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Nissan to shut Japan factory due to shortage of Chinese parts
Nissan is the latest car maker to temporarily shut one of its factories as it can’t get parts from China.
The firm will halt production for two days at a plant in Japan which makes the Serena and X-Trail models.
Global car brands are facing similar disruptions as much of China’s manufacturing sector remains locked down due to the deadly coronavirus.
Hyundai temporarily closed its factories in South Korea last week due to a shortage of Chinese parts.
In fact, many of the world’s biggest car makers are dealing with dwindling supplies as factories across China remain closed.
China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse and a major part of the global supply chain for the automotive industry, making key parts and components. Hubei, where the coronavirus outbreak first started, is a major car manufacturing hub.
Last week, Fiat Chrysler said it was considering halting production at one of its European plants due to difficulty in sourcing parts from China. It joins a long list of car brands that rely on Chinese exports.
”It only takes one missing part to stop a line,” said Mike Dunne, a consultant to the car industry in Asia.
Many factories and car plants were due to reopen on Monday after an extended Chinese New Year break. Some restarted production, but others remained closed due to local authority restrictions and lack of workers. Nissan expects to restart production in China on 17 February.
In a statement, Nissan said: “Due to supply shortages of parts from China, Nissan Kyushu in Japan will carry out temporary production adjustments on February 14 and 17.” It stressed there was no impact on its other Japanese factories.
Nissan is part of a French-Japanese strategic partnership that includes Renault and Mitsubishi.
US worried over Guinea’s referendum vote, questions fairness of process
The United States has officially reacted to plans by Guinean president Alpha Conde to revise the consitution in a move aimed at running for a third term in office.
Condé announced in a statement this week that the country will hold a two-way vote on March 1 – for legislative elections and a controversial constitutional referendum.
The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, posted on Twitter that America was “concerned over Guinea’s current plan to hold legislative elections and a constitutional referendum on March 1.
“We urge all parties to peacefully resolve issues with voters rolls and uphold their commitment to conduct an inclusive consultation on the new constitution,” he added.
A statement issued by the Department of State said the US questions whether the process will be free fair and transparent and accurately reflect the will of eligible voters. It tasked government to play by United Nations standards for voter rolls.
Intense opposition pressure against the move did little to hold Conde, whom the opposition accuse of bidding his way to run for a third term.
Since mid-October, the West African nation has been the scene of protests against the long-standing plan of the president, who was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2015, to contest the 2020 presidential race. The US also cautioned against repression of opposing voices.
Conde met with Pompeo in Washington for talks in December 2019. The president in an exclusive interview with Africanews stressed that Guinea was a sovereign nation that could use legal means to change its laws.
He also called out the opposition for being mischievous over an open process through which the voters roll was compiled. The opposition says they will boycott the legislative polls with their leadership vowing that the polls will not hold in the first place.
‘Spoiler of Peace’: South Sudan president wins ‘nonsense’ award
South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday was named the top “spoiler of peace” in a new award that seeks to shame him and others into taking serious steps to end bloody conflict in the world’s youngest country.
Kiir and rival leader Riek Machar are under growing pressure to form a coalition government this month, the significant next step in a fragile peace deal signed in 2018 to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people.
The deadline has been extended twice and the international community is signaling impatience. The upcoming deadline is Feb. 2
“It is for me totally unacceptable that we are still again close to the deadline of a new period that was declared, that there is no agreement on a number of issues,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said over the weekend. “Respect your people.”
Now a Uganda-based group, Atrocities Watch Africa, is citing Kiir and others for their roles in the conflict that also has displaced at least 2 million people. Many fled to Uganda.
The “spoiler of peace” award citation accuses Kiir of being unwilling to compromise on major issues needed to form the coalition government. It also asserts that under his command and control, government-backed fighters killed thousands of people and committed atrocities such as looting and razing villages.
Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for South Sudan’s presidency, described the award as “nonsense.”
Dismas Nkunda, a Ugandan activist who established the awards, said he hopes that “with these awards the individuals, businesses and other institutions that are derailing the peace process in South Sudan will not continue as usual now that we know them.”
Other winners of the awards announced in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, included the Ugandan government, South Sudan’s military, an oil consortium and other political and military figures in South Sudan.
The Ugandan government, which has backed Kiir in his efforts to prevent rebels from taking power, is accused of facilitating arms transfers to South Sudan in contravention of a European Union arms embargo. Uganda, which denies any wrongdoing, insists it sent troops and equipment at the request of Kiir’s administration as rebels threatened to enter the capital, Juba.
The civil war erupted in South Sudan in late 2013, when a rift between Kiir and his deputy, Machar, escalated into fighting often along ethnic lines. Both men have been accused of violating multiple ceasefires.
