• Govt. crushes 1,500 motorcycles for violating traffic law

    40 motorcycle riders were charged to court weekly in Lagos State government in Lagos state, Nigeria. Just yesterday, the state crushed 1,500 motorcycles popularly called ‘okada’ impounded during enforcement of the ban on their operation in the ten local councils and 15 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

    The state commissioner for transportation, Mr. Oluwaseun Osiyemi stated that the exercise showed that government is not rescinding its decision to apprehend, impound and crush motorcycles plying restricted areas.

    He emphasized that the regular crushing exercise is to further reinforce the need for operators and passengers to stay off the ban areas, avoid three years imprisonment if apprehended in line with the Transport Reform Law, (TSRL) 2018.

    In a statement, the commissioner said: “The ban on Okada in specified regions is crucial for maintaining order, reducing risks associated with unauthorized motorcycle operation and also improving security. For avoidance of doubt, the prohibited local councils include; Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Somolu, Mushin, Apapa, Ikeja, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Surulere and Eti-Osa.”

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  • How Ghana and Nigeria police handle domestic violence 

    How Ghana and Nigeria police handle domestic violence cases

    The response to domestic violence by the police in Ghana and Nigeria is lacking.
    Getty Images

    Abena Asefuaba Yalley, University of Konstanz

    Since the 1970s feminist movement for the support of abused women under the appellation “Battered Women’s Movement”, the struggle against domestic violence has continued. In Ghana, for example, national records reveal that one-third of women have been victims of domestic violence. In Nigeria, 33% of women aged 15-49 have experienced either
    physical or sexual violence in a domestic setting.

    Both Ghana and Nigeria enacted laws on domestic violence in 2007. They essentially criminalised domestic violence and made police involvement mandatory. Special domestic violence units were set up in the two countries’ police institutions. The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit was created within the Ghana Police Service, while the Family Support Unit was established in the Nigeria Police Force.

    These units are responsible for handling cases of domestic violence, prosecuting offenders and providing support services for victims. These roles are critical in breaking the cycle of violence. They should instil confidence in victims and promote the rights of women by showing that domestic violence is unacceptable and will be punished.

    Several studies have examined police interventions in domestic violence by looking at the trend in domestic violence reports to police and the role of police in victims’ access to justice. These studies have established very low reportage of domestic violence to the police. They also found that a lack of police commitment hinders victims’ access to justice. But one aspect has been largely unexplored: police culture – specifically its masculinity – and how it is implicated in domestic violence interventions.

    As a result we set out to study the way the police in Ghana and Nigeria handle domestic violence cases and victims. In particular, we looked at manifestations of police masculinity and its impact on policing domestic violence.

    We found that although the domestic violence laws in Ghana and Nigeria aim to improve the well-being of domestic violence victims, the masculinised culture of the police impeded their success and complicated the plight of domestic violence victims. By masculinised culture, we mean traits such as force, aggression, dominance, violence and strength which are valued and celebrated in the police force. We found that these traits were continually upheld as the ideal police officer trait. Both men and women in the units displayed these characteristics.

    Police masculinity

    The research was conducted in six police domestic violence units in Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria. We conducted interviews with female victims of domestic violence, police officers who handle domestic violence cases and social workers with experience of police work in handling domestic violence.

    The study revealed that the masculine culture of police was evident even in the training content for recruits in both the Ghanaian and Nigerian police forces.

    Police personnel told us their training aimed to instil qualities such as vigour, strength, discipline, toughness, braveness and assertiveness. A police officer said:

    The training comprised parade, fatigue, bodybuilding, jungle training, early morning rising, lecture, and handling of guns.

    There was no training on how to handle domestic violence or gender issues although domestic violence was part of police work. Some training on handling domestic violence was offered after a couple of years, but was organised mainly by nongovernmental organisations. Some of the policemen we interviewed said the training they eventually received on domestic violence had made them more empathetic, humane, patient, sensitive and supportive of women.

    We noted that the police generally viewed domestic violence as a crime involving only women. As a result, the domestic violence units in the two police institutions were considered the “feminine arm” – the women unit – of the police.

    The billboards, flyers and posters in the domestic violence units featured female characters and reinforced the idea that domestic violence was only about women victims seeking redress against male violators. This was a hindrance to male victims who needed police help.

