Nigeria Church Attack Killed 22 And Injured 50 – Official

 Sunday’s attack on St Francis Catholic Church in the Nigerian town of Owo killed 22 people and injured 50, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday – monitored by Peacefmonline.com

Victims of an attack on a Catholic church in Nigeria suffered lacerations, bullet wounds and blast injuries, a doctor at the local hospital said on Monday, suggesting a range of weapons were used by the unknown assailants.

Children were being treated elsewhere in the hospital but he had no information about them.

Owo is located in Ondo State in southwest Nigeria, a part of the country that does not usually experience violent conflict over religion. Authorities have not given any information about who carried out Sunday’s atrocity and why.

The town was quiet on Monday, with many shops remaining closed. Security forces were visible on the streets, and helicopters passed overhead.

Source: Peacefmonline.com

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UMB Innovates With Digital Solution For Ghanacard Linkage To Accounts

 The Universal Merchant Bank, a leading indigenous Ghanaian bank today out-doored an online platform that allows customers of the Bank link their Ghana Cards to their UMB accounts online, without having to go into their branch.

The service, dubbed EZ- UPDATE, allows customers to scan their Ghana Cards with their phones and load this information onto a secure portal. Customers are then able to sign into this portal and link their Ghana card to their account. The Bank of Ghana has set the 1st of July, 2022 as the deadline for all bank accounts in Ghana to be linked to Ghana Cards. This is in line with the Bank of Ghana’s and the Government’s strategy to make the Ghana Card the primary ID in the country.

Speaking to this report, Nii Amankra Tetteh, Executive Director Business of the Bank noted noted;” The Bank of Ghana’s GhanaCard drive is critical for financial inclusion in Ghana. We know that a large percentage of customers are cut out of banking benefits because the bank simply cannot KYC said customers.  EZ UPDATE is our own digital innovation to reflect the lifestyles of our customers today. Now our customers can conveniently update their accounts, even at 2am on a Sunday. This is the UMB advantage we are proud of and continue to deliver to Ghana, since 1972”.

With the launch of EZ UPDATE UMB joins an elite club of Banks in Ghana offering the service. Over 80% of Bank’s in Ghana require their customers to do the linkage in person, at their branches. Madam Belinda Boamah – Executive Director (Strategy)  of the Bank in her remarks on the product said, “At UMB we pride ourselves in innovating for customer convenience, since 1972.

EZ UPDATE was developed internally in the Bank with our own Ghanaian resources and its performance is world -class. It is another step in our digital reimagination journey, as we commit to becoming digital -1stfor the customer, in the next 50 years of our Bank. We are working hard to get to the point where our customers can interact with the Bank fully online, guaranteeing true convenience and access.”

The service can be accessed at myumbbank.com.

UMB is a leading indigenous bank reputed for bringing a uniquely Ghanaian perspective to banking, since 1972. Headquartered in Accra and licensed by the Bank of Ghana, the bank operates out of 35 branches across Ghana. Its strategic aspiration is to become a digital 1st, SME focused bank. The bank has pioneered several innovations in this market, including SPEEDAPP, one of the best performing agnostic banking apps in the sub-region. UMB is a member of the CWEIC network.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana

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Veteran British Journalist Dom Phillips Missing In Amazon Rainforest

 A British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert have gone missing in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest.

Dom Phillips, a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper in Brazil, was last seen in the Javari region, Amazonas state at the weekend.

He was travelling the area with Bruno Pereira while researching a book. The two had received threats days before, say indigenous groups.

Mr Phillips’ family say “every second counts” in the hunt for him.

Federal police and navy are searching for the two in the remote region.

Two fishermen were arrested in connection with the men’s disappearance on Monday evening, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reports. They have since been released.

Mr Phillips, 57, has written extensively on the Amazon and has lived in Brazil for over a decade.

Mr Pereira, who is currently on leave from his post with the government’s indigenous affairs agency Funai, is an expert on isolated tribes in the Amazon.

The two had been in the district for about a week and had travelled by boat to Jaburu lake on Friday.

They were then expected to return to Atalaia do Norte city on Sunday afternoon, according to two indigenous groups. But the pair never arrived.

The men’s families have expressed their alarm since the two went missing.

“Please answer the urgency of the moment with urgent actions,” Mr Phillips’ wife Alessandra Sampaio said in a statement.

“In the forest every second counts, every second could be the difference between life and death,” she added.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tweeted: “Phillips interviewed me for the Guardian in 2017. I hope they are fine, safe and will be found quickly.”

Read Full Story …. HERE >>> :   

Source: BBC

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