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Buhari Jets Out to Addis Ababa for AU Summit
President Muhammadu Buhari will today depart Abuja for a four-day trip to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
The president is expected to attend the 35th ordinary session of the assembly of African Union heads of state and government at Addis Ababa.
Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, in a statement on Wednesday, said the president will join other African leaders to find solutions to political, economic and social challenges facing the continent.
According to Adesina, the meeting will be centered on the theme, ‘Building Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthen Agriculture, Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development’.
Buhari is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with some African leaders on improving trade relations, partnering to tackle security challenges and collaborations with multilateral institutions for sustainable development.
“The president will be accompanied by the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; minister of agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar; and minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Umar Farouk,” the statement reads.
“The National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno, and Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, will also join the president at the AU meetings.”
The meeting is coming amid coups in African countries, especially in the West African region.
In the past 18 months, four coups have taken place in West Africa.
The latest related incident was an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau on Tuesday.
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
