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NGO'O Cyrus has been appointed as new General Manager of the Douala Autonomous Port .The decision was made public Wednesday after a board of Directors meeting which took place in the institutions premises in Bonanjo,chaired by Shey Jones YEMBE board chairman. 

He replaces Emmanuel Etoundi OYONO who died in Paris three weeks back.Transport minister Edgar alain Mebe NGO who came to take part in a funeral service of the former GM attended the board meeting.The appoinment of NGO'O comes a day after the pioneer GM of the Kribi Autonomous Port was appointed and installed in Yaounde Tuesday.

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Prince Nfor Hanson

24.Aug.2016

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The Japanese government has donated solar power worth $9.7 million to the Federal government to boost electricity in the country. The donation was made through its agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Chief Representative of JICA, Nigeria office, Mr Hirotaka Nakamura, said improving core infrastructure including power sector in Nigeria was one of the priority areas of the agency in Nigeria. 

The Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Mr Sadanobu Kusaoke, stated that Japan considered the power sector as one of the most important areas to enhance the country’s social-economic development.

“Since from 1970s, Japan has helped to finance power sector to increase the capacity of power in Kainji dam hydro power station. “This is the 10th project of power sector by the Japan’s Government since then and this will not be our last. Vanguard reports

Kusaoke said the project which entailed the introduction of clean energy by solar electricity was donated by the government of Japan to boost power and water supply at Usman Dam Water Treatment Plant. “The project is being executed with grant assistance worth Nine Hundred and Eighty Million Japanese YEN (980,000,000 JPY) (equivalent to approximately 9.7 million USD) through JICA, ” he said.

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Rita Akana

24.Aug.2016

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An earthquake devastated a string of mountainous towns over a swathe of central Italy early on Wednesday, trapping residents under hills of rubble, with at least 20 people believed killed and many missing.

The quake struck in the early hours of the morning when most people were asleep, razing homes and buckling roads in a cluster of towns and villages some 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome.

The emergency services released an aerial photograph showing whole areas of the town of Amatrice flattened, while debris filled the streets of nearby Accumoli.

"Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life," said Accumoli mayor Stefano Petrucci.

Wide cracks appeared like open wounds on the buildings that were still standing. 

Residents sifted through the rubble with their bare hands before emergency services arrived with earth-moving equipment and sniffer dogs.

The quake hit during the summer when the populations of the communities in the area, normally low during the rest of the year, are swelled by vacationers.

Officials said six people were known to have died in Accumoli and a further six were reported dead in Amatrice. Sky Italia television said 10 had died in the nearby village of Pescara del Tronto. Some 100 people were still unaccounted for in the village of Arquata del Tronto.

"Three quarters of the town is not there anymore," Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI. "The aim now is to save as many lives as possible. There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there."

A Reuters reporter said the town's hospital had been badly damaged by the quake, with patients moved into the streets. RAI reported that two Afghan girls, believed to be asylum-seekers, were also missing in the town.

The earthquake caused damage to towns in three regions - Umbria, Lazio and Marche.

The U.S. Geological Survey, which measured the quake at 6.2 magnitude, said it struck near the Umbrian city of Norcia, while Italy's earthquake institute INGV registered it at 6.0 and put the epicenter further south, closer to Accumoli and Amatrice.

The damage was made more severe because the epicenter was at a relatively shallow 4 km below the surface of the earth.

Reuters

 

MULTIPLE AFTERSHOCKS

Residents of Rome were woken by the tremors, which rattled furniture, swayed lights and set off car alarms in most of central Italy.

"It was so strong. It seemed the bed was walking across the room by itself with us on it," Lina Mercantini of Ceselli, Umbria, about 75 km away from the hardest hit area, told Reuters.

Olga Urbani, in the nearby town of Scheggino, said: "Dear God it was awful. The walls creaked and all the books fell off the shelves."

INGV reported 60 aftershocks in the four hours following the initial quake, the strongest measuring 5.5.

Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.

The last major earthquake to hit the country struck the central city of L'Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people.

The most deadly since the start of the 20th century came in 1908, when an earthquake followed by a tsunami killed an estimated 80,000 people in the southern regions of Reggio Calabria and Sicily.

