The United Nations has claimed in a report made available to journalists a few hours ago that leader of the terrorist group, Al-Qaeda in Yemeni has been arrested.
The statement which is dated Thursday, February 4 revealed that Khalid Batarfi has been in the custody of the Arabian Peninsula security for several months now.
Naija News learnt that his deputy, Saad Atef al-Awlaqi was killed also in an operation in Ghayda City, Al-Mahrah Governorate, in October.
Batarfi was said to have overseer the group in Yemen for just under a year. Details of the operation were contained in the report filed to the Security Council from a UN monitoring team specializing in extremist groups. This is the first official confirmation of Batarfi’s arrest following unverified reports, Naija News understands.
However, the militant’s whereabouts or further details of the October operation were not revealed in the document. But the SITE Intelligence Group noted “unconfirmed reports” in October that Batarfi had been arrested by Yemeni security forces and then handed to Saudi Arabia.
South Korea’s candidate for the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Yoo Myung-Hee, has announced she will withdraw from the race.
It clears the path for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who the General Council announced late last year , as the consensus candidate.
The World Trade Organization’s General Council Chair, David Walker announced in last October that Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had garnered the most support among WTO members to become the next global trade chief but her appointment was vetoed by the United States.
Korea’s Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee announced on Friday that she would withdraw her candidacy for the next World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General. Korea will continue to work with responsibility for the restoration of the multilateral trading system.
NOI, as she is fondly called, will be the first female and first African to head the WTO if affirmed by its 164 members.
Myunghee1’s withdrawal does not mean @NOIweala immediately becomes the WTO next Director-General. That appointment is taken in a formal decision by the WTO’s 164 members.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Since the U.S. is the only WTO member blocking Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy, it remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will reverse the Trump administration’s veto and support her.
If there is no opposition from any WTO members, the chairman of the WTO general council, David Walker, can announce the resumption of the WTO suspended October general council meeting to consider the appointment of a new Director-General.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has notified Deposit Money Banks, Non-Financial Institutions, other financial institutions against doing business in Crypto and other digital assets.
In a circular dated 5th February 2021 and distributed to regulated financial firms, the apex bank of Africa’s largest economy warned and reminded local financial institutions against having any transactions in crypto or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.
In addition, the apex bank instructed the financial institutions to immediately close the accounts of such persons or entities transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Central Bank also added that “breaches of this directive will attract severe regulatory sanctions.”
The Nigerian government has slammed Emirates Airlines’ outbound flights with a 72-hour suspension.
This was contained in a Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) circular issued on February 4.
It explained that the suspension followed a breach of guidelines placed by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
The airline is accused of airlifting passengers from Nigeria, using rapid antigen tests done at laboratories which are not approved by regulatory authorities.
The circular read, “Based on the foregoing and to enable the Nigerian government to put in place the needed infrastructure and logistics for COVID-19 RDT testing for departing passengers, the PTF has directed that Emirates Airlines should either accept passengers without RDT pending when the infrastructure and logistics are put in place or suspend its flights to and from Nigeria until such a time when the required infrastructure and logistics are fully established and implemented.”
“Emirates Airlines has not been in compliance with the two options given by the PTF as records obtained from Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), indicates that Emirates Airlines operated the flights from both Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.”
The Army in Cameroon has been accused of killing no fewer than nine civilians in the restive South West region of the country.
This was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) which said that witnesses told them that the soldiers entered Mautu village on foot at around 14:00 on 10 January and then began shooting at people as they ran away in fear.
“The soldiers left the village at about 16:30 with at least four vehicles, which had arrived with additional soldiers after the attack began, HRW said in the statement.
The statement which also revealed that a child was among those killed added that the soldiers also looted scores of homes and threatened residents.
However, the report was denied by Cameroon’s defence ministry which said that they had carried out a “preventative raid on the positions of terrorist groups”.
The military in Myanmar have effected the arrest of Win Htein, 79, a trusted aide to overthrown leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was arrested on Friday, days after a coup that sparked outrage across the world.
In a brief interview with Reuters news agency, Win who personally confirmed his arrest said that he was being taken by police officers in a car from Yangon to the capital, Naypyidaw.
He however did not say what charges he could face.
