Author: Mohammad Adamu

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has called an emergency meeting of senior officials in Rabat, Morocco, as pressure builds over the governing body’s abandoned plan to bring private investment into a company set up to run its global tournaments.The meeting, reportedly scheduled for after the weekend, will bring together Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and members of the organisation’s management board. The move follows public criticism from Fifa’s chief of global football development, Arsène Wenger, who distanced himself from the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, saying he had no role in it and calling Fifa’s decision to scrap the plan “absolutely…

Thousands of Palestinians attended a mass funeral in Gaza City on Tuesday for 112 members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, whose remains were recovered nearly three years after an Israeli air raid destroyed their homes. Bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags were carried through the streets before burial, in what local media described as one of the largest funerals since the war began in October 2023.Gaza’s civil defence said crews spent two weeks excavating a collapsed residential building in the Sabra neighbourhood, recovering the remains of 112 people, including at least 40 children. The families were killed in a…

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has rejected claims by aviation unions that carriers owe unremitted Ticket Service Charges to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), describing the allegations as baseless. In a statement issued on Monday, AON said it has no transactional relationship with the unions threatening a “warning strike” and noted that the unions do not speak for or on behalf of the NCAA. The group urged the unions to verify their facts before taking any action that could inconvenience travellers. AON attributed the financial pressure on airlines to high jet fuel prices and multiple aviation charges, citing…

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, and other agencies a 72-hour ultimatum to appear before it over their failure to honour invitations to respond to audit queries. The directive came during the committee’s sitting on Monday after officials of the invited agencies stayed away without providing any formal explanation for their absence. Committee chairman, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, said the invitations were part of efforts to streamline the panel’soversight workload. He noted that despite the letters and…

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has released new guidelines for prospective corps members ahead of the upcoming orientation exercise, emphasising strict compliance with registration procedures and safety protocols.In a statement posted on its official X handle on Monday, the scheme advised prospective corps members against travelling at night to their orientation camps, citing security concerns. NYSC also cautioned that candidates whose graduation dates on their call-up letters do not match those on their statements of result will not be admitted into camp. Such candidates were told to resolve the discrepancies with their Student Affairs Officers before reporting to camp.…

A wave of new and strengthened anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is sweeping West Africa, driven by domestic political calculation and reinforced by international conservative networks, activists and researchers say. Senegal in March doubled the maximum sentence for homosexuality to 10 years and outlawed the “promotion” of same-sex relationships. Niger criminalised same-sex intimacy for the first time in February. Mali and Burkina Faso have done the same within the past two years — all three now under military rule. Ghana’s parliament passed a bill in June targeting LGBTQ+ “activities,” though the president has yet to sign it. Anthony Oluoch of Pan Africa ILGA…

Kyiv’s forces struck targets far beyond the front line this week, with several attacks landing hundreds of kilometres inside Russian territory. The escalation comes as both Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up strikes on one another in recent months, while US-brokered negotiations to end the war remain stalled. Ukraine, which has consistently denied targeting civilians, argues its cross-border strikes are a proportionate response to Russia’s own bombardment of Ukrainian territory, and are intended to push Moscow toward the negotiating table. Shelling in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, killed three people, regional officials reported. A separate drone strike further afield,…

A unit of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) surrendered to the army on Friday, handing over its personnel and full military equipment, the state-run Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. SUNA said the force belonged to the RSF’s “Group 26” but did not disclose the number of fighters involved or the type of equipment surrendered.The group was received by Al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as Al-Nour al-Qubba, alongside senior officers from the Sudanese army and the General Intelligence Service. Al-Nour al-Qubba, a founding member of the RSF, defected to the army in April after previously serving as one of the paramilitary’s…

South Sudan’s government is developing plans to digitize its civil registration system and integrate it with the national ID system, aiming to streamline the issuance of legal identity documents. The reform will enable real-time birth registration, allowing hospitals and health facilities to notify civil registry authorities as soon as a child is born, rather than requiring separate declaration processes. Maj. Gen. Elia Costa, Director General of the Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration, disclosed the plans after attending a meeting of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) experts in Zimbabwe. He said the reform would align South Sudan with international…

Nigerian Afrobeats star David Adeleke, known as Davido, has released his sixth studio album, ORIADÉ, which he describes as the start of a new phase in a music career spanning 15 years. The 13-track project features collaborations with African and international acts including Leon Thomas, Black Sherif, Aya Nakamura, Mayorkun, FOLA, Llona, NO11, JAZZWRLD and GL_Ceejay. It marks a departure from the 17-track format he maintained across his previous five studio albums, making ORIADÉ his shortest to date. The album is expected to launch another major phase of his career, with a world tour planned to follow its release and…