    The study also revealed that the domestic violence units were under-resourced when compared with the anti-robbery and counter-terrorism units. Little attention was given to the units in terms of training and resources.

    We found that police officers were often unwelcoming and unfriendly to victims. Some of them got irritated by the victims’ presence and display of vulnerability.

    They often blamed, insulted or mocked victims, and sometimes ordered them out of their offices.

    The findings of the study revealed that about 40% of victims abandoned their cases after the initial reports. In follow-up interviews, the victims indicated this was as a result of police hostility towards them. Victims said they found the police station a hostile environment, filled with tension. They also revealed they felt more traumatised after their encounter with police, which made them less willing to seek police assistance again.

    We found that police officers shielded other police officers who committed domestic violence offences. Those accused of abuse were barely investigated.

    Also noteworthy was a lack of psychosocial support for victims. Interventions prioritised criminality with minimal or no regard for the emotional wellbeing of victims. Emotional distress was considered a feminine trait.

    What must be done

    The practices of most police institutions in Ghana and Nigeria have reduced their ability to protect abused women, enforce the domestic violence laws and promote the rights of women.

    The Ghanaian and Nigerian police should restructure police training and rework its curriculum. Gender sensitivity and effective handling of domestic violence courses and modules should be taught in police colleges. Also, training on domestic violence should be made a compulsory part of police training.

    This would greatly reduce the stereotypical views on gender, minimise masculinised performance and improve police skills in handling domestic violence.The Conversation

    Abena Asefuaba Yalley, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Konstanz

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Africa: Europe accused of trying to kill UN tax reform

    News for Africa shows that diplomats from the European Union and the UK have been accused of trying to “kill” proposals that seek to give more voice to developing countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, India, and others in international tax negotiations.

    There are talks at the United Nations over plans to give the UN more of a role in global tax discussions. This is a measure being pushed for by low and middle-income countries.

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) organized countries over international tax matters for decades, and now it is being criticized by officials in some developing economies who believe it does not reflect their interests.

    According to a Financial Times report, last year, a group of 54 African countries, frustrated at the OECD process, successfully brought a resolution at the UN General Assembly.

    They said that the UN secretary-general should produce a report assessing ways to strengthen the “inclusiveness and effectiveness” of international tax cooperation, including options that gave the UN more of a role on the global tax stage.

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  • Africans cross to Spanish islands in record numbers

    Huge numbers of migrants have landed on the shores of the Canary Islands in the past few days, according to online sources.

    As at Monday, local rescue services counted 1,492 arrivals.

    On October 21, more than 1,000 migrants arrived on the Spanish islands.

    It is said that of that number, 321 came on the same boat, breaking the record of October 3, when 271 people arrived on a single boat.

    The Red Cross said 783 people landed on El Hierro island on Saturday, 98 of that number arrived in Tenerife and 150 in Gran Canaria.

    Also, the Gran Canaria Coastguard hauled a wooden boat containing migrants, including a toddler, into the port of Arguineguin.

    Similar vessels used by previous arrivals are docked in the port.

    An emergency services spokesman said all the migrants were from Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Spain’s interior ministry made the claim earlier that 23,537 people reached the Canaries between January 1 and October 15. That signifies an 80 per cent increase from the same period last year, as official data show.

    There was a large increase of these crossings over the past four weeks, which saw 8,561 arrivals, the highest number since 2006 during the Cayuco Crisis in which some 6,000 migrants died at sea.

    El Hierro, with a population of only 11,000 people, has now emerged as a primary destination, increasing the population.

    It saw more than 5,000 arrivals in the first week of this month of October.

    Historically, migrants tended to go to Lanzarote but it appears they now prefer El Hierro, as it is further from the Mauritanian and Moroccan shores, making it more difficult for those two nations’ security authorities to intercept them.

    The major cause

    The large rise in migration to Spain is partly the result of upheaval in Senegal, where violence erupted after the opposition leader was jailed. That further adds to growing destabilization in the wider Sahel region.

    Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Gabon, Mali, Niger and Sudan are currently all ruled by military juntas, following a string of coups in recent years.

    So far this year, at least 1,000 people have died attempting the crossing to the Canary Islands, according to the Walking Borders charity.

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  • 10 largest economies in Africa ranked by currencies

    Business Insider Africa has done its bit to present the currencies of the top 10 largest economies in Africa ranked from best to worse.