“They are gentlemen so I can pick up the phone,” Win said. “We have been treated badly continuously for a long time. I have never been scared of them because I have done nothing wrong my entire life.”
Win’s arrest came a day after the military moved to block Facebook and other social media platforms in the country, accusing people of using them to create instability.
The Ministry of Communications and Transport said the restrictions would remain in place until February 7.
“Currently the people who are troubling the country’s stability … are spreading fake news and misinformation and causing misunderstanding among people by using Facebook,” the ministry said in a letter.
However, critics see the move by the military as a plot to quell dissent after detaining the country’s elected leaders and seizing power in a coup that the United Nations chief said must fail.
There is an outbreak of protests across Angola as the country marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the armed struggle with official acts and demonstrations on Friday.
In the Museum of Military History located in the center of the capital, Luanda, the national flag was raised and the anthem sang, followed by the deposition of flowers on the monument of the Unknown Soldier, in homage to all those who fought for the independence of Angola, achieved fifteen years later.
At the same time, elsewhere in the city, the National Police dispersed a demonstration with a hundred participants, in protest against the economic crisis and for political change.
According to the authorities, the demonstration did not meet the legal requirements and the participants committed several acts of vandalism, while the demonstrators claimed to have been surprised by the strong police apparatus.
The demonstrators also wanted to express their support for the inhabitants of Cafunfo, in the diamond region of Lunda Norte, where, on Saturday, the police suppressed an action they classified as separatist rebellion and which resulted in at least six deaths.
Some non-governmental organizations have denounced human rights violations while the government has ordered the opening of a judicial inquiry.
A lady was left feeling embarrassed after federal authorities found several substances that looked like cocaine hidden in her wig cap in an airport. A female law enforcement agent tore the wig cap on the woman’s hair after removing her wig to reveal several wraps of drugs on the woman’s hair.
To protect her image, the woman covered her face with her hands as some of the law enforcement agents who apprehended her took pictures of her and the drugs while others recorded as the drugs were being removed from her wig cap.
In most countries, drug smugglers get a prison or death sentence if caught. Most countries have law enforcement agencies stationed at various seaports and airports to thwart the operation of drug smugglers.
Watch the video below to see how the cocaine was extracted under her wig.
US country singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly, best known for writing 1970s hit Midnight Train to Georgia, has died aged 77, his family say.
Weatherly passed away at his home near Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday.
Music publisher and friend Charlie Monk said the family attributed his death to natural causes, the Tennessean website reports.
Weatherly released nearly a dozen studio albums during his five-decade career.
In his student years, the singer was a gifted quarterback for the University of Mississippi’s American football team.
But later in the 1960s he decided to leave sport and focus on music in Los Angeles.
Midnight Train to Georgia – a number one hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1973 – went on to win a Grammy Award, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
A number of American artists, including Aretha Franklin, later recorded their own versions of the popular song.
Weatherly’s biggest solo success was I’ll Still Love You, but he also penned more Gladys Knight hits, including Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye, and You’re the Best Thing (That Ever Happened to Me).
He recorded with a range of high-profile stars, including Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney.
“I’m missing him already,” Gladys Knight told the Jackson Clarion Ledger. “I love him and always will. He was about life and love and he wrote it so simply, he grew my love for country music. When we were with him it was like we’d always been together, we fit together. He started playing his guitar, and I started humming and it was magic.
“His music propelled us to a whole different level. I loved him and his music, he was a sweetheart and so gentle.”
image captionMillions in Yemen are in need of food, medicine or shelter after more than six years of war
The US is to end its support for offensive operations by its allies in Yemen, which has been devastated by a six-year war in which more than 110,000 people are believed to have died.
“The war in Yemen must end,” President Joe Biden said in his first major foreign policy speech.
Under Mr Biden’s two predecessors, the US backed a coalition led by Saudi Arabia against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The conflict has left millions of Yemenis on the brink of starvation.
Fighting began in 2014 between a weak Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel movement. It escalated a year later, when Saudi Arabia and eight other Arab states – backed by the US, the UK and France – began air strikes against the Houthis.
Mr Biden announced other changes to US foreign policy, such as a significant increase in the number of refugees accepted by the US, and a reversal of the decision to withdraw American troops from Germany, where they have been stationed since the end of World War Two.
