UN chief explains Mali snub in West Africa tour

 

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has explained his snub on Mali during this week’s West Africa tour.

Mr Guterres visited Senegal, Niger and Nigeria in his annual Ramadan solidarity visits to nations.

He told the BBC that his itinerary was meant to reward those making progress in fighting terrorism.

“This visit was a reward to those that are doing better in relation to the fight against terrorism because this was my annual visit of solidarity with Ramadan and it is a visit in solidarity with victims of terrorism,” Mr Guterres said.

Mali has the UN’s biggest peacekeeping contingent but relations between its military rulers and Western countries have deteriorated after two recent coups.

The junta has been accused of hiring hundreds of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group to help in its fight against jihadist groups.

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Pumela Salela: Africa’s Multiple Award-Winning Brand Architect

 BRAND South Africa’s Country Head for the United Kingdom (UK), Pumela Salela, has again been recognised for her sterling work in managing the reputation of the country.

Brand South Africa is the official custodian of South Africa’s nation brand with behind its drive in the UK.

The hardworking Salela was awarded the prestigious Euroknowledge Leadership Award 2022 on April 9.

“Let me thank from the bottom my heart those who saw me fit to be deserving to have this award bestowed upon me,” she said with doses of humility. “It was totally unexpected and pleasantly surprisinged. , I was diligently doing my work when I received such correspondence from the organisers.

The award is given specially to very dynamic business leaders with a great track record of creating and building great global institutions that have made far-reaching and positive contributions to several nations.

Besides flying the South African higher in the UK, Salela has on many occasions spoken about how she has also prioritised positioning Africa to be force to be reckoned with in the world.

“I have travelled to about 37 African countries, and my goal is to travel to all of them. Africa is at the centre of my dreams vision and I know it is going to be possible for me to do this. I am someone who’s very patriotic and love playing a role in showcasing Africa as a continent that is equally capable in the global space.”

Organisers of the prestigious Euroknowledge award lauded Salela when they said: “This award is given specially to very dynamic business leaders with a great track record of creating and building great global institutions that have made far-reaching and positive contributions to several nations.”

Euroknowledge said it had had followed Salela’s great leadership and business track ek record of building lives and top organization to achieve success.

“We are also beyond impressed that you continue to invest your resources, skills, experience into new ventures internationally,” read the message.

The Brand South Africa’s head in the UK was presented the world renowned Euroknowledge Leadership Award at The House of Lords, London United Kingdom at a glittering event that was graced by doyens of the business community, policy makers, entrepreneurs, politicians, opinion leaders and the media.

What work of excellence motivated the organisers to bestow such a prestigious accolade on her?

“My role at Brand South Africa A is to market South Africa in the UK, attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Africa, mobilise Global South Africans (GSA) abroad and to manage the brand reputation of South Africa,” said Salela.

The high flying South African brand leader’s star has always been among the brightest in the contienent. In 2018 she was featured as a “Powerhouse” in Destiny magazine. She is the 2018 recipient of the African Achiever Award. In 2019 she received the BRITISH Award for African Development.

Prior to serving in this role Salela was the Chief Director for Economic Policy Development and Planning at the then Department of Economic Development in South Africa.

The list of achievements goes on. The Rockefeller Foundation acknowledged Salela’s contribution and innovation in formulating systems which address poverty by selecting her to be one of the 18 global recipients of its inaugural Global Fellowship on Social Innovation – which made her the only South African to receive such an honour.

Africa’s respected competitive identitynation brand specialist Pumela Salela also worked as a Consultant for the World Bank, based at the organisation’s headquarters in Washington D.C., United States.

These were preceded by her meteoric rise at the then Department of Trade and Industry where she was a Director:

Business Procvess Outsourcing (BPO) after she served time as a Deputy Director for Investment Promotion at the Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA).

A thought leader on competitive identity, Salela has also been a lecturer in Strategic Brand Management at VEGA – The School of Branding.

