2025-01-18 19:41
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Jan 18 (Reuters) - At least 70 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said. The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria. "As of this report, over 70 bodies have been recovered, 56 individuals are injured, and more than 15 shops have been destroyed," the National Emergency Management Authority said in a statement. "The injured have been transported to hospitals for treatment, while recovery efforts for the deceased are ongoing." A Reuters witness said residents and officials were digging graves with a view to bury the victims on Saturday night in accordance with Islamic rites. Niger is a largely Muslim state in Africa's most populous nation. Earlier, Kumar Tsukwam, the Federal Road Safety Corps sector commander for Niger state, said most of the victims were impoverished local residents who had rushed to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned. "Large crowd of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them," Tsukwam said in a statement. Tsukwam said firefighters had managed to put out the fire. Such accidents have become common in Africa's largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost of living crisis in a generation. The price of petrol in Nigeria has soared more than 400% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he came into office in May 2023. Bologi Ibrahim, spokesperson to Niger state governor, said residents should give priority to their safety when petrol tanker trucks are involved in accidents. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/fuel-tanker-truck-explosion-kills-least-60-people-nigeria-2025-01-18/
2025-01-18 17:48
KINSHASA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has launched a probe into the embezzlement of over $300 million from state miner Gecamines between 2012 and 2020, the justice ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Gecamines, which holds minority stakes in several of the world's largest copper and cobalt projects, has long been dogged by accusations of corruption made by non-governmental organisations and opposition politicians. Congo's public finances watchdog, the General Inspectorate of Finances (IGF), found in 2022 that more than $400 million in tax advances and loans that Gecamines said it paid to the national treasury could not be found. It said in a report at the time that the missing $413 million were presumed to have been misappropriated and that auditors would continue their investigations. Gecamines has consistently denied wrongdoing. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The IGF had also found in a separate audit on the finances of Congo's central bank that Gecamines had embezzled advance tax payments worth around $315 million between 2012 and 2020. Congo's justice ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it had instructed the public prosecutor to open a court case against those responsible for the "misappropriation of public funds" flagged by the IGF. It said there would be a particular focus on the embezzlement of advance tax payments worth around $315 million between 2012 and 2020. "International arrest warrants have been issued for the accused and forwarded to the judicial authorities of several countries for their arrest," the statement said, without citing any names. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/dr-congo-justice-ministry-orders-probe-into-state-mining-company-embezzlement-2025-01-18/
2025-01-18 14:29
Jan 18 (Reuters) - Most army-controlled areas in Sudan have been plunged into blackouts following drone attacks on power generation facilities by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, government officials and residents told Reuters. The blackouts began on Monday after drone attacks on Merowe Dam, the country's largest, affected Sudan's northern state, while a technical issue affected River Nile and Red Sea states. The blackouts spread on Saturday after an overnight attack on the al-Shouk power station in the east of the country, putting Gedaref, Kassala and Sennar states offline, the officials and residents said. The affected areas cover the majority of areas still controlled by the army, which has been locked in an almost two-year long war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which controls most of the western half of the country. Electricity generation in most RSF-controlled areas has been disrupted in the fighting. Areas impacted by the blackouts are housing millions of internally displaced people, straining living space and infrastructure. "The attack on the power station led to the disruption of electricity to hospitals, schools, and water facilities, which threatens civilian lives particularly in these difficult humanitarian circumstances," said human rights group Emergency Lawyers. "These attacks do not only deprive civilians of their basic rights, they increase the risk of escalated violence," they added. The war in Sudan has displaced more than 12 million people in total and the global hunger monitor estimated this month that about 24.6 million people, or around half of all Sudanese, urgently need food aid through May. Residents in the city of Omdurman, which is in the greater Khartoum area and is partly controlled by the army, reported that bakeries were shut down and that people had resorted to drawing water from the Nile River. Engineers are working to restore operations at the Merowe power station but have not yet been successful, sources there said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/blackouts-hit-wide-swathes-army-controlled-sudan-after-drone-attacks-2025-01-18/
2025-01-18 12:07
LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - (This Jan. 15 story has been refiled with an amended comment from the WEF Managing Director in paragraph 4) Armed conflict is the top risk in 2025, a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday showed, a reminder of the deepening global fragmentation as government and business leaders attend an annual gathering in Davos next week. Nearly one in four of the more than 900 experts surveyed across academia, business and policymaking ranked conflict, including wars and terrorism, as the most severe risk to economic growth for the year ahead. Extreme weather, the no. 1 concern in 2024, was the second-ranked danger. "Rising geopolitical tensions and a fracturing of trust are driving the global risk landscape," WEF Managing Director Mirek Dusek said in comments accompanying the report. "In this complex and dynamic context, leaders have a choice: to find ways to foster collaboration and resilience, or face compounding vulnerabilities." The WEF gets underway on Jan. 20 and Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, will address the meeting virtually on Jan. 23. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the meeting and give a speech on Jan. 21, according to the WEF , opens new tab organisers. Advisers to Trump concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, Reuters reported on Wednesday, a sharp reality check on his pledge to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House. Among other global leaders due to attend the Davos meeting are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and China's Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang. Syria, the "terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza" and the potential escalation of the conflict in the Middle East will be a focus at the gathering, according to WEF President and CEO Borge Brende. Negotiators were hammering out the final details of a potential ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday, following marathon talks in Qatar.The threat of misinformation and disinformation was ranked as the most severe global risk over the next two years, according to the survey, the same ranking as in 2024. Over a 10-year horizon environmental threats dominated experts' risk concerns, the survey showed. Extreme weather was the top longer-term global risk, followed by biodiversity loss, critical change to earth's systems and a shortage of natural resources. Global temperatures last year exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. A global risk is defined by the survey as a condition that would negatively affect a significant proportion of global GDP, population or natural resources. Experts were surveyed in September and October. The majority of respondents, 64%, expect a multipolar, fragmented global order to persist. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/wars-top-global-risk-davos-elite-gathers-shadow-fragmented-world-2025-01-15/
2025-01-18 04:19
Jan 18 (Reuters) - China's imports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products fell 8.6% in December from the same month a year earlier to 300,000 metric tons, customs data showed on Saturday. That compared to 280,000 tons imported in November. Imports for 2024 rose 22.5% to 3.75 million tons, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. The data includes primary metal and unwrought, alloyed aluminium. Imports of bauxite, a key raw material for aluminium, rose 26.6% year-on-year last month to 14.98 million tons. For the year, they were up 12.4% year-on-year to 158.77 million tons. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-december-aluminium-imports-fall-86-yy-customs-data-show-2025-01-18/
2025-01-18 01:59
Biden announced ban on Jan. 6, saying it helps fight climate change Trump says he will reverse it Republican-led states joined by trade groups in their lawsuit WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A group of Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a ban announced by outgoing Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month on new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines. The lawsuit seeks a reversal of Biden's ban with declaratory and injunctive relief, according to a court filing that argued Biden did not have the authority to impose such a ban and that the power to do so rests with the U.S. Congress. Biden's move announced on Jan. 6 was considered mostly symbolic, as it will not impact areas where oil and gas development is currently underway, and mainly covers zones where drillers have no important prospects, including in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The ban will affect 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of ocean and Biden said it was in line with his agenda to fight climate change. The Biden administration, which leaves office on Jan. 20 when Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes over, had no immediate comment. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana mentioned Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as defendants, with the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia and Mississippi being the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs also include two trade groups - the American Petroleum Institute and the Gulf Energy Alliance. Trump has said he will move quickly to revoke the ban but could find it difficult to do so. The 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act allows presidents to remove areas from mineral leasing and drilling but does not grant them the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling - meaning a reversal would likely require an act of Congress. Trump said he would take the matter to court if necessary. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/republican-led-states-sue-biden-administration-over-offshore-drilling-ban-2025-01-18/
