A total of 696 inmates had their prison terms reduced, 10 were granted freedom and one had a death sentence lowered to a life sentence, according to the ministry statement.
The others who are not currently jailed had their prison terms or fines or both annulled.
The Proclamation of Independence Day is celebrated on Jan. 11 every year to commemorate Morocco’s proclamation of independence on Jan. 11, 1944.
“We were not imposing any restrictions or travel requirements for China, the United States or any country with rising infections,” said Phaahla when briefing the media virtually about COVID-19.
A patient with the XBB.1.5 variant was discovered on Dec. 27 during a random sampling and further details remain unknown, he said.
The minister said they have engaged scientists, the World Health Organization and the ministerial advisory committee, who suggested that there is no need to impose travel restrictions internally or for any country.
“We were advised to increase surveillance and vaccination. We will do wastewater testing on aircraft from China, the United States or any country with rising infections to check for the virus. We will step up our communication and messaging for people to get vaccinated or a booster,” he said.
Michelle Groome, an official at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said wastewater testing on aircraft will start next week as part of the surveillance.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva told reporters during a press briefing in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that the refining capacities of the Port-Harcourt refinery which is currently under rehabilitation, and the Dangote Refinery under construction, as well as the modular refineries in the country, will see the end of the importation of petroleum products with their combined production.
To ensure the local supply of petroleum products, the government takes a 20 percent equity stake in the Dangote Refinery, the official said, adding that it also takes a 30 percent equity stake in each of the modular refineries in the country.
Bilie By Nze is responsible for forming a new government. He will replace Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda who was appointed the same day as vice president of the Gabonese Republic, a post vacant for more than three years.
Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, 56, held the position of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Energy and Water Resources. He had been working alongside Ali Bongo Ondimba since March 2012 when he was promoted to political adviser and spokesperson for the Presidency of the Republic.
“This is an attempt to change the current historic and legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque… a provocation to the feelings of Muslims and a clear violation of relative international resolutions,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry held Israel responsible for the “repercussions of the continuation of such daily violations on Jerusalem.”
“The ministry reiterates Libya’s position towards the justice of the Palestinian cause and calls on the international community to live up to its responsibilities and end those Israeli violations, which could fuel conflict, extremism, and instability in the region,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, Ben-Gvir made a visit to the flashpoint holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, triggering a furious backlash from the Muslim world in the Middle East.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the most sacred site, is regarded by Muslims as their third-holiest site.
The holy site has been administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian body, since 1948. Under a 1967 agreement between Israel and Jordan, non-Muslim worshippers can visit the compound but are prohibited from praying there.
Between January and October 2022, IOM registered over 100,000 returning migrants to Ethiopia, with the majority — more than 71,000 — coming from Saudi Arabia, the UN migration agency said in its latest Ethiopia Crisis Response Plan issued late Wednesday.
“The alarming number of migrants arrive destitute and with serious medical and psychiatric conditions which challenge the local capacities,” the IOM said.
It said the conflict in northern Ethiopia has made the situation of migrants even more precarious, with returns to home communities made impossible and migrants becoming stranded.
According to the UN migration agency, approximately one-third of all returns from Saudi Arabia originate from areas devastated by conflict.
Noting that the eastern African country is an important departure, transit and destination country for mixed migration flows in the Horn of Africa, the IOM said hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, primarily youth, migrate toward the Middle East, South Africa, and Europe every year.
It said forced migration due to climate change has worsened in recent years, exposing vulnerable populations to trafficking in persons and other forms of exploitation.
Desperate Ethiopian migrants, who attempt to cross the dangerous Red Sea route via the neighboring nation Djibouti, often endure deadly incidents along the Red Sea as well as imprisonment and killings in Yemen.
The amendments to the Act include the reclassification of the supply of sanitary pads as a zero-rated supply, said Wilson Shikoto, the ministerial spokesperson, in a statement Thursday.
“This means no VAT is to be charged on sanitary pads as defined in the Amendment Act in January next year. Registered VAT persons and vendors are, therefore, reminded to adjust their sale systems to implement the new provision of the law, and accordingly provide the necessary relief on the cost of these products to consumers,” Shikoto added.
According to a 2021 report on the Comprehensive Assessment of Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices on Adolescent Girls in Namibia, most girls prefer and use disposable pads. Still, one in four girls cannot afford them.
As the much-anticipated state-of-the-art facility takes shape and fast approaches completion, the project’s swift progress has won acclaim while igniting hopes of transforming public health in Africa.
Project fast approaching completion
Saizana Solomon, a young civil engineer, is one of some 1,000 personnel working at the bustling site around-the-clock to brace themselves to hit the construction schedule.
“We, local workers, and our Chinese colleagues are working in tandem day and night to successfully bring this project to an end within its stated timeframe. No matter how challenging it has been, we are very determined as we are getting closer to our goal,” Solomon said, citing challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bethlehem Molla, safety officer at the Africa CDC project who has been working at the site for more than a year-and-half, said that the project construction is meeting expectations in terms of time efficiency, high construction standards, safety assurances as well as experience-sharing mechanisms.
“Before I joined here, I worked as an engineer with different local construction companies. One thing that fascinates me more here is the lofty construction standard. Every move and every detail really matters a lot here,” she said.