His speech marks a sharp break with the policies of former president Donald Trump, who left office last month.
The US has been backing the Yemeni government and its Saudi-led allies in their war against the Houthis. As a result of Thursday’s announcement, the US will stop supporting offensive operations, including the sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This will not affect operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Biden administration had already put a temporary halt on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
This marks a change of tack from Mr Trump’s administration, which increased support for the Saudi-led coalition. Last month Mr Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that the Houthis were being designated a “terrorist organisation”.
He said the aim was to hold the Houthis accountable for cross-border attacks and deter “malign activity” by their backer Iran.
Aid organisations criticised the move, warning that it could prevent them from operating in areas where millions are in urgent need of food aid.
Last week, the Biden administration said it would exempt certain transactions involving the Houthis from sanctions. That exemption will expire on 26 February.
The United Nations says Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the population in need of aid or protection.
Mr Trump has appeared in a number of films, including Home Alone 2 and Zoolander. He also hosted the US version of The Apprentice TV show.
Last month, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) said its disciplinary committee would meet to decide what action should be taken regarding Mr Trump’s role in the Capitol riot in Washington DC on 6 January.
Five people died and dozens were injured during the pro-Trump siege.
“Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred – democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris.
“There’s a straight line from his wanton disregard for the truth to the attacks on journalists perpetrated by his followers,” she said.
SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 actors, journalists and other media professionals in the US.
Mr Trump, a Guild member for more than 30 years, was expected to be expelled at a forthcoming disciplinary meeting.
The union shared his resignation letter, which was addressed to its president, a former star of Beverly Hills, 90210, on its website.
“I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!” Mr Trump wrote.
“While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!”
Mr Trump added that he had “greatly helped” the cable news business, which he described as a “dying platform with not much time left” before he took to politics. He then branded the disciplinary action a “blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record”.
On 13 January, Mr Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached twice, after the US House of Representatives accused him of encouraging violence with false claims of election fraud.
Regional Security outfit, Amotekun has announced the arrest of 37 herdsmen and seizure of 5000 cattle for violating a quit notice issued by the Ondo state government.
The state government issued a 7-day quit notice to herdsmen in government forest reserves across the state. Confirming the arrests, the state commander of the Amotekun Corps, Chief Adetunji Adeleye disclosed;
“Some of them have opted to leave the state because they couldn’t meet with our terms and conditions. “They came through the Chairman of Miyatti Allah in the state.”
Canada has defended its decision to draw on a supply of coronavirus vaccines from a global inoculation-sharing initiative known as Covax.
Covax pools funds from wealthier countries to help buy vaccines for themselves and low-income nations.
The scheme has announced a plan to deliver more than 330 million vaccine doses in the first half of 2021.
Canada is the only member of the G7 group of rich countries listed as a Covax beneficiary at this stage.
Other wealthier countries, including New Zealand and Singapore, have requested an early allocation as well.
Most of the first doses available, though, will be delivered to low- and middle-income countries.
Many of those countries haven’t even started vaccinations. Meanwhile, Canada has vaccinated 2.29% of its population with one dose, including 48% of health workers, government data shows.
“Our top priority is to ensure Canadians have access to vaccines,” the minister said. “Covax’s objective is to provide vaccines for 20% of the populations of all member states, both self-financing and those who will receive donations.
“Canada made the decision, as other countries have, to take on this first allocation, because we recognise how important it is that all Canadians have access to vaccines.”
Canada is facing temporary delays for the two vaccines currently authorised in the country. That has put Mr Trudeau under pressure to ensure a timely vaccine rollout .
Canada lacks domestic production capacity for vaccines. Moderna is only delivering about 78% of the planned number of doses this week. Pfizer vaccines have also been delayed amid efforts to scale-up European production.
What is Covax and how is it distributing vaccines?
Covax works towards the development, purchase and delivery of vaccines to more than 180 countries.
It was launched in April 2020 and is led by the World Health Organization (WHO), together with the Global Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Covax released its first vaccine distribution forecast on Wednesday, outlining how many doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines it expected to deliver.
The forecast said the initial batch of about 330 million doses would cover, on average, 3.3% of total populations of 145 participating countries.
The forecast illustrates the challenge of vaccinating the global population against the coronavirus, at a time when access to jabs is limited and highly unequal.
