Ikoyi Building Collapse

At least five people have died after a building with more than 20 stories collapsed in an upmarket area of Nigeria's economic hub, Lagos, on Monday, authorities said.

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source: CNN

Reusable protection to the rescue

Tens of millions of dirty, used, and counterfeit nitrile gloves - some of them stained with blood - have been shipped to the United States...

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Source: Daily mail online

Only in America – to add or not to add a third Gender

Mauree Turner, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City in the state legislature, is the first-ever lawmaker in the Sooner State to identify as nonbinary. People who are nonbinary do not identify with traditional male or female gender assignments. Instead, the preferred pronoun is ‘they’ or ‘them.’

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source: Daily mail online

Ghana launches National Breastfeeding Week

The World Health Organization has joined the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and partners to launch the 2021 National Breastfeeding Week celebration under the theme, Protect Breastfeeding: A shared responsibility.

This year’s event will focus on raising awareness and galvanizing action on protecting breastfeeding to improve public health. The week-long celebration will be marked with a call on stakeholders to make investments and commitments to support actions aimed at reducing   malnutrition amongst newborns, infants, and young children in Ghana.

Ghana’s exclusive breastfeeding rate currently stands at 43 percent, representing a significant drop from 63 percent in 2008. Optimal breastfeeding practices: that is, early initiation within the first hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and appropriate complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years or beyond - are among the most effective interventions to protect children from common causes of death, including complications from prematurity, newborn infections, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.

WHO and UNICEF released a number of capacity-building tools for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) during the Global launch of World Breastfeeding Week in August 2021. These include a BFHI Competency Verification Toolkit for direct care providers, training of maternity staff in BFHI, and the care for small, sick, and pre-term babies. The tools can also help improve health workers' skills and competencies to ensure universal access to skilled breastfeeding support.

source: APO

TB Joshua, global televangelist star mourned

Nigeria's influential pastor TB Joshua, who has died aged 57, was considered a pariah among the country's mega-televangelists and struggled until his death to be accepted within their circles, despite amassing millions of followers across Africa.

Ostracized by both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) he was described as an "impostor" who belonged to a group of "occults" that had infiltrated Christianity.

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SOURCE: BBC

By Nduka Orjinmo - BBC News, Abuja

Apprenticeship scheme creates billionaires in Nigeria

The Igbo apprenticeship system has roots in Nigeria's post-civil-war years, says Ndubisi Ekekwe, a Nigerian professor whose article on the apprentice scheme is set to appear in the Harvard Business Review later this month.

                                                        Cosmas Maduka, Coscharis 

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Nigerian Soldiers yet again killed by insurgents

At least 31 Nigerian soldiers were killed when IS-aligned jihadists ambushed a military convoy escorting weapons and overran a base in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, military sources said on Monday.

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Six refugees among 137 killed in Niger’s recent attack

 

UNHCR has confirmed that six Malian refugees were among 137 people killed on 21 March in Niger’s western region of Tahoua, near the town of Tillia. Most of the victims in this deadly attack by unidentified armed groups were internally displaced people who had already fled horrendous violence, some of them during 2020.

The attacks on displaced people and the communities generously hosting them, were targeted and deliberate. In addition to the unjustifiable violence meted out against civilians, shelters and granaries were also burned to the ground and cattle stolen or killed. Survivors have nothing left. An estimated 1,400 people from these villages are now on the move, trying to escape from the violence.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and partners continue to gather information from survivors, many of whom have been left in shock and mourning. Our teams and partners are monitoring the situation and providing humanitarian aid and counselling to survivors.

We reiterate our call for greater protection of civilians and displaced communities. We also call on the international community to seize the sense of urgency and continue supporting regional efforts to address the root causes of this crisis and help us respond to humanitarian needs arising from forced displacement.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Winter storm knocks out power to millions in Texas

More than 3.5 million Texans are still without power as the death toll from the winter storm which has wreaked havoc across the United States hit 23 Tuesday night. The record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives Tuesday, including four family members who perished in a Houston-area house fire while using a fireplace to stay warm and a woman and a girl who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning from a car running in a garage after their home in the city lost power.

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Outrage as 100 civilians massacred in Niger attacks

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, condemns in the strongest terms the twin attacks in western Niger that killed at least 100 people, injured 25 others, and forced hundreds to flee on 2 January.

Armed groups mounted coordinated attacks on the villages of Tchamo-Bangou and Zaroumdareye, in Niger’s Tillaberi region near the border with Mali. Some of the injured were evacuated to Ouallam and Niamey, 80 and 120 kilometres away respectively.

“We express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of these outrageous attacks on peaceful communities,” said UNHCR’s Representative in Niger, Alessandra Morelli. “Communities which are now torn apart by brutality and forced to flee in a region where tens of thousands of people displaced by violence are hosted and hoping to rebuild their lives.”

According to local sources, the survivors of the attacks and the population of four other neighbouring villages have fled. At least 1,000 people are now on the move, trying to reach Ouallam. Many are making the journey on foot. In Ouallam, UNHCR and its partners are already providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, internally displaced people, and the vulnerable among their hosts.

“We are preparing to assist the people with essential care, shelter, and protection, but also psychological support to help them overcome the horror they have experienced” said Morelli. UNHCR and Niger authorities are exploring ways to increase the reception capacities in Ouallam.

Niger’s Tillaberi and Tahoua regions, located near Liptako-Gourma which borders Burkina Faso and Mali, currently host 60,000 Malian refugees and nearly 4,000 who fled Burkina Faso. It also hosts 138,229 internally displaced Nigeriens, a number that increased by 77 per cent in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic is complicating the humanitarian response.

Despite increased insecurity, Nigeriens continue to show their generosity to people fleeing violence in Africa’s Sahel and Lake Chad regions.

Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali in the Sahel are at the epicentre of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement and protection crises. The region is already hosting 851,000 refugees and nearly two million displaced inside their own country.

Source: APO