Tripoli “denounced the assault and looting” of the Libyan embassy building in Khartoum, whose staff had been evacuated due to the violence, according to a ministry statement.

Expressing its “deep regret and displeasure” at such acts, the Libyan ministry “calls on the parties to the conflict in Sudan to reject violence (….) and to protect diplomatic representations”, in the spirit of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations between States, which “stipulates the obligation to protect embassies and diplomatic missions”.

In its statement, Libya stressed its “attachment” to the stability of Sudan and its people, but reiterated its condemnation of the attacks on the headquarters of diplomatic missions in the Sudanese capital.

Last Thursday, the Libyan ministry deplored an attack on the offices of the Libyan military attaché in Khartoum, calling for those responsible for this “criminal act” to be “identified and prosecuted”.

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have deplored attacks on and looting of their embassies in Khartoum.

The last group of Libyan nationals was evacuated from Sudan on 13^th May, according to the Libyan embassy in Khartoum.

A first group of 105 people had been evacuated to Jeddah on 24^th April by the Saudi navy from Port Sudan, before being repatriated to Libya by a national airline.

In Sudan on Tuesday, fighting continued between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, despite the extension of a truce intended to allow the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to a country on the brink of famine.

The war, which began on 15^th April, has already claimed more than 1,800 lives, according to the NGO ACLE and almost one and a half million displaced persons and refugees, according to the UN.

Africanews/Hauwa M.

This comes days after authorities confirmed an outbreak.

“In the last 24 hours, three new deaths have been recorded,” the health ministry said in a statement.

Uganda’s health ministry has so far confirmed 11 cases of Ebola in total, including four deaths.

The current outbreak, attributed to the Ebola Sudan strain, appears to have started in a small village in Mubende district around the beginning of September, authorities say.

Seven other deaths are being investigated for being linked to the outbreak in Mubende, around 130 km west of the capital Kampala.

The first casualty was a 24-year-old man who died earlier this week.

The World Health Organization said the Ebola Sudan strain is less transmissible and has shown a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks than Ebola Zaire, a strain that killed nearly 2,300 people in the 2018-2020 epidemic in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

africanews

Mrs Udoh stated this in Abuja when the officials of the Agency on development of ethics and compliance scorecard and Anti- Corruption, and Transparency Unit (ACTU) effectiveness index in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies paid a courtesy visit.

She stated that the civil service is the engine room of the government which drives the policies and activities of government for the socio-economic and progress of Nigerians.

To this end, the Permanent Secretary enjoined all civil servants and Nigeria to maintain high integrity and shun corruption which is inimical to the nation’s economic growth.

Consequently, she called for more staff welfare and motivation to encourage the civil servants to prompt service delivery.

Earlier, the Assistant Commissioner of ICPC Mr. Dio Emmanuel disclosed that the essence of the visit is to check the integrity of the ministry and to score her in line with the rules of the Agency.

He further stated that since ICPC has not come to the ministry for system study and review, the ministry’s score in the past is on a high level, explaining that the ministry has substantial compliance.

According to him, ACTU has institutionalised in organisations to ensure consistent study and enlightening of staff with their Ministries, Department and Agencies.

Dominica Nwabufo

The Gamaleya Research Institute, which developed Sputnik V, said Namibia’s decision was not based on any scientific evidence or research.

South African regulator SAHPRA decided not to approve an emergency use application for Sputnik V for now because, it said, some studies suggested that administration of vaccines using the Adenovirus Type 5 vector, which Sputnik V does was associated with higher susceptibility to HIV in men.

Namibia’s health ministry said in a statement that the decision to discontinue use of the Russian vaccine was “out of (an) abundance of caution that men (who) received Sputnik V may be at higher risk of contracting HIV,” adding that it had taken SAHPRA’s decision into account.

Sputnik V remains one of the safest and most efficient vaccines against COVID-19 in use globally, the Gamaleya institute said. It said more than 250 clinical trials and 75 international publications confirmed the safety of vaccines and medicines based on human adenovirus vectors.

“While adenoviruses, including ad-5, are one of the most frequent causes of light common flu…, there is no evidence of increased risk of HIV infection among human population after (the) common cold,” the institute said.

“These inaccurate speculations that have since been refuted relate to unsuccessful clinical trials of another HIV vaccine by another manufacturer that simply did not seem effective enough.”

A meta-analysis of six clinical studies and their long-term follow-up in 7,092 participants showed there was no statistically significant increase of HIV-1 infection among adenovirus type-5 vectored vaccine recipients, it said.

Namibia said the suspension would last until Sputnik V receives a World Health Organization Emergency Use Listing.

It will offer people who received a first dose of Sputnik V a second to complete their immunisation course.

Reuters

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr Mohammed Abubakar disclosed this in Abuja Nigeria’s capital as he assumes office as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria.

Addressing management staff of the ministry Dr Abubakar said the priority of the ministry under his leadership would be to ensure that the sector becomes the mainstay of the country’s economy while ensuring that Nigeria attains food sufficiency, eat what we produce and produce what we eat.

“The priority of this Ministry under my leadership would be to ensure that we provide the necessary policy direction and drive that would truly position agriculture as the mainstay of our economy as captured in the medium term National development plan and Mr. President’s vision of uplifting a 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years”

On the implementation of the Livestock Transformation Plan Dr Abubakar said the livestock transformation Plan would be given all necessary priority by the Ministry as the plan has the potential of curbing insecurity and ending farmers/herders clashes in the country.

“The livestock transformation Plan will be a priority due to its implication not just on food security and nutrition but its overall impact in curbing insecurity in the country”

“In addition research and extension services would be strengthened to ensure that these practices are translated into concrete deliverables in the agric and livestock value change” he added

On Nigeria attaining food security the Minister said food is important to every country and Nigeria cannot afford not to attain food security.

