President Buhari orders military action against bandits, kidnappers in Katsina

By Ismaila Chafe
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the commencement of a major military operation to sweep bandits and kidnappers out of Katsina State.

Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.

He said: ”A major proactive operation by Special Forces, which details are being kept secret, is now in progress to replace the reactive strikes against insurgent camps.

”To give a full effect to the exercise, a planning team is already in the State selecting targets and making preparations for the execution of the “unprecedented” operation.

“The Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, who has been measured in issuing official statements on the oncoming exercise, briefed the President on the plan he intends to flag off shortly.”

The presidential aide also said the President was saddened by the recent attacks in the State, and extended his condolences to the families of those killed as well as prayed for the recovery of the injured.

NAN

NAFDAC To Fast-track Lab Analysis Of Madagascar's COVID Organics

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria has promised to fast-track the laboratory examination of the herbal drug from Madagascar to fight Coronavirus.

The agency said that the product would be subjected to the normal procedure but that the process would be fast-tracked.

NAFDAC’s Director of Public Relations, Dr Abubakar Jimoh, who spoke on behalf of the agency’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, noted that the organisation would prioritise the laboratory examination of the product once it received it from the authorities. He said, “When the drug arrives, it will go to the Minister of Health who will in turn hand it over to NAFDAC through the PTF. It is after that we would start our laboratory examination. It will be subjected to the normal procedure.

“We would expedite action on this because everyone is anxiously waiting for the result. We would speed it up but it will still have to go through the normal laboratory analysis and medical evaluation.

“Unlike the orthodox medicine, with the herbal medicine, it is given linctus status, it is not given full registration and that means it has a life span of two years, unlike normal drug that has a life span of five years. 

“So, this is what will be applicable to the Madagascar drug. We would ensure that the claims being made are true.”

When asked how long it could take for the laboratory examination to be concluded, he said the normal procedure was three months but that given the situation at hand, the process would be prioritised without compromising the efficiency of the process.

He said, “The normal mandatory procedure is three months but under this emergency, we would give it a top priority to come out with urgent results. In the process of the evaluation, if NAFDAC needs to get in touch with the manufacturers we will. It all depends on the analysis in the lab.

“This kind of drug does not go through a clinical trial at this stage; it is only when it wants to go through registration that it will be subjected to clinical trial. We are only going to determine its safety and efficacy now.”

Punch news

Sahara Reporters

Senegalese engineering students fight coronavirus with inventions

Students at top Dakar school turn skills towards easing pressure on hospitals with innovations such as medical robots.

Engineering students in Senegal have joined their country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic with inventions such as automatic sanitiser dispensers and medical robots.

The students attending a top engineering school in the capital, Dakar, have turned their technical skills towards easing pressure on the wards - and they are already in talks with hospitals over some of their innovations.

aljazeera

Akinwunmi Adeshina: Doing Nigeria Proud

 

Akinwunmi Adeshina is the current president of African Development Bank. A position he thoroughly deserves because of his amazing record as a distinguished public servant. A graduate of the University of Ife,(now Obafemi Awolowo University) 

Adeshina is Nigeria’s former Minister of agriculture and his time in office revolutionized the sector in Nigeria. He particularly initiated a transparent process in the sector’s fertiliser supply chain which helped the cause of local farmers thereby increasing farming activities and boosting food production across the nation. Before his appointment as a minister by former President Goodluck Jonathan, Adeshina had a stint at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) where he served as vice president of policy and partnerships. He also previously worked at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Coronavirus: Nigeria to increase weekly testing by over 9,000

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in its ‘National Strategy to Scale Up Access to Coronavirus Disease Testing in Nigeria’ posted on its website noted that the objective of planning to repurpose the tuberculosis machines were to decentralise and speed up testing across the country and strengthen national surveillance for COVID-19.

In the document, the NCDC explained that the country has 407 GeneXpert instruments deployed in 399 health facilities across the country, for use as first-line testing for TB diagnosis. It, however, noted that the United States-based Food and Drug Administration had granted the manufacturer, Cepheid, Emergency Use Authorisations for the use of the instruments and specially designed cartridge in testing for COVID-19.

The NCDC, which is the coordinating agency for the COVID-19 response in the country, said given that “every state of the federation including the FCT has at least five GeneXpert sites, at least one site in each state will be repurposed for COVID-19 testing.”

Madagascar virus potion scorned because it’s from Africa – President

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina batted away criticism for promoting a homegrown “remedy” for COVID-19, charging that the West has a condescending attitude toward traditional African medicine.

“If it wasn’t Madagascar, and if it was a European country that had actually discovered this remedy, would there be so much doubt? I don’t think so,” he told French media in an interview.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly warned that the Covid-Organics infusion, which Rajoelina has touted as a remedy against the deadly coronavirus, has not been clinically tested.The drink is derived from artemisia — a plant with proven anti-malarial properties — and other indigenous herbs.

“African scientists… should not be underestimated,” he told France 24 and Radio France International (RFI).

“I think the problem is that (the drink) comes from Africa and they can’t admit… that a country like Madagascar… has come up with this formula to save the world,” said Rajoelina, who claims the infusion cures patients within 10 days.

Already Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Tanzania have taken delivery of consignments of the potion, which was launched last month.No country or organisation will keep us from going forward,” Rajoelina said in response to the WHO’s concerns.

He said proof of the tonic’s efficacy was in “the healing of our sick”.

Madagascar has officially reported 183 coronavirus infections and 105 recoveries, with no deaths.

“The patients who were cured were cured through the administration of Covid-Organics alone,” the president said.

He referred to the remedy as “an improved traditional medicine”, adding that Madagascar was not conducting clinical trials but “clinical observations” in accordance with WHO guidelines.

The UAE is no True Friend

The UK government is happy to ignore terrible human rights abuses by regimes like the UAE, writes Matthew Hedges, who was imprisoned there

The decision by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, to call the UAE “true friends” and “valued partners” on tweeter and thanking them for donating PPE has been especially difficult for people like me to read. I was detained in the UAE for almost seven months in solitary confinement, falsely accused of spying on behalf of the British government who did very little to help get me released.

I am not the only British citizen who suffered at the hands of the UAE: Ali Ahmad was tortured  for wearing the Qatar flag on a T-shirt during an international football tournament, and Ryan Cornelius remains in unsanitary conditions in a cell in the UAE, having his term extended a further 20 years despite serving his full term already.

It is also concerning that despite the UAE being clearly in opposition to the UK’s goals in the conflicts in Libya and Yemen, the foreign secretary thinks that the UAE are valued partners who share the same diplomatic interests.

It seems that not only does the UK government not value British lives abroad, it is happy to ignore terrible human rights abuses by regimes like the UAE, in order to deflect from its own failings during a global pandemic.

Perhaps the foreign secretary should push for arbitrarily detained British citizens to be released in the UAE and for a de-escalation in Libya and Yemen before choosing to thank the UAE so thoughtlessly.

Matthew Hedges

London

theguardian,com