    This ranking is not based on any other thing than by the strongest currencies on the continent.

    As you may see from the table in this post, Africa has a diverse range of currencies. However, currency performance in Africa is a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution.

    We at AidenPromotions believe that to a large extend, this currency rank is authentic. That’s why we are sharing it with our audience.

    Note that these are the primary economies possessing the power to determine Africa’s financial course. The impact of these countries spread throughout the continent, luring investors and driving regional growth.

    It is a wonder how well the currencies of these giant economies are performing. Also important is that people should know currency performance is an important indicator of a country’s economic stability and prosperity, and its performance varies greatly between countries in Africa’s varied and vibrant continent.

    As could be seen, countries like South Africa, and Morocco boast relatively stable currencies due to their stronger economies, some other nations both big or small may struggle with currency volatility because of fiscal and monetary policies. Socio-economic and political complications are also part of the problem.

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  • Do all Nigerians live in huts? – A Reddit Question

    ARRGH! Don’t know how to start answering this question but I’ll start by posting couple of pictures.

    (I believe the person who put everything together below isn’t a Nigerian, so he or she is in a better position to tell the story without bias)

    Probably the house of a rich celebrity

    Another beautiful house in Lekki, Lagos Nigeria maybe owned by a politician who cares.

    I love this one particularly. I wanna buy a mighty mansion for my mom. Love her dearly.

    We are very religious. We even built a national church for God. It’s beautiful right?

    Oh and the central mosque, we don’t discriminate religions that are mainstream. Except the traditional religions have no national building…

    That’s not the gate to some forest reserve…actually it’s the gate of the school I graduated from, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti. Built on a vast land with massive forest reserve actually. Yeah forest reserve. LOL. 😅😅

    Oh and another beautiful church here in Lagos State, CMS located at Marina on the Islands.

    Not yet completed Eko Atlantic City. Wow…you might ask if this is Nigeria your presumed “Shit hole” or Dubai rip-off. Anyway it’s a beautiful architecture still under construction in Lagos state built on top of the Atlantic ocean.

    This is Victoria Island, its beautiful right. Looks like Italy actually and might make you wonder why Nigerians still struggle to pass through the wasteland Libya just to get through to Europe.

    A beautiful Nigerian. She’s mixed though but she’s Nigerian. She’s a musician by the way. Vanila Lu. Isn’t she beautiful. Im a fan.

    Sort of like this. You can see the genuine beauty. She’s probably a Northerner and you should visit Northern Nigeria sometimes later because the place is ridden with beautiful people and rich in great cultures.

    But then you might also be welcomed by scary views of real Huts and Almajiris (Non-western Islamic pupils) with tattered clothes and their plates begging you for food. Feed them if you can. Else just walk away and explore the country filled with both rich and poor people alike.

    Now on to the down side…a typical Lagos traffic gridlock due to poorly maintained roads. This event happened just 2 weeks ago. It was a crazy gridlock caused by NOTHING.

    This is the first lady of a state. She came all the way to commission this project. How thoughtful of her.

    She’s such a generous woman. Look what she had commissioned. She’s a blessing to the people of her state to even think about this kind of initiative.

    Look at these beautiful kids. They’re the future of tomorrow. But most of them are born into abject poverty but they still smile even though.

    Anyway my point is that there are two sides of a coin. There is the urban and then the rural. All Nigerians don’t live in huts. Of course some people do especially in the northern part due to poverty. But generally, some Nigerians are well off in the middle class while some are right above the middle class and wallows in millions of Naira (Nigerian currency). Another fact is that Nigeria is still developing and poverty level is reducing (though I don’t have any statistics to back that claim up)

    Thanks for the question. I hope I helped clarify things a little.

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  • Libya storm – a glimpse of North Africa’s future?

    Was the freak ‘medicane’ storm that devastated Libya a glimpse of North Africa’s future?

    Mike Rogerson, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Belkasem Alkaryani, University of Tobruk, and Mahjoor Lone, Northumbria University, Newcastle

    Storm Daniel landed on the Libyan coastal town of Toukrah in the early hours of September 10 and started moving east. Soon the wind was rising and heavy rain falling, forcing people to stay indoors. By afternoon the rain was clearly out of the ordinary.

