About soter

Posts by :

22, April 2020

Militants massacre 52 villagers in Mozambique ⁰

Militants have killed 52 villagers in northern Mozambique who refused to be recruited to their ranks.

The massacre took place on April 7 in the village of Xitaxi in the Muidumbe district of Cabo Delgado Province, home to multi-billion-dollar gas projects led by foreign companies such as Total.

“The young men were about to be recruited but they resisted, which provoked the ire of the bandits, who killed the 52 indiscriminately,” police spokesman Orlando Modumane said on Tuesday.

Modumane said most of the victims had been either shot dead or beheaded, adding that a manhunt had been launched for the attackers.

Militants have in recent weeks stepped up attacks in the gas-rich province, targeting towns, villages, or government buildings.

For more than two years, the militants have mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 900 people, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

The unrest has forced hundreds of thousands of locals to flee the troubled province.

Cabo Delgado, expected to become the center of a natural gas industry after several promising discoveries, has seen a string of assaults on security forces and civilians.

In 2017, the government announced plans to build a commercial port in Cabo Delgado.

Attacks have prompted security concerns for investors in Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries.

NGOs say the government must do more to protect the mostly poor civilians in the area.

Source: Presstv

22, April 2020

US blacks, Hispanics hardest hit by coronavirus-related job losses ⁰

A new study shows that African-American and Hispanic families in the United States have been hit hardest by job losses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The study conducted by the Pew Research Center and released on Tuesday showed that ethnic minorities in the United States are taking the biggest income hit due to the epidemiological crisis and they are less prepared to withstand the economic blow of it.

Hispanics are the worst-affected, with over 60 percent of them saying they or somebody in their family lost a job or had an income cut, according to the research study.

The figure is nearly 45 percent for African Americans and only 38 percent for white people.

Moreover, the study by the Pew Research Center showed that only 29 percent of Hispanics and 27 percent of African-American adults said they had rainy-day funds to cover their bills for up to three months, compared with 53 percent of white adults.

The Pew report, based on an April survey of 4,917 adults, highlighted racial disparities inside the US, where minorities suffer a disproportionately higher number of COVID-19 fatalities.

The US virus death toll has risen above 45,000 as of Tuesday, and more than 818,000 people have also been infected in the US.

The White House has been seeking to deflect criticism of its own sluggish response to the COVID-19 crisis by putting too much emphasis on the virus’s likely origins in China, with US President Donald Trump and other American officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.”

Source: Presstv

21, April 2020

French Cameroun monarch makes personal contribution to fight against COVID-19 ⁰

Cameroonian President Paul Biya on Monday donated “special gifts” to fight the coronavirus, as the central African country exceeded 1,000 confirmed cases over the weekend with 42 deaths.

The country’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji said in a statement the gifts evaluated to the tune of 2 billion CFA francs (about 3.32 millions dollars) will be available to the 360 sub-divisions of the country to reinforce government’s measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

The gifts include soap, face masks, buckets, hand washing cans, rapid screening test kits and respiratory devices for hospitals.

Nji stressed that it was the president’s “personal” donation that came after he created a national solidarity fund in early April to fight the novel coronavirus.

Source: Xinhuanet

21, April 2020

Nigeria directs agencies to stop Ambazonian refugees from entering Benue State ⁰

The Federal Government has directed security agencies to stop Cameroonian refugees fleeing Southern Cameroons from gaining entrance into Nigeria through Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State to check the spread of Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, in the country. State Deputy Governor, and chairman of the State Action Committee on COVID-19, Benson Abounu, announced this, yesterday, in Makurdi, while inaugurating members of the 11 task forces constituted by the state government to enforce restriction of movement at the major interstate boundaries of the state.

According g to the Deputy Governor, “the directive that came from the presidency is that we must stop every refugee coming from Cameroon from entering Benue state to help us check the spread of Coronavirus in our state and country. That order did not stop us from allowing Nigerians into their own country but certainly not citizens of other countries who might expose our people to the pandemic.” He explained that the task force members on inter-state boundaries were not on a mission to stop interstate movements but to ensure that travelers were checked and their temperatures taken to determine their health status.

“Where the health status of any traveler is suspicious, such a person must be asked to step aside for observation and necessary checks and test for the virus. The task force must ensure that the destination of every traveler is availed them to know those coming into the state for all necessary action to ensure that no one brings the virus into the state. The essence is to ensure that our people are protected.” The Deputy Governor who expressed displeasure at the attitude of beer parlor operators in the state who he said flagrantly disobey the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the state by the government promised to lead a team round such drinking spots to enforce the order.

Source: Vanguard

21, April 2020

Ambazonia: Two traditional leaders reported killed in Bambili ⁰

Gunmen shot dead two traditional leaders in volatile western Cameroon before being gunned down by soldiers, a local ruler said Monday, adding that the assailants were believed to be anglophone separatists.