 

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Rita Akana

24.Aug.2016

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US Secretary of State, John Kerry arrives in the extreme northwest of Nigeria city of Sokoto, lauds Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar for promoting religious tolerance and understanding among Nigerians

"He will meet with President [Muhammadu] Buhari to discuss counterterrorism efforts, the Nigerian economy, the fight against corruption, and human rights issues," said a U.S. embassy statement.

"In Sokoto, he will deliver a speech on the importance of resilient communities and religious tolerance in countering violent extremism. In Abuja, the Secretary will meet with a group of adolescent girls working to change community perceptions that devalue the role of girls in society. He will also meet with northern governors and religious leaders," the statement added. 

Kerry's visit - his third as Secretary of State and likely the last for top Obama administration officials - comes a day after the Nigerian army announced the killing of top Boko Haram commanders in an "unprecedented air raid".

The army also said the "so-called Abubakar Shekau was 'fatally wounded' in the airstrike, in which at least 300 Boko Haram fighters were said to have been killed.

The Nigerian military had twice claimed it killed the Boko Haram leader in previous operations, a claim which Shekau refuted in subsequent video releases.

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Rita Akana

23.Aug.2016

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Corruption and security will top the agenda as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Nigeria this week.

Kerry also is expected to discuss the state of the economy with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari during his trip to the capital, Abuja, and the northern city of Sokoto.

The visit, likely the last by a major American official during the Obama administration, comes as the two countries have gradually been stepping up their cooperation after a period of strained relations.

“The relationship remains, sort of, near or at… a high water mark in recent history,” said Matthew Page, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A rift opened between the two countries during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigerian officials complained the U.S. wasn’t supplying them with weapons they needed to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s northeast, while American officials said they worried the military would use U.S. arms to carry out human rights abuses. 

Boko Haram remains one of Nigeria’s top security challenges. The Islamist group has killed about 20,000 people and displaced as many as 2.7 million.

Since Buhari took office, the U.S. has increased its security commitments to Nigeria, despite continued allegations by rights groups of human rights abuses by Nigerian soldiers.

The U.S. has deployed drones to neighboring Cameroon to hunt for Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria, and also has stationed a small group of troops in Maiduguri, according to a senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. That Nigerian city has been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram and is at the center of the fight against it.

During his campaign for president, Buhari promised to fight the corruption that is seen as one of the reasons that two-thirds of Nigerians live in poverty, even though the country is among Africa’s top economies.

Cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria to track down looted funds has been stop-and-start in the past, but has grown better coordinated in recent months, Page said.

“They haven’t really developed a deep, investigative cooperation or information sharing relationship,” Page said. “I think what we’re seeing, or what we have started seeing over the last year, is that relationship… pick up.”

Kerry could use the visit to highlight steps the U.S. has taken against suspected fraudsters, Page said.

“He may announce that the U.S. has levied a handful of visa sanctions on individuals that were involved in corruption and vote rigging during the 2015 elections,” he said.

Another issue of concern is the state of Nigeria’s economy. It’s poised to enter a recession, due to a decline in the price of oil as well as a series of militant attacks on Nigeria’s infrastructure that have dropped the country’s oil production substantially.

It’s unlikely the U.S. will offer the types of infrastructural assistance — such as building stadiums, railways or bridges — European countries and China are known for, Page said.

The U.S. likely will offer only technical assistance, Page said, or help with getting money from international lenders.

VOA

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Rita Akana

22.Aug.2016

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the attack in Gaziantep, Turkey that lead to the death of 50 people as the death toll from Saturday’s attack on the wedding party soared. At least 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition. A suspected suicide bomber targeted people from a wedding party who took to the streets in celebration.

President Erdogan said it’s that likely ISIL militants are responsible for the late night bombing. Turkey faces multiple security threats from ISIL. Just in June, three suspected ISIL suicide bombers attacked Istanbul’s main airport killing killed 44 people.

The suicide bomber is estimated to be as young as 12 years old to 14 years old according to the Turkish President, reports AP.

“It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times,” Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS. “Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity.” 

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party — known by its acronym PKK — or were blamed on IS but the bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep, near Turkey’s border with Syria, is the deadliest attack in Turkey this year according to AP.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the country’s health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

“This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism,” the PM told reporters. “We … are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield.”

Foreign governments, including the U.S., Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Germany have condemned the attack.

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Rita Akana

21.Aug.2016

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