    Albaydah city on the coast would receive 80% of its annual rain before midnight, according to records from a local weather station that we have accessed. In less than 24 hours, thousands of people were dead, hundreds of thousands were missing, and towns and villages across Jebel Akhdar (the Green Mountain) in north-eastern Libya resembled a Hollywood disaster movie.

    Storm Daniel was a Mediterranean cyclone or hurricane (a so-called medicane) which struck Greece, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt and Turkey over the course of a week. Medicanes are not rare. Such large storms happen in this part of the world every few years. But Daniel has proved to be the deadliest.

    At the time of writing, the World Health Organization estimates that at least 3,958 people have died across Libya as a result of the floods, with more than 9,000 people still missing.

    Daniel was not an exceptionally big storm though. The medicane with the highest wind speeds was medicane Ianos in September 2020, which killed around four people and caused more than €224 million (£193 million) of damage. So what made Storm Daniel different?

    Less frequent, but stronger

    Like tropical cyclones, medicanes form in hot conditions at the end of summer. Most medicanes form to the west of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. As they tend to strike the same regions each time, the people living in the western Mediterranean, southern Italy and western Greece, have built structures to deal with these storms and the occasional downpours they bring.

    Daniel formed relatively far to the east and struck north-eastern Libya, which is rare. Dozens of people were killed in communities across Cyrenaica, the eastern portion of the country.

    In the mountain gorge above the city of Derna, two dams failed in the middle of the night. Thousands of people, most of whom were asleep, are thought to have perished when the wave of water and debris swept down to the coast, destroying a quarter of the city.

    A composite image of two aerial photographs of a city taken by satellite.
    Derna, a city in eastern Libya, before and after Storm Daniel.
    Google Earth/Holly Squire, CC BY

    Since medicanes are formed in part by excess heat, events like this are highly sensitive to climate change. A rapid attribution study suggested greenhouse gas emissions made Daniel 50 times more likely.

    Despite this, the sixth assessment report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that medicanes are becoming less frequent but larger. Storm Daniel suggests where medicanes form and make landfall might be more important than their frequency and size.

    So does Libya need to brace itself for more of these events in the future than it has in the past, even if they affect the western Mediterranean less often?

    Clues from the past

    An important clue might lie deep underground, inside caves within north-eastern Libya. Although the caves are often dry today, they contain stalagmites which formed when rain passed through the soil, into the rock and dripped into the cave below thousands of years ago.

    These rock formations attest to times in the past when this region was considerably wetter. The caves in Libya – and in Tunisia and Egypt too – form these stalagmites when the global climate is warm.

    These bygone warm periods are not quite the same as the warm periods IPCC forecasts suggest modern climate change will usher in. But the way a hot world, a relatively ice-free Europe and North America and a wet northern Africa have regularly coincided in the past is striking. Striking and difficult to understand.

    Pointed rocks hanging from a cave ceiling.
    Stalagmites formed in the distant past contain clues about the ancient climate.
    InFocus.ee/Shutterstock

    That’s because the experiments that suggest medicanes will become less frequent as the climate warms belong to a pattern described by IPCC climate assessments, in which wet parts of the world are expected to get wetter and dry parts drier. So it is hard to understand why stalagmites tell us warmer periods in the past involved wetter conditions across the northern margin of the Sahara – one of the driest regions on Earth.

    Fortunately, scientists can learn more from the way stalagmites sometimes grow imperfectly, leaving tiny blobs of water trapped between the crystals.

    The stalagmite we recovered from Susah Cave on the outskirts of Libya’s Susah city, which was severely damaged in the storm, had quite a lot of water in it from wet periods dating to 70,000 to 30,000 years ago. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in this water are suggestive of rain drawn from the Mediterranean. This could indicate more medicanes were hitting the Libyan coast then.

    Our finding that more rain was falling above Susah Cave during warm periods suggests we should get more storms hitting eastern Libya as the climate warms. This is not quite what the IPCC forecasts, with their prediction of fewer but larger storms, show.

    But storm strength is measured in wind speed, not rainfall. The caves could well be recording an important detail of past storminess which we’re not yet able to forecast.

    Are stalagmites warning us that North Africa must prepare for future medicanes shifting further east? Our ongoing research aims to answer that question.