The regional bloc mediating South Sudan’s peace process, IGAD, said in a communique over the weekend that further extension of the deadline to form a coalition government “is neither desirable nor feasible.” It said Kiir asked for time to consult and report back on Saturday.
A key issue that remains is the number of states South Sudan should have, with IGAD calling it an internal matter for which a “solution should come only from the South Sudanese people.”
30 years since Mandela was freed, where does South Africa stand?
Three decades after anti-apartheid leader was released from prison, how has life changed for South Africans?
February 11, 1990, was the day millions of black South Africans had been waiting decades for.
On that cloudless Sunday afternoon, Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison flanked by his wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his right hand raised and fist clenched. A sea of excited supporters held back by police had lined up, all trying to get a glimpse of their just-freed leader who had spent 27 years in prison for fighting against the country’s discriminatory apartheid system of racial segregation.
Four years later, having guided the country through a dramatic transition that marked the end of apartheid, Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.
The inspirational and globally revered leader stepped down after serving one term as head of state and officially retired from public life in 2004. He died at the age of 95 on December 5, 2013.
Thirty years from the day Mandela was freed, where does South Africa stand?
Political freedoms
Since the end of white minority rule in 1994, South Africa has held six peaceful democratic elections – all free and fair and all won by Mandela’s party, the African National Congress (ANC).
“The political change the country has witnessed … is unprecedented. It cannot be underestimated,” Dale McKinley, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
“Political space has opened up and gone are the days where people were arrested for expressing their political views.”
The country also has one of the most vibrant media landscapes on the continent, with media watchdog Reporters without Borders ranking South Africa 31st out of 180 countries in its 2019 global press freedom index.
Economic boom, poverty gap
South Africa is the continent’s most industrialised country, with its gross domestic product (GDP) rising from $139.8bn in 1994 to $368.9bn in 2018, according to the World Bank.
“The record growth the country witnessed after apartheid was partly due to the boom in global commodity prices. On average, the economy grew about 3 percent every year,” economist Azar Jamine told Al Jazeera.
The transition to democracy also enabled South Africa to begin borrowing funds for infrastructure projects from international financial institutions – which had refused to do business with the country in the final years of apartheid.
But, in recent years, the economy has been hit by a slump amid high unemployment and dips in key sectors.
In January, the International Monetary Fund said it expected Africa’s second-biggest economy to grow at 0.8 percent this year, down from a previous forecast of 1.1 percent growth. For 2021, it forecast growth of 1.0 percent, down from an earlier prediction for 1.4 percent growth.
At the same time, the country has remained mired in profound inequality, seen by many as one of the legacies of apartheid.
“Inequality is high, persistent, and has increased since 1994,” the World Bank said in a 2018 report. The top 1 percent of South Africans own 70.9 percent of the country’s wealth, it added, while the bottom 60 percent hold just 7 percent.
The body also said South Africa has the highest Gini index in the world: 63 percent. The index measures a country’s wealth distribution – the closer a value is to zero the more equal the residents of that country are.
South Africa has made progress in reducing poverty since its transition to democracy – 18.8 percent of South Africans were poor in 2015, a drop from 33.8 percent in 1996, according to the World Bank. Yet progress is slowing in recent years, with the poverty rate of people living on less than $1.90 a day increasing from 16.8 percent to 18.8 percent between 2011 and 2015.
“On the socioeconomic front, little has changed. In fact, things have gotten worse when it comes to basic services like healthcare, housing and education,” McKinley said.
Healthcare, education… and corruption
In 2018, the government spent $13.6bn, or 12 percent of the country’s budget, on healthcare. The figure marked a 7-percent increase on the previous year but healthcare remains out of reach for many South Africans.
“Healthcare is the third-largest item of government expenditure, and yet there is a fundamental disjoint between what we are spending on healthcare and the health outcomes of our citizens,” President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged in 2018.
“It pained me … how this most fundamental of rights, of access to healthcare services, has been impacted by the stench of corruption. Corruption in the health system is not a victimless crime. It targets the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.”
In its 2019 corruption perception index, Transparency International ranked South Africa 70th out of 180 countries.
Speaking at the FT Africa Summit in London last year, Ramaphosa said South Africa lost $34bn, about a 10th of the country’s GDP, to corruption during the decade that his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, was in power. Ramaphosa, who took office as president in 2018, was Zuma’s deputy for four years.
“Corruption is a huge problem in South Africa,” McKinley said. “It is deep and runs all the way from the top down to district level. But it is not out of control or unique to South Africa alone. With the right leadership, it can be contained.”