The casualties were the president and secretary general of a traditional council, according to Afungchwi III, the king of Bambili, where the clash took place last Thursday. He said the two assailants were “probably” separatists angry over calls for disarmament by the traditional leadership and politicians.

Bambili lies in the Northwest Region, one of two regions in western Cameroon that have been rocked by violence since late 2017. Anglophone militants have launched an armed campaign to break away from the rest of Cameroon, which is majority French-speaking.

Source: AFP

21, April 2020

Covid-19 deaths in France surpass 20,000 as hospitalisations continue to fall ⁰

France has reported 547 deaths in hospitals and nursing homes from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours as the number of new hospitalisations continued a slow decline.

France – which on Monday became the fourth country to record more than 20,000 deaths as a result of the pandemic and has the fourth-highest toll in the world – has been in virtual lockdown for nearly five weeks and is due to start lifting some confinement measures from May 11.

“Tonight, our country has passed a barrier that is symbolic and particularly painful,” top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters, announcing a total death toll of 20,265 people while welcoming new falls in the numbers in hospital and intensive care.

The 547 new deaths reported – including 444 in hospital and 103 in nursing homes – marked an increase over the previous 24 hours.

Salomon, however, highlighted other welcome signs that the virus curve had passed its peak. He said 5,683 patients were receiving intensive care for the virus on Monday, down from a peak of 7,148 on April 8. Hospitalisations likewise continued a near week-long decline.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a news conference on Sunday that falls in the number of people in intensive care were one of the encouraging signals that pressures on hospitals were easing.

But he shut down any expectations that the gradual exit from confinement in May, due to start with the reopening of schools, would allow people to move around or interact as before, especially as a vaccine against the virus was still far off.

“It won’t be a return to normal life,” Philippe said, adding that as France introduces more testing, people with coronavirus would have to remain isolated at home or in hotels laid on by the government. “From May 11, we will enter a second phase, when we will regain some of our freedoms.”

The French state has given few details yet of the pace at which businesses like cinemas or bars will reopen, only saying that as some stores open up again, people will have to maintain safe distances from each other.

France will, however, lift its ban on visits to nursing home residents, provided people did not touch their relatives, Health Minister Olivier Véran told the same briefing. Elderly people in nursing homes account for nearly 40% of the coronavirus fatalities in the country.

The government has come under fire in recent weeks after shortages of medicines, hospital equipment such as ventilators and face masks for doctors as well as front line workers in sectors like supermarkets added to problems in handling the crisis.

Philippe said that in the past week France had managed to import just under 81 million masks, exceeding for the first time “in a long time” its weekly needs of about 45 million.

By June, France will also have secured and produced 15,000 more ventilators for resuscitation units in hospitals and another 15,000 less heavy-duty versions – helping it exceed its projected needs.

“That will not only allow us to secure our situation, but thereafter to also mobilise some ventilators to help France’s allies internationally,” Philippe said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

21, April 2020

Oil prices close below zero in unprecedented collapse ⁰

Oil futures plunged below zero on Monday, the latest never-before-seen number to come out of the economic coma caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Stocks and Treasury yields also dropped on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was in oil, where the cost to have a barrel of US crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year.

Traders are still paying $20.43 for a barrel of US oil to be delivered in June, which analysts consider to be closer to the “true” price of oil. Crude to be delivered next month, meanwhile, is running up against a stark problem: traders are running out of places to keep it, with storage tanks close to full amid a collapse in demand as factories, automobiles and airplanes sit idle around the world.

Tanks at a key energy hub in Oklahoma could hit their limits within three weeks, according to Chris Midgley, head of analytics at S&P Global Platts. Because of that, traders are willing to pay others to take that oil for delivery in May off their hands, so long as they also take the burden of figuring out where to keep it.

“Almost by definition, crude oil has never fallen more than 100%, which is what happened today,” said Dave Ernsberger, global head of pricing and market insight at S&P Global Platts.

“I don’t think any of us can really believe what we saw today,” he said. “This kind of rewrites the economics of oil trading.”

Also exacerbating the volatility is that few traders are buying and selling US oil to be delivered in May. They won’t even have the opportunity to do so after Tuesday, when trading contracts for it expire and the earliest delivery they’ll be able to buy is for June.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell nearly 9% to $25.57 per barrel.

A dismal 2020

The plunge in oil sent energy stocks in the S&P 500 to a 3.7% loss, the latest in a dismal 2020 that has caused their prices to nearly halve.

Halliburton lurched between gains and sharp losses, even though it reported stronger results for the first three months of 2020 than analysts expected. The oilfield engineering company said that the pandemic has created so much turmoil in the industry that it “cannot reasonably estimate” how long the hit will last. It expects a further decline in revenue and profitability for the rest of 2020, particularly in North America.