This was based on a background solid with colourful academic credentials. She completed her MBA with distinction (cum laude) in England after receiving a Nelson Mandela Scholarship. Upholding the legacy of Africa’s global icon after whom the scholarship is named, the diligent and highly gifted Salela didn’t just pass her examinations with distinction, but also received the Council Award for being the Best MBA student.

She has since been elected the Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Scholarship Alumni Association and a Mentor to the Graca Machel Scholars.

Her lustre was canonised in 2013 when she was featured in the book with an apt title: “South Africa’s Most Inspirational Women”. And the 2018 recognition by Destiny was a follow up to her 2012 profile as one of “South Africa’s Young and Powerful Achievers” and the 2013 the showcase as one of “the Top 40 young leaders, innovators and job creators in South Africa”.

Her passion for entrepreneurship is insatiable. She has also served as an On-air Advisor to investors on an Entrepreneurship Television Show called Rize Mzansi (Rise South Africa).

With this experience, expertise and commitment to contributing to brand positioning South Africa as a viable destination for investment and tourism while at the same time helping to open market access opportunities for “Made in South Africa” service and product brands, nobody will have a whiff of doubt that our country is well represented in Salela.

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Young Russian Woman Sews Her Mouth

 A Russian woman woman faces prosecution after she sewed her mouth shut in protest about censorship of protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nadezhda Sayfutdinova, an activist in her 30s, had sewn her own mouth shut, before taking to the streets of the city in a one-woman protest.

She held up a sign which read: “You cannot keep silent!!! You cannot keep silent!!! The price is our consciousness. War is not peace!!! Freedom is not slavery!!! Ignorance is not power!!!”

She hit out at the “moral code” in Putin’s Russia which gagged people over the war.

She was later grabbed by police in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg, using “brute force” to try to get her locked in a psychiatric facility.

Ms Sayfutdinova has managed to avoid being sectioned but she is still expected to face prosecution for discrediting the Russian armed forces.

She told representatives of the OVD-Info human rights group: “My mouth was really sewn with a needle and thread.

“An ambulance was called to the [police] station to inspect the damage and remove the threads.

“I sewed it myself.”

She was taken first to a trauma clinic, and then to the city’s psychiatric clinic No.3.

Her lawyer Fedor Akchermyshev and OVD-Info called for public support to secure her release.

The statement from her lawyer reads: “You can ring the clinic’s reception or the prosecutor on duty and demand the illegal detention and forced hospitalization of Sayfutdinova is stopped.”

Ms Sayfutdinova said: “The police treated me without violations, but they called a psychiatric team, which used brute force against me…I refused to go.”

She termed what was done to her “punitive psychiatry”.

She said:”I was in shock – this was punitive psychiatry. It was very scary.”

She was set free after a massive public outcry, adding: “I am very grateful to the people who tried to help me and rang the [clinic’s] reception, demanding to let me go.”

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Opponents of Russia’s War in Ukraine Will Face Harsh Punishments Including Sterilisation’ – A Pro-Putin Filmmaker Warns

 A prominent Russian state TV host has warned that opponents of Russia’s war in Ukraine will face harsh punishments including ‘concentration camps and sterilization’.

Karen Shakhnazarov, a pro-Putin filmmaker, said any ‘opponents to the letter Z’ – the symbol of Russia’s invasion – will face ‘no mercy’.

‘The opponents of the letter Z must understand that if they are counting on mercy, no, there will be no mercy for them,’ Shakhnazarov, who leads the state-backed Mosfilm film studio, said on the state-owned Russian television channel Russia 1.

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Covid: World’s True Pandemic Death Toll Nearly 15 Million – WHO

 The Covid pandemic has caused the deaths of nearly 15 million people around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

That is 13% more deaths than normally expected over two years.

The WHO believes many countries undercounted the numbers who died from Covid – only 5.4 million were reported.

In India, there were 4.7 million Covid deaths, it says – 10 times the official figures – and almost a third of Covid deaths globally.