Health experts say that, unless vaccines are shared more equitably, it could be years before the coronavirus is brought under control at a global level.
How many initial Covax doses will Canada get?
Covax’s forecast said an initial 1.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be sent to Canada.
Canada contributed $440m (£324m) to Covax in September, half of which secured doses for itself from about nine vaccines candidates.
The other half goes into a pooled fund to buy doses for 20% of the people in 92 low- and middle-income countries.
But other high-income countries with large stocks of vaccines, including the UK and Israel, were not included on Covax’s distribution list.
On Wednesday, Gavi chief executive officer Seth Berkley said the group’s most important role is to “supply vaccines for countries that otherwise wouldn’t get access”.
“Does it help when countries that have a lot of bilateral deals don’t take doses?” he asked. “Of course it helps because that means there are more doses available for others.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has extended the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu.
Adamu was due for retirement on February 1, 2021, but a day after, he welcomed Buhari back to Abuja from Katsina, dressed in his full uniform.
This had triggered different reactions while some lawyers asked the court to stop Adamu from parading himself as the IGP.
But speaking with State House correspondents on Thursday, Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, said the President decided to extend Adamu’s tenure in order to have enough time to search for his replacement.
“Mr President has decided that the present IGP, Mohammed Adamu, will continue to serve as the IG for the next three months, to allow for a robust and efficient process of appointing a new IG.”
“This is not unconnected to the desire of Mr President to, not only have a smooth handover, but to also ensure that the right officer is appointed into that position,” he said.
Born on September 17, 1961, Adamu and enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force on February 1, 1986, as a Cadet Assistant. He rose through the ranks, serving as Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 5 Police Command Headquarters, Benin, Edo State.
He had previously served as the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti and Enugu states. He was a Directing Staff at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.
The Federal Government has commenced discussions with representatives of the organised labour on how to raise the freight rate of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) petrol from N7.51 per litre to N9.11 per litre, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation (Management) Board (PEF), Alhaji Ahmed Bobboi, has disclosed.
The plan will amount to 21.30 per cent hike in freight that is a Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) component of the total cost of the petrol.
Bobboi disclosed this at the 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) that held at the Zuma Rock Resort, Abuja-Kaduna expressway in Niger State on Thursday.
In his virtual goodwill message, the Executive Secretary of PEF said the agency was waiting for the Federal Government’s approval before it would begin the implementation of the new freight rate of N9.11 per litre.
Besides, he revealed that the Federal Government was expecting the labour unions to revert to it on the agreement it has taken from the joint committee set by the government on the hike in the price of petrol and electricity.
Asked to comment on the implementation of freight increase, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s Group Managing Director (GMD), Malam Mele Kyari, said upon the conclusion of the deliberations with labour, the Federal Government will announce the effective date in line with the pricing template.
Represented by the corporation’s Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, he told reporters at the ceremony that: “The Executive Secretary of PEF made a statement that there is an on-going engagement between the Federal Government and the labour, and at the end of that process, the government will make adequate pronouncement as to the effective date of that figure as contained in the pricing template”.
Earlier in his goodwill message, Kyari commended the association for its operations despite the daunting challenges in the country.
He said; “we are not unaware of the conditions of our roads, the insecurity, the highways, and also a number extortions do take place along these highways.”
He urged the association to ensure that its trucks and drivers comply with safety standards at all time which has been put in place by the regulator towards ensuring hitch free operation at the depot and on the highway.
He promised that the NNPC will continue to cooperate with the association to resolve all the challenges impacting in the distribution of products in the country.
Kyari noted that: “We will continue to make payment to PEF for deductions of dues due to you so that PEF will continue to pay your members as at when due.”
The GMD urged the transport owners to ensure that their tankers and drivers meet the safety standards set by government regulators for the industry to curb accidents involving petrol tankers.
An Iranian diplomat has been convicted of a plot to bomb a big French rally held by an exiled opposition group.
Assadollah Assadi, 49, who worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, was given a 20-year jail term by the court in Antwerp in Belgium.
It was the first time an Iranian official had faced such charges in the EU since the 1979 revolution.
Three others were also convicted. They were arrested during a joint operation by German, French and Belgian police.
Tehran insists the plot was a fabrication.