The S&P 500 fell 51.40 points to 2,823.16. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 592.05 points, or 2.4%, to 23,650.44, and the Nasdaq dropped 89.41, or 1%, to 8,560.73.

The losses ate into some of the big gains indexes have made since late March, driven lately by investors anticipating the potential reopening of businesses as infections level off in hard-hit areas. Pessimists have called the rally overdone, pointing to the severe economic pain sweeping the world and continued uncertainty about how long it will last.

“The government can declare whatever they want in terms of encouraging people to get out and do stuff,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird. “Whether or not broad swaths of society do that remains to be seen. It’s going to take seeing people start to get out and do stuff again. That will be the necessary positive development, not just declaring getting things open.”

New stay-at-home economy

More gains from companies that are winners in the new stay-at-home economy helped limit the market’s losses. Netflix jumped 3.4% to set another record as people shut in at home look to fill their time. Amazon added 0.8%.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 0.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%.

European markets were modestly higher. The German DAX was up 0.5%, the French CAC 40 was up 0.7% and the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.7%.

In a sign of continued caution in the market, Treasury yields remained extremely low. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.62% from 0.65% late Friday.

Stocks have been on a general upward swing recently, and the S&P 500 just closed out its first back-to-back weekly gain since the market began selling off in February. Promises of massive aid for the economy and markets by the Federal Reserve and US government ignited the rally, which sent the S&P 500 up as much as 28.5% from a low on March 23.

More recently, countries around the world have tentatively eased up on business-shutdown restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus.

But health experts warn the pandemic is far from over and new flareups could ignite if governments rush to allow “normal” life to return prematurely. The S&P 500 remains nearly 17% below its record high as millions more US workers file for unemployment every week amid the shutdowns.

Many analysts also warn that some of the the recent rally for stocks is due to expectations the economy will pivot quickly and rebound sharply once economic quarantines are lifted. Those could prove to be too optimistic.

“There’s still uncertainty surrounding the reopening of the economy,” said Julian Emanuel, chief equity and derivatives strategist at BTIG. “Come fall, are we going to be back on airplanes? Are we going to go out and eat?”

Source:AP

21, April 2020

UN slaps sanctions on Central Africa rebel chief ⁰

The UN Security Council on Monday imposed sanctions on Central African Republic rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year signed a peace agreement between the government and armed groups.

Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a government position under the terms of the February 2019 accord.

However, in the last report by UN experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was mentioned as looking for fighters.

Despite the signing of the agreement, Miskine “remains a threat to the peace, stability and security of the CAR,” a diplomat said.

Miskine had signed the peace agreement in Khartoum between CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the heads of 14 armed groups.

Under the deal, militia chiefs were given senior government positions in the purported aim of helping to cement peace.

Miskine was named as an adviser to the new government but never took up his post, according to Bangui.

In November 2019, the Central African government said Miskine had been arrested in neighboring Chad and demanded his extradition.

He has now been put under UN sanctions, which include an asset freeze and travel ban. One of the world’s poorest countries, the landlocked CAR has been mired in conflict for years.

Most of the country is in the hands of armed groups that claim to represent religious or ethnic communities, and often fight over the country’s rich mineral resources.

Miskine set up the FDPC in 2004, when the country first plunged into civil war, and gave himself the rank of general.

He joined the coalition of mainly Muslim militias that in 2013 overthrew then-president Francois Bozize — a revolt that sparked French military intervention and the holding of elections for a successor.

Since then the CAR has been devastated by fighting between numerous rebel militias and government forces and also between the armed groups themselves.

The violence has abated in CAR since the Khartoum accord, but fighting between rebel groups continues and the toll among civilians is still rising. More than a quarter of the 4.7 million population have fled their homes.

Source: AFP

20, April 2020

Ghana lifts coronavirus lockdown as cases hit 1,042 ⁰

Ghana’s president on Sunday lifted targeted lockdown on two major regions in the country citing improved testing of the coronavirus pandemic across the West African country.

In the over half-an-hour address delivered to the nation, the president also announced that Ghana’s tally had passed the 1,000 mark. Ghana becomes the first African country to not extend but lift a lockdown.

Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and more recently Zimbabwe have all extended lockdowns aimed at curbing spread of the pandemic. Government however warned that lockdowns could be imposed in hotspots if need be.

Source: Africa News

20, April 2020

Yaounde receives coronavirus aid ⁰

The Biya regime has received 100 respirators and 300 thousand diagnostic test kits to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

State media reported that the cargo ordered by the Cameroon government, arrived on Saturday at the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport transported by Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight.

Health officials say the arrival of the respirators and diagnostic kits with help the government to fight against the spread of the Corvid-19 in the country.

On Friday the regime confirmed 1017 coronavirus cases and it is now being reported that the death toll from the deadly virus has doubled.

Adamaoua region registered its first COVID-19 case making it the eight out of the ten regions to be contaminated.

By Rita Akana