Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has won his fourth seven-year term in the 2021 presidential race, the Syrian parliament announced on Thursday. Hamoudeh Sabbagh, the parliament speaker, said that Assad won 95.1 per cent of the vote as opposed to 88.7 per cent in the 2014 election. He said that about 14 million of the estimated 18 million eligible voters inside and outside Syria cast their votes, with a turnout rate of 78.64 per cent. Huge crowds of Assad supporters filled the Umayyad Square, the main square in the Syrian capital of Damascus, to celebrate Assad’s win, waving Syrian flags and…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it recorded 45 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 166,191 The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Thursday. It stated that the 45 new cases were from five states. It listed Lagos, with 27 new infections, followed by Rivers with 14, Kaduna with 2, while Jigawa and Ekiti reported 1 case each. It noted that “today’s report includes 0 cases from Plateau, Nasarawa, Kano, Sokoto, FCT, Osun, Ondo, Ogun and Oyo states.” The public health agency said the country’s…
UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has restated its commitment to reducing maternal deaths and Gender Based Violence (GBV) through community engagement and information. Its Country Representative, Ulla Mueller, said this at the launch of “Text4life App and Youth COVID-19 Handout” in Abuja on Thursday. The hand-out is designed to assist women in distress, especially pregnant women, to have skilled pregnancy care in primary health centres, as well as survivors of GBV. Mueller, who described the project as a milestone in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, said it would go a long way in reducing maternal deaths and GBV. She added…
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on Thursday appealed to business leaders to help cushion the suffering caused by COVID-19 and for equitable vaccine distribution worldwide. Guterres told a virtual roundtable event that COVID-19 pandemic had brought “a tsunami of suffering”, taken over 3.4 million lives and 500 million jobs, while wiping trillions of dollars from global balance sheets. “This is indeed much more than a health crisis. It is a social crisis and an economic crisis, with dramatic long-term consequences for livelihoods, businesses and for economies,’’ he said. The virtual roundtable event is part of the UN’s global campaign, #OnlyTogether –…
The Executive Chairman, UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking, Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, has called for a secured learning environment for all children living in the country. Okah-Donli made this call in a statement by Miss Martha Adegbe, the Head of Administration, Roost Foundation, a counter Trafficking and Gender Base Violence (GBV) Organisation owned by Okah–Donli on Thursday in Abuja. While celebrating with children at the Roost Foundation headquarters to mark 2021 Children Day, at Roost Foundation headquarters, she expressed displeasure over the spate of child abductions and kidnapping in the school environment in some parts of the country. Okah-Donli described…
The Presidential Steering Committee (PSC), on COVID-19 has given 132 persons 48-hours to turn themselves to the nearest state public health departments for violating the quarantine provisions of the COVID-19 guidelines. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman PSC on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, made this known in a statement. ”The 132 violators of the advisory, entered through Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. ”Members of the public should be on the lookout”, he said, describing the persons as immediate health hazard. ”They must therefore transport themselves safely, to the nearest state public health departments within…
First Hausa International television station, Tambarin has commenced operations in Kano. The Deputy Chairman of the station, Muhammad Sani Utai, made the disclosure during a press conference on Thursday in Kano. Utai said that Tambarin Hausa Television would meet the yearnings and aspirations of its viewers globally. According to him, the station will go on air officially by the first week of June. ”Everyone yearns for the media that will break the barriers, especially in linguistics to meet the demands of the people in relation with sharing the Hausa culture and tradition with the rest of the world. “The reporters already…
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says relief operations in Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region, challenged by limited access, are racing against severe malnutrition. UNOCHA disclosed this on Thursday. “Food insecurity is alarming, with a high risk of mass severe acute malnutrition looming in the next few months if not addressed immediately,” it said. Access remains a challenge. Most of the Central Zone, the most populated in the region with about 1.8 million people, remains largely inaccessible, OCHA said. “Where humanitarian workers have reached people, the situation is dire, including shortages of food, dysfunctional water system, lack of…
Palestine on Thursday welcomed the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to form an independent committee to investigate Israeli violations in the Palestinian territories. During an emergency session, UNHRC decided to launch an international investigation into human rights violations committed in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel since April, after 24 member states voted in favor and nine against, while 14 abstained. The decision called for an inquiry into the recent violent confrontations between the Israeli army and the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, as well as the “deep causes” of tensions between the two sides.…
Somalia’s federal government and regional state leaders finally signed an agreement on Thursday, ending an impasse that has delayed the holding of both presidential and parliamentary elections in the country. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and leaders of five federal member states alongside the governor of Banadir Regional Administration pledged to conduct free and fair elections within 60 days. Speaking after signing the revised agreement, Roble said that Thursday marked a historic moment and turned a golden page for Somalia’s state-building and governance history. Roble said the agreement was reached on all contentious issues including the Gedo region, Somaliland, and…