    The pattern of ancient desert margins receiving more rain during warm periods despite the “dry gets drier” pattern of global climate models is not unique to northern Africa but found around the world. Over millions of years, globally warm periods almost always correspond with smaller deserts in Africa, Arabia, Asia and Australia.

    This “dryland climate paradox” is important to unravel. Understanding the differences between climate models and studies of ancient rain will be key to navigating the future as safely as possible.


    Imagine weekly climate newsletter

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.The Conversation


    Mike Rogerson, Senior Lecturer in Earth System Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Belkasem Alkaryani, Lecturer in Geology, University of Tobruk, and Mahjoor Lone, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Palaeoclimatology, Northumbria University, Newcastle

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Libya flooding: Circa 10,000 people missing

    More than 1,000 bodies have been recovered so far in the city of Derna in eastern Libya, badly affected by floods, according to a minister in the administration that controls the east of the country quoted by Reuters.

    Approximately 10,000 people are considered missing following the disastrous floods in Libya. UPDATE 13.45 About 10,000 people are considered missing following the disastrous floods in Libya, an official of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Tuesday, quoted by Reuters.

    “We can confirm, from our independent sources of information, that the number of missing persons reaches 10,000 so far,” said Tamer Ramadan, head of the IFRC delegation in Libya, quoted by news.ro. “The death toll is huge and could reach thousands,” the official said.

    Almost a quarter of the city of Derna, located in the east of Libya, is destroyed by floods, after dams broke following the storm Daniel in the Mediterranean. More than 1,000 bodies have been recovered so far, a minister from the administration that controls the east of the country said on Tuesday.

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  • Gabonese Junta Frees Bongo on ‘Health Grounds’ – Nigeria Info

    In a statement broadcast on Gabonese state television channel Gabon 24, Col Ulrich Manfoumbi, the spokesman for the ruling junta, said that “given his state of health, former president Ali Bongo Ondimba is free to move about. He may, if he wishes, travel abroad to undergo medical check-ups.”

    Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, the Chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, also the transitional President, said on Wednesday night.

    Recall that after losing power in a coup on August 30, Ali Bongo was kept under house arrest.

    The former head of state suffered a stroke in 2018 while on an official visit to Saudi Arabia. The illness kept him out of office for almost 10 months. During this time, he was treated in Morocco.

    Bongo took office in 2009, succeeding his father Omar, who ruled the country for some 41 years, gaining a reputation for iron-fisted rule and kleptocracy.

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  • African Union joins G20

    The first day of the big G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9, witnessed key developments being made including admitting African Union as a new member of the bloc, the adoption of G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, and signficant decisions arriving out of bilateral meetings held with various global leaders.

    Asserting that the Ukraine war has deepened the trust deficit globally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India appeals to the entire world to turn it into confidence in each other. The prime minister further told the gathering that it had become a people’s G20 in India with over 200 events held in more than 60 cities.

    Key takeaways from day 1

    African Union joins G20: In his opening remarks, PM Narendra Modi proposed to bring the African Union within the key bloc of G20, in an attempt to maximise representation of the Global South. India has been reiterating its stance of granting full membership to the African Union since June this year when PM Modi wrote to the leaders of the G20 nations. After approval from all countries, the 55-nation union joined the G20 grouping on Saturday.

    New Delhi Declaration adopted: The main question that loomed over the G20 Summit was whether a consensus would be arrived at amid sharp differences between the West and Russia-China combine, especially with regards to the war in Ukraine. Marking a signficant victory for India and its G20 presidency, Prime Minister Modi announced the adoption of G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration on Saturday. The 34-page declaration reiterated Modi’s stand on the Ukraine War that this is not the era of war and that hostilities must end. It also called upon member countries to condemn terrorism and to peacefully resolve conflicts through diplomacy and open dialogue.

    India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: PM Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden co-chaired the launch of the ambitious inter-continental connectivity project that includes a railway network in the Middle East and shipping ports to connect India with Europe via the Middle East. It is expected to be I the most direct connection to date between India, the Arabian Gulf and Europe. The project is also being seen as a rival to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China which has been criticised for plunging countries into debt traps.

    Launch of Global Biofuel Alliance announced: PM Modi also announced the launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance with a plea to take ethanol blending with petrol globally to 20 per cent. Besides India, the initiating members include Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, the UAE and the US, while Canada and Singapore are observer countries. Climate change was in fact, a key topic of discussions on day one of the summit.

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