rescued passengers.”
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the body’s Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” in Ukraine.
Russia has come under heavy attacks from the international community led by the United States over the February 24 invasion of its Southern neighbour.
Russia was in its second year of a three-year term in the 47-member Geneva-based Council.
In the voting session which took place at the UN headquarters in New York, 93 nations led by the US voted for the removal of Russia from the Council while 24 countries voted no and 58 others abstained.
Moscow had since announced its exit from the body.
In his address after the session, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Gennady Kuzmin described the move as an “illegitimate and politically motivated step.”
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a notorious member of drug cartel in Taraba State, Lami Rigima.
The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this at a media briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, said Rigima who was the major supplier of psychoactive substances to drug traffickers in Taraba State had been on the agency’s wanted list for several months.
Babafemi said: “The search for the drug queen, Lami Rigima, began in October 2021 following the arrest, prosecution and conviction of a 50-year drug dealer, Abdullahi Madaki, who fingered her as his major supplier.
“After serving his brief jail sentence, Madaki returned to the illicit trade with Lami still as his supplier.
“He was, however, re-arrested on February 13, while another trafficker, Jamilu Hassan, 20, who is also a member of Lami’s supply chain, was nabbed on February 24.”
Apex Niger Delta sociopolitical group, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has condemned the decision by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to throw open its 2023 presidential ticket instead of zoning it to the Southern part of the country, while insisting that the next president must come from the South.
The group described the move by the main opposition party as throwing away it’s best chance of toppling the APC in the 2023 general election.
In a statement signed by PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson on Wednesday, the group claimed that the decision by the party’s Zoning Committee led by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State which arrived at the decision, was ill-advised and acted on a planned script.
It is an awful decision and there will be consequences. But we are not utterly surprised at the development,” the statement said.
The outcome was predictable; there were evident-pointers that this would be the conclusion.
“Governor Ortom’s Committee has a script and they have played it out with due deference to some patriots that were in the Committee.
“The level of desperation and political debauchery being demonstrated by some political stakeholders is deplorable and quite disappointing.
“Regrettably, we are in a society where it seems anything goes. We will await the conduct of the presidential primaries by the parties to assess the choices that would be presented to us.”
Two people have been confirmed killed as violent tornado storms ripped through the US state of Texas on Tuesday.
According to the US meterological office, the Tuesday hailstorm which came with “strong winds and tornadoes tore across the South,” with authorities warning a second day of dangerous weather of violent weather could follow.
One of the victims, a woman who died on Tuesday evening in Pembroke, Georgia, had the roof to her home ripped apart by the storm which destroyed the entrance to a local government building across the street and damaged homes in nearby neighborhoods, said Matthew Kent, a county government spokesman.
Kent said several others were injured in the county 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Savannah, adding that the death occurred in one of the damaged neighborhoods, but had no further details.
“In eastern Texas, the other victim, W. M. Soloman, 71, died when storm winds toppled a tree onto Solomon’s home in Whitehouse, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Dallas,” Whitehouse Mayor James Wansley said.
More than 50,000 homes and businesses were without power Tuesday night from eastern Texas to South Carolina.
The outages came on a day the National Weather Service issued a nonstop stream of tornado warnings for hours as the storm system tore across Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Wansley added.
Russia is to face another rash of restrictions as the United States, the European Union and the G7, plan to announce stricter new sanctions against it on Wednesday, days after the bodies of many civilians were found outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The penalties will include a ban on all new investment in Russia, increased sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia, and sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members.
“You can expect that the sanctions will target Russian government officials, their family members, Russian-owned financial institutions, also state-owned enterprises.
“It’s a part of the continuation of our efforts to put consequences in place, hold Russian officials accountable,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
Earlier on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, had said the EU was proposing to ban most Russian ships and trucks from entering the bloc, as well as Russian coal imports.
He said the EU would also push ahead with a debate on Russian oil which she said was a sensitive issue in Europe, where many countries are dependent on Russian fuel imports.