Tens of thousands of people attended the June 2018 rally outside Paris, including Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The verdict comes weeks after US President Joe Biden took office, with Iran hoping he will reverse some of the sanctions introduced by his predecessor.
Prosecution lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier told reporters the ruling showed two things: “A diplomat cannot just do anything. He has immunity related to his position, he does not have immunity for criminal and terrorist acts he committed.”
In a statement, an Iranian foreign ministry official strongly objected to Assadi’s arrest, trial and sentencing, condemning the process as “illegal and a clear violation of international law, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention (on diplomatic relations)”.
image captionPictures of Assadi were take in Luxembourg by the country’s intelligence and his passport shows his position in the Vienna embassy
Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the group targeted by the plot, described the conviction as “a brilliant victory for the people and resistance of Iran and a heavy political and diplomatic defeat for the regime”.
In a statement she claimed the plot had been authorised at the highest levels in Iran, by the president and supreme leader and that the intelligence ministry had been given the task of carrying it out.
Assadi was arrested in Germany in June 2018, days after he met a Belgian couple of Iranian origin at a Pizza Hut in Luxembourg. They were being watched during their stay in Luxembourg by local intelligence.
Nasimeh Naami and Amir Saadouni were arrested in Brussels with half a kilogram (1.1lb) of explosives and a detonator, which prosecutors said was to be used against an Iranian opposition meeting in France. Belgium’s Dovo bomb disposal unit released a report detailing how the TATP explosive was carried along with batteries, an antenna and a remote-control finger-operated button transmitter, or RFT (below).
The couple admitted receiving the package from Assadi, but denied knowing what was inside.
A fourth man, Belgian-Iranian poet Merhad Arefani, was arrested in Paris and accused of being an accomplice. All three were convicted of taking part in the plot and given jail terms of 15 to 18 years.
The plot centred around a rally held by the exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) outside Paris in June 2018.
Though 70 per cent of cancer patients need radiotherapy treatment, only three centres are functional in the country…
Nigerians suffering from cancer have lamented the high cost of treatment and dearth of treatment facilities and specialists.
The patients and medical experts, who spoke ahead of this year’s World Cancer Day called on governments at the federal and state levels to subsidise treatment and save lives.
February 4 is marked as World Cancer Day and this year’s event is themed “I am and I will”.
Medical practitioners who spoke to Daily Trust revealed that there are no more than three functional radiotherapy centres for cancer treatment in Nigeria.
A cancer patient
The Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr Jafaru Momoh, said aside from the hospital he heads, which has two linac radiotherapy machines, only the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), which is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has two of the machines.
Speaking about these challenges, an Oncology Consultant at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Dr Muhammad Inuwa Mustapha, identified lack of radiotherapy machine as a monumental concern that requires urgent attention from both the federal and state government.
He said 70 per cent of cancer patients need radiotherapy treatment adding, “In Kano, we don’t have a single radiotherapy machine. In the whole country, we have only three centres with functional radiotherapy machines and they are in Abuja, Lagos and Enugu.
“Based on the International Atomic Energy Management Agency recommendation, any community that has 250, 000 people is supposed to have a machine. So, if you look at Kano, based on our population we are supposed to have not less than 20 radiotherapy machines and we have none. With over 200 million people, we have only three functional machines for the whole country and this is terrible,” he said.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to put up a radiotherapy machine in each state so as to address the major concern of cancer patients.
Other public hospitals do not have radiotherapy machines or the ones they have are obsolete.
According to the Nigeria National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan (2018-2022), cancer is responsible for 72,000 deaths in the country every year with an estimated 102,000 new cases annually.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes cancer as a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body and/or spread to other organs.
The Commissioner for Health in Benue State, Dr Joseph Ngbea, who is the current chairman of the National Cancer Committee of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), said the cause of most cancers is not known but added that there are risk factors.
These include age, genetics and family history, geographical factors (some cancers are related to excessive exposure to sunlight) and environmental factors like what people eat, viruses and infections among others.
Experts say cancer can be treated by surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal manipulation and targeted therapy; but the facilities available for the treatment are in short supply.
The President of the Nigeria Cancer Society, Dr Adamu Alhassan Umar, said the commonest cancers in Nigeria are breast cancer, cervical cancer (which affect women) and prostate cancer which affect men.
