Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson With support from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has started to distribute seeds and farming tools to approximately 11,000 families affected by the devastating Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth six weeks later and related floods, affected over 2.2 million people and left 1.65 million people severely food insecure, nearly double the food insecure population in 2018. Cyclone Idai alone damaged approximately 800,000 hectares of crops. The vulnerable small hold farming households that will be receiving assistance include all the families (over 50,000 individuals) in nearly 50 of the 68 resettlement sites established after Cyclone Idai, which made landfall in Mozambique last…

Teenager Bianca Andreescu became Canada’s first Grand Slam singles champion on Saturday with a roller-coaster 6-3, 7-5 win over 23-time major champion Serena Williams in the US Open final. The 19-year-old Andreescu became the youngest Grand Slam winner since Maria Sharapova at the 2006 US Open, handing Williams a fourth consecutive defeat in the final of a major to again deny her a record-equaling 24th Slam title. Williams, 37, suffered a second finals loss in a row at Flushing Meadows, after a 2018 defeat against Naomi Osaka best remembered for a furious tirade against chair umpire Carlos Ramos. Appearing in…

A four-time African footballer of the year, Samuel Eto’o has announced his retirement from professional football on social media after a 22-year of trophy-laden career. Former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea striker Eto’o announced his retirement from football at the age of 38. The Cameroon forward, who made his debut in 1997, scored more than 350 goals across his club career, winning the Champions League twice with Barcelona and once with Inter. Eto’o, also named African Player of the Year four times, posted the news on his official Instagram, saying: “The end. Towards a new challenge. Thank you all, big…

By Akanimo Sampson Around 6.5 million people in Syria are in need of food and livelihoods support, and an additional 2.5 million others are at risk of food insecurity and need livelihoods support to strengthen their resilience. Lack of employment opportunities and increased fuel and commodity prices limited households’ purchasing power, causing more families to adopt negative coping strategies such as consuming less preferred and less expensive food, cutting the number of daily meals or withdrawing children from school in order to work, the report stated. Returnees in Aleppo, Homs and Deir-ez-Zor governorates reported that, in most households, adults went…

By Akanimo Sampson An agency of the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is organising regional and national training workshops to support small-scale mechanisation in the agricultural sector of Africa. The global body is also supporting national governments to develop strategies based on the FAO/ African Union Commission (AUC) Framework for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation in Africa. One of the messages that emerged during the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) held in Yokohama, Japan was that agriculture is crucial to Africa’s development but needs increased mechanisation to boost economic productivity, reduce harvest and post-harvest losses and meet growing demand…

By Akanimo Sampson After a 12-day visit to Nigeria, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Agnes Callamard, has said that the country under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch is a “pressure cooker of internal conflict.’’ Callamard told a news conference in Abuja, the country’s capital where she presented her preliminary findings that, “the overall situation I have found is one of extreme concern’’, pointing out that Nigeria’s multiple security problems have created a crisis that requires urgent attention and could lead to instability in other African countries if it is not addressed. Security forces in Africa’s…

Some ex-militants in the Niger Delta region purported to be signatories to an advertorial in a national daily have distanced themselves from the publication, describing it as journalistic fraud. In the Vanguard newspapers of Friday, September 6, 12 persons in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari had allegedly accused Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, of plotting to remove Prof Charles Dokubo, the presidential adviser on amnesty. However, 10 of the supposed 12 signatories in the said publication have disowned it, claiming that their names were forged. This is coming as the president of the…

The pioneer president of the Ijaw Youths Council, Dr. Felix Tuodolo has told the new executive director, Finance and Administration, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to remove politics from his assignment to enhance development of the Niger Delta Region. In an interview with journalists in Yenagoa on Friday, Tuodolo said Maxwell Oko, being one of the founding members of the IYC, was fully aware of the challenges of development of the Niger Delta and noted that with his character and integrity, he would right the wrongs of the past in the NDDC. According to him, “we want Oko to be…

Hope that Nigeria would severe diplomatic ties with South Africa following the current xenophobic attacks on Nigerians has been dashed. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who stated this on Friday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Diaspora, said taking such action would not be in the interest of Nigerians in South Africa. This is even as Adams Oshiomhole, National chairman of the All Progressives Congress, and APC, has advised the Federal Government to review the terms of operation for South African businesses domiciled in the country. He wondered why businesses like DSTV and MTN should continue repatriating…

By Akanimo Sampson The Government of Nigeria under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari has dealt a fatal blow on the governors of the 36 states of the federation who are insisting on controlling the finances of their local governments. From all indications, Abuja is not willing to allow the cash-strapped governors have their way on councils’ funds. It is therefore, determined to free councils’ finances from the control of the governors in a seeming frantic bid to stimulate tangible grassroots development. The Federal Government is planning to achieve this by abolishing state and local governments joint accounts ‘’through constitutional means.’’ This…