Author: Amnewsworld

Masked and helmeted Chinese and Nigerian workers hoist giant steel pipes over mounds of earth. Farther away, smoke billows from blowtorches. Camouflaged in the millet fields, heavily armed soldiers are on the lookout. In Gaya, in southwestern Niger, near Benin, the largest oil pipeline in Africa is taking shape. Nearly 2,000 km long – 1,250 km of which is in Niger – the pipeline is to link the oil wells of the Agadem field in the far east, the scene of deadly jihadist incursions, to the Beninese port of Sèmè, from where Nigerien crude will be evacuated for the first…

Tens of thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in Fatima, Portugal for the traditional pilgrimage. But this year, their prayers and thoughts are also with the Portuguese Catholic church which has been in the spotlight due to cases of alleged sexual abuse but also possible cover-up maneuvers. One of the clerics targeted has been Bishop José Ornelas, a senior official who has been named in investigations involving alleged cover-ups of sex abuse by priests. Earlier in the day Ornelas said his conscience was clear. The head of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference denied any wrongdoing or improper conduct in the cases dating…

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday condemned Russia’s “illegal annexations” of Ukrainian territory after Moscow vetoed a similar text in the Security Council in late September. Twenty-six African countries voted in favor of the resolution rejecting Moscow’s controversial referenda in four Ukrainian regions. Nineteen others abstained. Mali, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, the Republic of Congo, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe were among the African countries that abstained. Eritrea, which had previously voted to reject a UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also abstained. Three of these countries hosted Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov during his tour…

On Egypt’s Red Sea coast, fish swim among thousands of newly planted mangroves, part of a program to boost biodiversity, protect coastlines and fight climate change and its impacts. After decades of destruction that saw the mangroves cleared, all that remained were fragmented patches totaling some 500 hectares (1,200 acres), the size of only a few hundred football pitches. Sayed Khalifa, the head of Egypt’s agriculture syndicate who is leading mangrove replanting efforts, calls the unique plants a “treasure” because of their ability to grow in salt water where they face no problems of drought. “It’s an entire ecosystem,” Khalifa…

A new Ebola outbreak in central Uganda has killed 17 people in three weeks, the health ministry in Kampala said on Monday. On 5 October, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 29 deaths in the country from Ebola since the start of the epidemic. This figure includes deaths among people confirmed to have the virus, as well as suspected cases. The Ugandan government is counting only deaths among confirmed patients, which is 48 people as of 9 October, according to the ministry. Ebola is often fatal, but vaccines and treatments are now available for haemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted to…

The Tunisian Red Crescent Society said on Monday that eight bodies of migrants, probably Tunisians who had been missing for a fortnight, had been recovered by sailors off the coast of southeast Tunisia. “Sailors found eight bodies of migrants off the coast of Zarzis (south-east) on Monday morning, whose boat is believed to have sunk a fortnight ago,” Mongi Slim, head of the Red Crescent in Medenine, near Zarzis, told AFP. DNA samples have been taken from the bodies to identify them, the same source said. A makeshift boat carrying 18 migrants, including a baby, disappeared 15 days ago, local…

Heatwaves will become so extreme in certain regions of the world within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, the United Nations and the Red Cross said Monday. Heatwaves are predicted to “exceed human physiological and social limits” in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and south and southwest Asia, with extreme events triggering “large-scale suffering and loss of life”, the organizations said. Heatwave catastrophes this year in countries like Somalia and Pakistan foreshadow a future with deadlier, more frequent, and more intense heat-related humanitarian emergencies, they warned in a joint report. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of…

76 people have been reported dead after a boat they were traveling in sank in Anambra state in southeastern Nigeria on Frida, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday. Some 85 people were on board the boat, which was traveling on the River Niger. Anambra is one of 29 states in Nigeria’s 36 states that have been devastated by heavy flooding since the start of the rainy season. “The boat carrying (reportedly) 85 people is said to have capsized due to flooding in the Ogbaru area of the state, and emergency services have confirmed a death toll of 76,” Buhari’s…

The Palma area in Mozambique has been a base for the militant group Al-Shabaab for the past several months.The arrival of Rwandan forces in August 2021, however, has brought relative security to the area, enabling most people to return home. Only last week, the United Nations warned that the conflict had not subsided. But the Rwandan forces displayed confidence in a still precarious security situation in the gas-rich region. Mozambique’s security forces are ill-trained and equipped compared to their Rwandan colleagues and they are little trusted by locals. According to Lieutenant-colonel Ronald Rwivanga, Spokesperon of the Rwanda Defence Forces; “The ordinary…

Algerian and French Prime Ministers have expressed their wish to “intensify” warm relations after growing rapprochement between the presidents of the two countries in late August. The wish was expressed Sunday in Algiers at the beginning of a two day state visit of the French prime minister Elizabeth Borne alongside a 15 member top level delegation. “(On visas) Over the past few months, in line with the Algiers Declaration, our discussions have aimed to better manage and organiez the movement of people between our two countries. We have discussed ways of encouraging student, scientific and artistic mobility – I am…