The Indian government has questioned the estimate, saying it has “concerns” about the methodology, but other studies have come to similar conclusions about the scale of deaths in the country.

The measure used by the WHO is called excess deaths – how many more people died than would normally be expected based on mortality in the same area before the pandemic hit.

These calculations also take into account deaths which were not directly because of Covid but instead caused by its knock-on effects, like people being unable to access hospitals for the care they needed. It also accounts for poor record-keeping in some regions, and sparse testing at the start of the crisis.

But the WHO said the majority of the extra 9.5 million deaths seen above the 5.4 million Covid deaths reported were thought to be direct deaths caused by the virus, rather than indirect deaths.

Speaking about the scale of the figures, Dr Samira Asma, from the WHO’s data department, said “It’s a tragedy.
“It’s a staggering number and it’s important for us to honour the lives that are lost, and we have to hold policymakers accountable,” she said.

“If we don’t count the dead, we will miss the opportunity to be better prepared for the next time.”

Alongside India, countries with the highest total excess deaths included Russia, Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, the WHO figures suggest. The numbers for Russia are three-and-a-half times the country’s recorded deaths.

The report also looks at the rates of excess deaths relative to each country’s population size. The UK’s excess mortality rate – like America, Spain and Germany – was above the global average during 2020 and 2021.

Countries with low excess mortality rates included China, which is still pursuing a policy of “zero Covid” involving mass testing and quarantines, Australia, which imposed strict travel restrictions to keep the virus out of the country, Japan and Norway.

The academics who helped compile the report admit their estimates are more speculative for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, because there is little data on deaths in the region. There were no reliable statistics for 41 out of 54 countries in Africa.

Statistician Prof Jon Wakefield, from Seattle’s University of Washington, helped the WHO and told the BBC: “We urgently need better data collection systems.

“It is a disgrace that people can be born and die – and we have no record of their passing.

“So we really need to invest in countries’ registration systems so we can get accurate and timely data.”

Source: BBC

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Pastor charges $700 fee to ‘take people to heaven’P

 An evangelist is in trouble after telling people he knows of a gate leading to heaven from south-western Nigeria that he can show them – for a fee.

Pastor Ade Abraham was reported to police by one of his followers, who said the pastor had charged him 310,000 naira ($750; £600) to see the supposed site in Araromi-Ugbeshi town, Ekiti state.

The cleric admitted to the BBC that he had made the statement about heaven’s gate, saying it was “the God he serves” who revealed it to him to try the faith of his church members, but says he has not received any payment.

The Christian Association of Nigeria has released a statement disowning Pastor Ade Abraham, and Ekiti state police have collected written statements from members of his church and launched an investigation.

Pastor Ade Abraham’s church was originally based in Kogi state then Kaduna state, before moving southwards with his followers to a camp he built in Ekiti state.

He built this camp in Ekiti state Image caption: He built this camp in Ekiti state

The parishioner who reported him to police has since moved back home to Kaduna state but his wife refused to join him, saying the “rapture” was coming soon.

But the couple, who do not wish to be named, told the BBC they speak to each other on the phone every day.

Pastor Ade, also known as Noah Abraham, recently went viral with a video in which he asked worshippers to tell their relatives living overseas to contribute money to his church.

The pastor, dressed in red, addresses his congregation

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War in Ukraine: Russia Loses Its First Young Female Soldier…

 Russia has lost its first female soldier during the war in Ukraine after a frontline medic was killed by mortar fire in the battle for Mariupol.

Valentina Galatova, 27 and a mother-of-one, died fighting in the Black Sea port city last month though her death was only confirmed by Russian media on Wednesday.

Galatova was born in Siberia but moved to Voronezh, around 170 miles north-west of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, when she was young.  Galatova studied psychology in Donetsk and graduated in January this year.

Her husband, who was serving in the armed forces of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, died in cross-border fighting with Ukrainian forces last year.

After Putin attacked Ukraine for a second time in February this year, Galatova volunteered for the DPR armed forces and was sent into Ukraine.

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