The education sector, meanwhile, is fairing better than healthcare, with primary school enrollment standing at 87 percent, according to the World Bank. Last year, the government spent about 17 percent of its budget on basic education, according to the presidency.
“We have made significant progress in making education accessible to the poor. Some 80 percent of schools are now no-fee schools, and nine million nutritious meals are served to learners throughout the country every school day,” Ramaphosa said in a speech last year during the handover of newly built primary schools.
But analysts say the country’s education system does not prepare graduates for the job market.
“Only about 15 percent of the schools in South Africa are outstanding. Eighty-five percent are weak at best. This has huge impact on our workforce and the quality of our output as a country,” Jamine said.
Land redistribution
One of the key promises of the ANC after coming to power was to redistribute land, the country’s black majority having been denied ownership rights under apartheid’s segregation laws.
The ANC followed a “willing seller, willing buyer” model through which the government bought white-owned farms for redistribution. However, progress has been slow and most of the farmland is still owned by white farmers.
At least 72 percent of the country’s arable land remains in the hands of white farmers, who make up less than 10 percent of the 58-million population, according to a 2017 land audit.
An advisory report recommended last year that the country’s constitution be changed to allow the government to start seizing land without compensation in certain circumstances. The government has tasked a parliamentary committee to report on the proposed changes to land reform laws before the end of March.
For Jamine, the economist, the country has come a long way but the government needs to address the many shortcomings quickly if it is to keep its promises.
“The government is risking social revolution if it does not prioritise addressing the issues pressing the average South African that put it in office. People have had enough,” he said.
Nigeria militants burn to death motorists as they sleep in their cars
Suspected militant Islamists have killed at least 30 people and abducted women and children in a raid in north-eastern Nigeria, officials say.
Most of the victims were travellers who were burnt to death while sleeping in their vehicles during an overnight stop, officials added
The attack took place in Auno town on a major highway in Borno State.
Militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoots have waged a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.
About 35,000 people have been killed, more than two million have been left homeless and hundreds have been abducted in the conflict.
Nigeria’s government has repeatedly said that the militants have been defeated, but attacks continue.
Borno State governor Babagana Zulum looked visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies during a visit to Auno following Sunday night’s attack, Nigeria’s privately owned This Day news site reports.
The militants came in trucks mounted with heavy weapons, before killing, burning, and looting, state government spokesman Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
The assailants “killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
It also confirmed the abduction of women and children, but did not give a number.
Residents said most of the victims were travelling to the state capital, Maiduguri, but were forced to sleep in Auno, about 25km (16 miles) away, because the military had shut the road leading into the city.
The military has not yet commented.
Maiduguri was once the headquarters of Boko Haram, but government forces eventually drove the group out of the city.
It is unclear whether the assault was carried out by Boko Haram or a breakaway faction linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Coronavirus: Senior Chinese officials ‘removed’ as death toll hits 1,000
China has “removed” several senior officials over their handling of the coronavirus outbreak – as the death toll passed 1,000.
The party secretary for the Hubei Health Commission, and the head of the commission, were among those who lost their jobs.
They are the most senior officials to be demoted so far.
The deputy director of the local Red Cross was also removed for “dereliction of duty” over “handling of donations”.
The two Hubei party officials will be replaced by a national figure – the deputy director of China’s National Health Commission, Wang Hesheng.
On Monday, some 103 died in Hubei province alone, a daily record, and the national death toll is now 1,016.
But the number of new infections nationally was down almost 20% from the day before, from 3,062 to 2,478.
Hubei’s health commission confirmed 2,097 new cases in the province on Monday, down from 2,618 the previous day.
According to state media, there have been hundreds of sackings, investigations and warnings across Hubei and other provinces during the outbreak.
But removal from a certain role – while regarded as a censure – does not always mean the person will be sacked entirely, as it can also mean demotion.
As well as being removed from their posts, officials can also be punished by the ruling Communist Party.
For example, the deputy head of the Red Cross, Zhang Qin, was given “a serious intra-Party warning as well as a serious administrative demerit”, state media said.
Earlier this month, the deputy head of the Wuhan bureau of statistics was removed, also with a “serious intra-party warning as well as a serious administrative demerit for violating relevant regulations to distribute face masks”.
The head of the health commission of Huanggang, the second-worst hit city in Hubei after Wuhan, has also been removed.
Gambian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia leads special envoy on bilateral mission
State House, Banjul, February 6, 2020 – His Excellency, Mr. Omar Gibril Sallah, The Gambia’s ambassador and permanent representative to Saudi Arabia and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, led a high profile Saudi delegation to meet with partners in government and non-government bodies in Banjul.