The EU sanctions include expanding export controls on technologies used in the Russian defence sector and other key industries, as well as restrictions on sales of equipment that can be used to liquefy natural gas.
They have also proposed sanctioning more entities, including banks such as VTB Bank PJSC, that have been cut off from the Swift global payments messaging system but are not yet fully sanctioned.
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while giving his first address to the UN Security Council, shared details of alleged Russian atrocities in his country.
“They killed entire families, adults and children, and they try to burn the bodies.
“Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road. And just for their pleasure, they cut off limbs … slashed their throats,” Zelenskyy said.
A female Pakistani teacher at an all-girls religious school in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of the country, has been killed by her female colleagues and students who stabbed her to death for alleged blasphemy, the police has confirmed on Wednesday.
The teacher, Safoora Bibi, was accused of blasphemy by a female colleague and two students, which is seen as a very serious offence and a hugely sensitive issue in the country which had led to many being lynched or sentenced to death.
The latest incident, according to the police, took place on Tuesday in Dera Ismail Khan in the country’s northwestern province which shares borders with Afghanistan.
Police said two students and a teacher ambushed Bibi at the main gate of the school and attacked her with a knife and stick.
“She died after her throat was slit,” police official Saghir Ahmed.
The main suspect is a colleague who planned the crime with two nieces studying at the Jamia Islamia Falahul Binaat school,” Ahmed said.
“The girls told the police that a relative had dreamed the dead woman had committed blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad,” he said, adding they were also investigating if the main suspect, Umra Aman, had a personal grudge with the victim.
Another police officer, Azeem Khan, who also confirmed the incident, said the students were brainwashed by the main suspect.
A court in Tennessee, the United States, on Monday convicted a nurse, RaDonda Vaught, for culpable homicide after she intentionally injected an elderly patient with a drug which ultimately led to her death.
Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse, who was charged with the death of the patient, was convicted at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in Nashville, Tennessee.
At the hearing, prosecutors told the court that Vaught, in 2017, deliberately injected 75-year-old Charlene Murphey with Vecuronium injection instead of the recommended drug, Versed.
“The drug mix-up likely caused Murphey to stop breathing, and her eventual death,” prosecutors told the court.
Murphey, who was admitted into the Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a brain bleed, died after she was administered the injection.
“This wasn’t an accident or mistake as it’s been claimed. There were multiple chances for RaDonda Vaught to just pay attention,” Assistant District Attorney, Chad Jackson said during closing of arguments.
Vaught faces up to two years in prison when the sentencing comes up on May 13.
A United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report on Tuesday said nearly 3.9 million refugees have so far fled Ukraine since the invasion of the country by Russia on February 24.
As the invasion enters day 34, the UN Refugee Agency said the figures will continue to grow as Russia intensifies its attacks and the bombing of civilian enclaves.
“As at Monday, March 28, around 3,862,797 Ukrainians had fled the country, an increase of 41,748 from Sunday’s figures. Around 90 percent of them are women and children,” the report said.
It added that of the figure, 2.2 million fled into neighbouring Poland, while more than half a million have made it to Romania and nearly 300,000 have gone to Russia.
“In total, more than 10 million people which is over a quarter of the population in regions under government control before the February 24 invasion, are now thought to have fled their homes, including nearly 6.5 million who are internally displaced,” it said.
Also in a report by the UN Children’s agency, UNICEF, around 4.3 million children, more than half of Ukraine’s estimated 7.5 million child population, had been forced to leave their homes.
UNICEF said about 1.5 million the number of those children have become refugees, while another 2.5 million are displaced inside their war-ravaged country.
“The number leaving daily has fallen well below 100,000 per day, and even 50,000 in recent days, even as living conditions in Ukraine worsen.
The United States has blacklisted six Nigerians for supporting the Boko Haram sect.
The spokesman for the US Department of State, Ned Price, disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Washington.
The decision, according to the statement followed the prosecution and conviction of the individuals in the United Arab Emirates for supporting terrorism.
The statement read: “The United States is designating six individuals for their support of the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added Nigerian nationals Abdurrahman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad to the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Boko Haram.