“To be able to achieve this progress within this short period while applying high construction standards is really a work of miracle to me,” Molla added.
Bao Dongdong, a Chinese engineer from the safety supervision department at the project, said his work here will be a valuable life experience. “Compared to what it was a year and a half ago, it (the site of the project) turns from a wasteland to several buildings, for which I feel proud from my heart.”
Project to boost Africa’s public health management
Monique Nsanzabaganwa, deputy chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, told Xinhua recently that the project, upon completion, will enable the AU’s specialized healthcare agency to better play its role of coordination, mobilization, and emergency management in public health. “We know that it is a very huge project, which is really commendable of China to support our agency in that manner.”
According to Nsanzabaganwa, the China-aided Africa CDC headquarters project has been part of China’s continued efforts in support of institutional strengthening of the Africa CDC.
Her comments were echoed by Teruneh Zenna, Ethiopia’s former ambassador to the United Nations, as he argued that Africa lacks preparedness and medical institutions to cope with disease outbreaks such as Ebola and AIDS that have resulted in the deaths of countless people across the continent. He said having such a facility on African soil is praiseworthy.
“The Chinese are showing Africans that they are always at their side. Look at the AU headquarters they provided us with. Now, they are giving us the Africa CDC project with a modern laboratory, training, conference, and data centers,” Zenna told Xinhua recently.
China has not only funded but is also building the future Africa CDC headquarters, which would accommodate all facilities in one place to scale up the African health system in a tremendous way, Zenna said.
Construction work for the project started in December 2020. The landmark project, featuring modern offices, high-end laboratories and accessories, covers an area of 90,000 square meters and was expected to be completed in 25 months. Construction of the project is progressing smoothly despite the challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to project contractors.
As the COVID-19 pandemic showcased Africa CDC’s indisputable role in leading continental anti-pandemic efforts, experts believe the facility will further augment Africa CDC’s institutional capabilities.
Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, a professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, told Xinhua recently that Africa has serious problems within the health sector with widening gaps in addressing various healthcare challenges. “Now, we have the Africa CDC, which is going to be a pivotal point for healthcare management in Africa. This will also strengthen the relationship between China and Africa.”
Thriving healthcare cooperation
Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa CDC, in an interview with Xinhua, said that despite being a young organization officially launched in January 2017, the Africa CDC has been able to respond effectively to various outbreaks, including recurrent Ebola outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said during the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa and China have worked quite well in ensuring that information is flowing well between the two sides. “We have worked very well securing, particularly, test kits at the beginning of the pandemic, and as we built our own capacity locally, Chinese counterparts were very supportive when things were very difficult in starting our pandemic response on the continent.”
Last month, the Africa CDC chief also commended China for partnering with African countries in the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines on the continent.
China’s anti-pandemic support to African countries has widely won acclaim among individual African countries and pan-African institutions. Ethiopia, as one of the beneficiaries of China’s global anti-pandemic cooperation, has received several batches of COVID-19 vaccine donations, including an additional 10 million Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses that were handed over back in June.
The different batches of China’s vaccine donations to African countries and institutions demonstrated that China turns its commitments into tangible outcomes by putting people’s lives first and working in solidarity with Africa.
According to Costantinos, China’s support in terms of enabling healthcare institutions in Africa is “necessary for our physicians, nurses and other medical workers to be able to contain the current and future pandemics.”
Pedro made the remarks at the ongoing three-day UNECA Expo, which runs until Thursday at the UNECA Conference Center in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, as he emphasized the urgent need for technological advancement and digitalization of the economy in Africa to withstand emerging socioeconomic shocks.
“It was clear during the COVID-19 pandemic that the crisis was a low-hanging fruit for regional integration and for harnessing the demographic dividend on the continent,” a UNECA statement issued late Tuesday quoted Pedro as saying.
“We must embrace innovative and disruptive thinking to provide practical solutions to real life challenges affecting our member states now and in the future,” Pedro said.
The UNECA Expo, the first of its kind, is showcasing the work of the UNECA with a view to forging new partnerships and strengthening existing ones to enable the Commission to effectively serve its member countries in a rapidly changing and complex environment.
Noting that the African continent and the rest of the world are facing new and complex challenges and opportunities as reflected in the impacts of climate change and geopolitical tensions with ramifications in food and energy crises, the UNECA chief said innovation is needed to manage the challenges.
Pedro said the recently held COP27 presented new investment opportunities on the continent to create carbon credit markets, deploy renewable energy and find solutions to the energy transition for the rest of the world.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic, despite its multifaceted impacts, demonstrated opportunities for Africa to participate in the development of the pharmaceutical value chain.
Pedro said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement will ensure the seamless operation of new vehicles to make trade and investments within the continent and across the global market.
Pedro stressed that the role of the UNECA needs to evolve as challenges multiply. He said the UNECA can offer solutions to help African countries achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union (AU)’s 50-year continental development blueprint, Agenda 2063.
During the operations in November, the Malian army destroyed many retreat bases of the Armed Terrorist Groups, seized or destroyed vehicles, weapons, and other equipment, as well as intercepted stolen livestock and grain, according to a statement released by Dirpa on Saturday.
Since 2012, Mali has been facing a multifaceted crisis at the security, political and economic levels.
Independence insurgencies, jihadist incursions, and inter-community violence have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced in the west African country.