Dr Umar, who is also a public health physician, said other cancers that affect Nigerians, are colorectal cancer, which affects the intestinal tract, lymphomas, bladder, lung, and skin cancers, among others.
He said the state of cancer care remains poor in Nigeria because of lack of political will on the part of leaders, poor funding and expensive treatment, which is beyond the reach of the poor.
He said the federal government’s pledge under the former Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, to establish a cancer treatment centre in each geopolitical zone, has not been fulfilled till date.
Prof. Adewole said most hospitals in the country do not have the requisite diagnostic and treatment tools and enough qualified personnel to properly treat cancer efficiently at the early stages.
The United States has demanded “serious consequences” over reports of systematic rape and torture of women taking place inside China’s camps for the Uighur Muslim minority.
The US state department said that it was “deeply disturbed” by the “atrocities”.
China’s foreign ministry strongly denied the “false report”.
The article detailed allegations of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture with the internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region.
According to independent estimates, more than a million people have been detained in the camps, which China says exist for the “re-education” of Uighurs and other minorities.
One woman who fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US told the BBC that women were removed from their cells “every night” and raped by one or more masked Chinese men.
She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
image captionTursunay Ziawudun was able to flee to Kazakhstan, and then on to relative safety in the US
A Kazakh woman from Xinjiang who was detained for 18 months in the camp system said she was forced to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them, before leaving them alone with Chinese men.
A guard at one of the camps, who spoke on condition of anonymity, detailed allegations of torture.
Adrian Zenz, a leading expert on China’s policies in Xinjiang, said the testimony gathered for the BBC story “confirms the very worst of what we have heard before”.
A US state department spokesman said: “We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang”.
“These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences.”
Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne also commented on the report, saying the United Nations should be given “immediate” access to the region.
“We consider transparency to be of utmost importance and continue to urge China to allow international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, to be given immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uighurs, culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination, and even forced sterilisation.
China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and said the camps were not detention camps, but “vocational educational and training centres”.
On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the BBC of making a “false report” that was “wholly without factual basis”.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, February 3, approved the establishment of 20 new private universities across Nigeria.
The council approved the request for the establishment which was contained in a memo sent from the Ministry of Education. According to FEC, the universities will be given provisional licenses to run for three years while the ministry monitors and evaluates their growth.
President Buhari
This would bring the total number of private universities in the country up to 99.
Bakare says he’ll wonder what Osinbajo is still doing in the presidency if he’s truly not allowed to perform his role.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church says he does not believe the claim that Professor Yemi Osinbajo is not allowed to perform his constitutional role as the Vice President of Nigeria.
Bakare said he would like to hear from the Vice President directly that he is being prevented from playing his role, saying he does not like rumour and gossip.
The cleric said this on in an Instagram Live Chat with popular journalist, Dele Momodu on the night of Tuesday, February 2, 2021, in reaction to the claim that the office of the Vice President is being rendered handicapped.
He said, “I do not know if that statement is true that he is not allowed to perform because the constitution is very clear on what the role of the vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is, especially as it relates to steering the economy of the nation.
Bakare, who was Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election said, before he accepted to be his Vice President, he asked what his role would be.
“Before I accepted General Muhammadu Buhari’s offer, I said what would be my role because I am not prepared to be a spare tyre and he said to me that my role will be as prescribed by the constitution and as many other things as you can be given to do”. he said.
“I want to hear it one day from the vice-president that he is not allowed to perform. I don’t like rumour and I don’t like gossip. If he is not allowed to perform, I would wonder what he is still doing there because he is not allowed to perform.
“If he is content in his office and he is given responsibilities and he is discharging those responsibilities to the best of his ability, I do not believe the story that he is not allowed to perform. If that is true, let him say so and not other people saying he is not allowed to perform.
The claim that Osinbajo is being prevented from performing his constitutional role gained prominence when President Muhammadu Buhari said he decided not to hand over power to the VP when he travelled to the United Kingdom on a private visit from April 25 to May 5, 2019, because there was no constitutional requirement for him to do so.
But in August 2018, when he travelled to London on a working leave the president handed over to his deputy.
While Buhari was away, Osinbajo sacked the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, a move that was said to have been opposed by those close to the president.
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