“Today’s action follows the United Arab Emirates’ prosecutions, convictions, and designations of these individuals for supporting terrorism.
“The Department of State designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization on November 14, 2013.
“The Nigeria-based group is responsible for numerous attacks in the Northern and North-East regions of the country as well as in the Lake Chad Basin in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger that have killed thousands of people since 2009.”
The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday charged politicians and leaders across the country to find solutions to the country’s current challenges.
Tinubu, who made the call at the 25th convocation lecture of Lagos State University, Ojo, stressed the importance of nation-building.
Represented at the forum by Lagos Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, the APC chieftain also urged politicians to stop trading blames over the challenges.
He said: “Nigeria’s GDP per capita is ranked 17th in Africa and 131st in the world. According to the World Bank, we are the 7th most populous nation as of 2020. But our economic ranking was not commensurate with the population size. One does not have to be a genius in mathematics to know the difference between 7 and 131.
“Our lack of sustained dynamic economic growth does not lend itself to social stability. Economic slowness and destitution place great pressure on people to migrate in search of opportunities. But too much migration too fast and too unimagined results in people competing and contending against one another on dwindling arable land, which undermines social harmony.
We need a new, more convivial way. A way that will give us the right start at a fair chance for durable prosperity. A large urban population needs a strong manufacturing and industrial base. If not, we invite unemployment, crime, hunger, and poverty to become chronic and severe.
“We must better link formal education with the skills and expertise our business community seeks in modern times.”
North Korea, Thursday, fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) since 2017, more than four years after its last release, as world leaders gather in Brussels, Belgium, for a security summit.
The suspected ICBM which flew to an altitude of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and to a distance of 1,080 kilometers (671 miles) with a flight time of 71 minutes before splashing down in waters off Japan’s western coast, was personally supervised by the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry.
Thursday’s launch of the ICBM is North Korea’s 11th of the year, including one it fired on March 16, which was not a complete success.
However, analysts said the recent test could be the longest-range missile yet fired by North Korea, exceeding its last ICBM launch in November 2017.
Japan’s Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki told reporters shortly after that the missile’s altitude would suggest it is a “new type of ICBM,” a potential sign North Korea is closer to “developing weapons capable of targeting the United States.”
A statement by North Korean state media confirmed Oniki’s assessment, announcing the launch of a Hwasong-17 missile, the country’s newest known ICBM variant.
Meanwhile, the United States has joined its Asian allies, South Korea and Japan in strongly condemning the launch and called on North Korea to refrain from further destabilizing acts.
According to security analysts, the recent spate of North Korean missile tests would suggest Kim Jong Un is “attempting to show an increasingly turbulent world that Pyongyang remains a player in the struggle for power and influence.”
North Korea refuses to be ignored and may be trying to take advantage of global preoccupation with the war in Ukraine to force a fait accompli on its status as a nuclear weapons state,” Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told CNN.
In response to the ICBM test, South Korea’s military also launched several warning missiles for the first time since 2017, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a text sent to reporters.
“Our military is monitoring North Korean military’s movements and have confirmed that we have the capability and posture to accurately strike the origin location of the missile launch and command and support facilities any time North Korea launches a missile,” the JCS said.
The first female United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has died at the age of 84.
Albright, who helped steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War, died on Wednesday after years of battling cancer, her family said in a statement.
She was a central figure in President Bill Clinton’s administration, first serving as US Ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the nation’s top diplomat in Clinton’s second term.
In a statement on Wednesday, President Joe Biden described the former secretary of state a “force” and said working with her during the 1990s was among the highlights of his career as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
He said: “When I think of Madeleine, I will always remember her fervent faith that America is the indispensable nation.”
In his tribute, Clinton said: “Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served. As a child in war-torn Europe, Madeleine and her family were twice forced to flee their home.
“When the end of the Cold War ushered in a new era of global interdependence, she became America’s voice at the UN, then took the helm at the State Department, where she was a passionate force for freedom, democracy, and human rights.”
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