The delegation comprised Mr. Abdulrahman Mohammed Almatter, director general of the International Relief Organisation. Mr Almatter was dispatched as the special envoy of the secretary general of the World Muslim League, accompanied by Mr. Abdulqader Ahmed Abobaker Al-Mashor, adviser to the secretary general of the World Muslim League.
Following their meeting with His Excellency President Adama Barrow at the State House last week, where the envoy expressed gratitude to the President for The Gambia’s stance on the Rohingya, they also met with Her Excellency, first lady of The Gambia, Madam Fatou Bah-Barrow at her office.
The first lady and the delegation held discussions around ways of enhancing the agenda of her foundation in support of the health of women and children to complement the efforts of the government of The Gambia.
The Saudi delegation met with the minister of Justice, Aboubacarr Tambadou to discuss the next steps in the peaceful resolution of the conflict besetting the Rohingya before the world judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“The meetings were meant to further promote bilateral relation between Saudi Arabia and The Gambia, as well as engage religious groups in the country to promote religious dialogue among them,” Ambassador Sallah told the press before departure to Riyadh.
Anger as Lagos residents protest against motorcycle ban
A week after the introduction of the ban on the popular two- and three-wheeled vehicle, its impact has been widespread.
Holding a white placard above her head and surrounded by a group of young people, Sally had a clear message.
“All we want is for the government to lift the ban until an alternative is made ready,” she said.
Sally was referring to a recent decision by authorities in Nigeria‘s commercial capital, Lagos, to outlaw commercial motorcycles and tricycles from most of the crowded city’s residential and business areas.
She was not alone. Dozens of other mostly young people on Saturday joined protests in the megacity of more than 20 million people, angry by the state government’s recent decision to outlaw the two- and three-wheeled vehicles, which are a popular transportation choice for commuters seeking to beat heavy congestion.
“I am jobless and I am confused,” Innocent Udoka, one of the motorcycle drivers hit by the ban, told Al Jazeera.
“I am a graduate. I have no job and my only means of survival is taken away – how would I start again?”
Introduced on February 1, the ban is aimed at decongesting Lagos’s roads and reducing accidents and overcrowding. Citing the two- and three-wheeled vehicles’ “chaos and disorderliness”, as well as the “scary figures” of deadly accidents, the government said the ban was central in its efforts to achieve its goals.
One week on, the effect of the ban has been widespread, with long queues forming at bus stops, car drivers facing gridlocked traffic and others sometimes having to walk to avoid hours in traffic. Meanwhile, scuffles between some drivers and the police were reported in some parts of Lagos state over the past week.
“This ban doesn’t solve any of the problems attached to it,” Sally argued. “More people are suffering to get to work … and school. And several thousand [of people] have just lost their livelihood.”
But protesters also warned that the effect of the ban could be felt by all sectors of the economy.
“The [number of] people who would suffer [is] vast, including investors,” says Lagos based writer Timileyin Ogunleye, “Why? Because [a] few months back, several investors threw in several millions of dollars into the transport business, only for this abrupt ban to follow. Things are not done that way.”
Swarms of locusts spread deeper into Uganda
Ugandan authorities say swarms of desert locusts that arrived in the country on Sunday have spread to at least two districts in the north east of the country.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda chaired an emergency meeting of politicians and technocrats within hours of the first swarm of locusts being spotted.
The authorities there say they have a well laid out strategy to effectively destroy the pests.
The BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga in the capital, Kampala, reports that majority of Ugandans will have no memory of a desert locust outbreak, the last major upsurge was in the early 1960s.
The government is relying on the army to be the backbone of its plan and intends to deploy 2,000 soldiers.
They will be trained to spray pesticides using manual and motorised equipment.
The most effective way to combat an upsurge of locusts is air spraying but Uganda does not have the aircraft and chemicals needed.
It is negotiating with Kenya to borrow some of its planes. But its neighbour only has a small number of these aircraft and has been struggling to bring its own locust outbreak under control.
Countries in the Horn of Africa have been fighting an upsurge of the pests, which are threatening food security.
BREAKING NEWS!!! China says 8.2% of coronavirus patients are cured
2mins ago.
Of all the patients confirmed to have the Wuhan coronavirus in mainland China, 8.2% have been cured, according to officials at the country’s National Health Commission (NHC). On January 27, only 1.3% of patients had been cured.
Mi Feng, a NHC spokesman, said the increased numbers were due to China’s preliminary success in treating the coronavirus, but did not elaborate on what treatment was applied on the patients.
In Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, 6.1% of patients have been cured and showed no signs of the virus, Mi added.
Mi also said that an expert group from the World Health Organization will be visiting China to exchange ideas on containing the virus, and that an advance team will land in Beijing Monday to discuss the arrangements of the visit.
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