“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo,” the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.

“We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” he said.

An undercover journalist with Daily Nigeria newspaper had detailed how he acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic under two months and in fact, deployed for the National Youth Service Corps.

The Federal Government had immediately suspended accreditation of certificates from the two francophone West African nations and launched a probe which the minister said should submit its report in three months.

Mamman said students who patronise such institutions were not victims but criminals.

“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” the minister said on Wednesday.

He added that security agents would go after those with fake certificates from foreign countries already using them to secure opportunities in Nigeria.

On the issue of student loan, the minister said, “The President has given his word that it will be operational from this quarter and the committee is working very hard to ensure that the president’s word is implemented.

Speaking to AFP, the officials said Western support was also critical to halting Russia’s Wagner mercenary group which has made major inroads in violence-torn Sahel countries, including by allying with Mali’s military junta.

Vice President Kamala Harris, visiting Ghana last month as part of a growing US push in Africa, promised $100 million over 10 years to reinforce resilience in coastal West Africa. State Department officials are also looking at additional funding including from the counter-terrorism budget.

In a new global strategy to prevent conflict and promote stability, President Joe Biden’s administration identified coastal West Africa as a priority for the coming decade.

The report, released in March, said that the Sahel to the immediate north had experienced more terrorist attacks than any other region and that it was critical to “prevent violent conflicts from emerging or further spreading across the region.”

While coastal cities connected to the world through seaports have been mostly unscathed, violence has been rising in areas bordering Mali and Burkina Faso.

“It’s a significant and burgeoning threat,” said Michael Heath, the deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of West Africa.

“It’s something of concern to us because the capabilities of the governments in place — they’ve never faced a threat like this before,” he told AFP.

“They’re trying to cope with this, and we’re trying to see what kind of tools they need,” said Heath, who recently returned from a trip to the region with other State Department officials to assess needs.

Heath said he has not yet seen a presence in the three countries of the Wagner Group, which has been accused of human rights abuses in several countries including Ukraine, where the unit has played a key role in the invasion.

“They’re not yet in the coastal West African states, but we know they’re looking for opportunities to take advantage of instability wherever they see it,” he said.

US officials accuse Russia of stepping up disinformation in French-speaking Africa, seeing a ripe audience due to post-colonial resentments.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries, that helps foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and reduce poverty around the world.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, in a statement in Washington last night, announced debt service relief for 25 poor countries saying the debt relief was to enable the affected countries to better tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The countries that were relieved of the debt include Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.

She said, ” Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts. The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the UK and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”

Edem who served as the prime minister of Togo from 1994 to 1996 and from 2005 to 2006, under the leadership of a former president Gnassingbe Eyadema, died in Paris on Saturday April 11.

Togolese Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey tweeted;
“A brilliant academic, and an ardent Pan-African, our beloved Edem Kodjo died in Paris after a long illness. You will always remain a reference for us’. On the eve of Easter, you practicing Christian return to your creator. Condolences to his family.”

The patient who tested positive for the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 in the country, is a 42-year-old woman who recently travelled to Benin, France, Germany, and Turkey in late February and early March.

In a statement released by the Togolese government, it was gathered that coronavirus case is currently being isolated at an infectious disease treatment center. There is also no major concerns regarding her health.

The incumbent leader took 72 percent of the vote in the first round of Saturday ’s presidential poll, the election commission said overnight, far ahead of former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjo on 18 percent.

The opposition alleged widespread fraud including ballot stuffing and the use of fake polling stations to skew the results in Gnassingbe’s favour .

He disclosed that international electricity customers have accumulated a bill of over $100 million since he assumed office as he warned that they will get disconnected if they don’t pay up.

Mohammed said “It is not because I am the chairman of the West African Power Pool (WAAP) that I will be allowing international customers to cheat Nigeria. When I took over as MD TCN, both Benin and Togo were owing Nigeria more than $100 million. The debt now remains $7 million. Niger is owing less than $2 million. In short, we are not leaving them. We disconnect them as we disconnect customers here in Nigeria. Electricity is not charity. We cannot just allow people to consume electricity and leave us like that. As at now, we have restricted their supply to only their contracted ones. We are insisting they pay all their outstanding bills before we reconnect them and we increase the off-take.”