Egypt on Tuesday flew a plane of medical supplies to the United States to assist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a role reversal for a top US aid recipient.

Egypt’s general-turned-president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has been eager to cement relations with President Donald Trump, and his country has already shipped medical goods with fanfare to China and Italy.

A video statement from Sisi’s office showed crates in wrapping that read in English and Arabic, “From the Egyptian people to the American people,” being loaded into a military cargo plane.

Dutch Ruppersberger, who leads a group in the US House of Representatives that promotes relations with Egypt, said the plane landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington.

The plane brought 200,000 masks, 48,000 shoe covers and 20,000 surgical caps among other supplies, said Ruppersberger, a Democrat who heads the bipartisan group.

“This is why international diplomacy and maintaining relationships with allies like Egypt are essential not in times of crisis, but every day,” he wrote on Twitter.

The US ambassador in Cairo, Jonathan Cohen, also voiced appreciation for the “generous” shipment.

Egypt has reported 250 deaths from COVID-19 and some 3,300 cases, according to the World Health Organization.

It is far below the nearly 45,000 deaths recorded in the United States, which has been scrambling to provide supplies and tests.

Still, some questioned whether Egypt, where one-third of the population lives on about $1.50 or less a day, was in a position to offer relief.

“Egyptians who are happy and proud that Egypt sent medical supplies to Italy, UK and the US are probably the ones who can afford to pay 10 EGP for a mask,” tweeted a prominent blogger who goes by The Big Pharaoh. Ten Egyptian pounds is more than half a dollar.

Egypt last month revoked the press credentials of a journalist from The Guardian who wrote that the country’s COVID-19 infections were higher than reported.

Trump has voiced enthusiastic support for Sisi, who toppled Egypt’s elected Islamist president in 2013 and has backed strong relations with Israel.

The United States gave Egypt more than $1.2 billion in the 2018 fiscal year, largely in military aid that goes back to US contractors.

Source:  AFP

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

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

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