“The reason why up till today America is still number one in the world is because they have more food than any other country in this world so food security is everything I mean it can make a difference and there’s no reason why we cannot do this”

“We have the talent, we have everything it takes to make Nigeria the number producer and exporter of food, not just to African countries but outside the continent and there’s no reason why we cannot do that”

As he takes over the affairs of the Ministry Dr Abubakar called on both local and international partners to join hands and work with the ministry to achieve President Buhari’s dream of making Nigeria food sufficient at every given time.

Dr Abubakar took over as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development after President Muhammdu Buhari carried out a minor Cabinet reshuffle on the first of September.

He took over from Mohammed Sabo Nanono

Hauwa Mustapha

The Long Term-Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS), is aimed at providing Nigeria the forum to discuss the opportunities and challenges that might arise in terms of a cleaner, more dynamic, and more sustainable growth model, and the options for the country to implement a less carbon-intensive model of economic development in the face of decreasing global reliance on fossil fuel energy for development practices.

The Minister of State for Environment, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, explains that “engaging youths in an organized effort to promote environmental sustainability has implications for youngsters themselves as well as for their immediate communities. We have plenty of resources, but the demand is increasing day by day. It is high time we harnessed the passion of youths and charge them with responsibility to manage it efficiently. I therefore call on my fellow public sector stakeholders at the policy making level, regulatory level and all implementing entities to support the Ministerial climate promise by embedding budget-supported climate friendly activities in their daily operations”. 

According to Mrs Ikeazor, Nigeria is predisposed to severe negative impacts of climate change, which Nigeria remains committed to addressing the challenge.

“Nigeria is committed to fulfilling its pledge to combat climate change along with the international community through the Paris Climate Agreement. the country recently submitted her revised NDC commitment to the United Nations Convention for Climate Change. In the recently submitted commitment, the country is expanding its ambition and increasing the target sectors considered, it  has pledged to reduce CO2e emissions by 20% by 2030 with its own resources and by 47% with international support. Agreeably, undertaking such ambition will require significant investment from both domestic and international sources with end-to-end contributions from private and public sectors.” She said.

The Minister of Environment Dr Mohammad Abubakar,noted that Nigeria is  recommitted to reducing emission by 20%   with a slight increase from 45% to 47% conditionally by the year 2030.

“Towards achieving this global commitment and in order to properly map resource mobilization, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the Ministry in developing the Investment and Financial Flow (I&FF) for the purposes of conducting an assessment to determine the costs of climate change measures and potential sources of investment funds”. 

Dr. Abubarka, added that “The starting point for the I&FF methodology is to effectively address climate change adaptation and mitigation. the Investment Financia Flow IFF, assessment will, address climate change adaptation and mitigation and also aid decision makers to recognise the need for solid information on current and future climate change-related investments and financial flows, as well as their timing, sources and investment entities”. He added

It is hoped that the strategy will promote sustainable development and guarantee a climate proofed economy through multi-stakeholders’ engagement across multiple sectors that include the bio economy, blue, green and food economies that also align with critically important SGDs such as poverty eradication, access to affordable energy and zero hunger.

Hauwa Mustapha

This was revealed during a meeting in Abuja between the FAO Representative in Nigeria and to the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), Fred Kafeero and the Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Hussein Adamu.

Speaking at the meeting, with officials from FAO and FMWR also in attendance, Mr Kafeero, said with technical and financial support from FAO, the project is a continuation of the collaboration between his Organization and the Ministry which aims to guarantee agriculture and food production all year round.

“We have been working together to support issues on policy and strategies especially those related to irrigation in the country and I would like to commend the Ministry for supporting agriculture so as to have food production throughout the year through proper use of water resources especially at the time when we endure climate change effects,” he remarked.

The FAO Representative reiterated FAO’s commitment and assurance to continue interfacing with the Ministry on a regular basis to support Nigeria in its efforts to attain food security and nutrition.

Giving details about the project, FAO Assistance Representative (Programme), Abubakar Suleiman, said that TCPs are resourced by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Agency to support requests by member countries in addressing or supporting specific technical issues and in this case for Nigeria it is drip irrigation.

“These interventions provide catalyst support to promote certain technologies or innovative ideas and in this case, Irrigation Department of the Ministry identified drip irrigation as an innovative approach to promote access to irrigation facilities particularly for smallholder farmers,” he said.

Mr Suleiman added that the TCP between FAO and the Ministry, which is implemented between June 2021 and December 2022, will also build institutional capacity around the existing river basin authorities in the country that has the mandate as well to promote access to water for agriculture and related systems.

According to him, the intervention aims to identify and convert suitable (and existing) public irrigation projects from flood-based irrigation systems to low-energy drip irrigation systems.

“The idea is to employ efficient on-farm water management practices to produce even more crops, on the same land, using less amount of water,” he added.

On his part, the Honourable Engineer Adamu pointed out that there is a natural synergy between FAO and the Ministry and appreciated the support through the intervention.

“This particular intervention falls very much in line with our irrigation policy and two-year programme because we have no other option, particularly with climate change effects, other than thinking critically on how to conserve the water,” he said adding “We cannot just continue with business as usual.”

The Honourable Minister disclosed that he has been to some countries with water scarcity like Morocco where drip irrigation was effectively used in agriculture and food production. “This is something that we need to promote in Nigeria. We are starting at a small but we will need to scale up in order for it to be used all across the country. This is why we need to take drip irrigation farming very seriously,” he said.

Engineer Adamu pointed out that there could be some challenges along the way in the implementation but through proper leadership, they will be overcome. “I know costs could be an issue and also the people’s mindset is another challenge. However, as leaders, we need to show the people what is right,”.

FAO