9JA VIBEZ HUB

 The African Union is raising a storm over new rules the United Kingdom will impose on travellers starting next month, with the body arguing that they could brand the entire continent as unvaccinated.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Tuesday demanded an urgent meeting with the UK’s scientific community so they can explain why people vaccinated in Africa will have to follow the rules for the unvaccinated.

Africa CDC demanded mutual recognition of vaccine certificates as a way out of the confusion that it argues can slow or reverse the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

© 2020 Anadolu Agency John Nkengasong, director of African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, holds a press conference on coronavirus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 14, 2020. (Photo by Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The UK government announced earlier this month that it will abandon its ‘traffic light system’ from October 4 and progressively start admitting travellers based on vaccine status rather than Covid-19 test results.

But while scrapping that system will end the categorising of countries as either ‘red’ (too risky), amber (moderate risk) and green (safe to come), the UK drew angry reactions for declaring certificates from the entire African continent unrecognised.

It also labelled similar documents from India, one of Africa’s main suppliers of vaccines under the Covax facility, as not yet recognised. Countries in Asia and Latin America are also excluded from recognition.

Different recognitions

On Tuesday, Africa CDC challenged the UK to explain how the same vaccines issued in different regions were receiving different recognitions, even when supplied by the same entity.

The agency raised “deep concern [on] the planned changes to international travel rules in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, communicated by the Government of the UK, which will be enforced starting at 4am on Monday, 4th October 2021.”The UK rules say travellers whose vaccination is not recognised, including but not limited to the AU member states, will have to take additional measures, resulting in a significant financial and social burden.

They must take Covid-9 tests before arrival, self-isolate for 10 days and take two other tests while isolating. These extra measures include two additional tests (pre-departure and “day 8 test” and quarantine for 10 days. However, if they test negative earlier than 10 days, they may be released from isolation.

The UK has not provided any further explanation and the rationale for these new rules, Africa CDC said on Tuesday.

For discriminating against people who have received vaccines through the Covax programme of the World Health Organisation, Africa CDC argued, the UK was raising doubts about its own intention to encourage people to take vaccines.

The organisation said the lack of recognition will make it harder for authorities to convince people to jet jabs. The UK is one of the largest supporters of the Covax programme, donating over $700 million (Sh71 billion) directly for the purchase and distribution of the doses.

London also committed to send about 80 million vaccine doses through Covax, which constitute almost half of the Covid-19 vaccines supplied to Africa to date.

Deepen vaccines hesitancy

“We are deeply concerned that policies and rules such as this carry a risk of deepening vaccines hesitancy across Africa and create distrust in the community,” the AU said. “Given the severe consequences of the rules, the Africa CDC therefore urge the UK government to a) reconsider their decision and b) with the African Union to discuss how to ensure mutual recognition of vaccines provided through its donations.”

The AU believes that this will help avoid further restrictions on the movement of the African population, “which is already impacted by the limited access to vaccines”.

By Tuesday, Africa CDC lamented that just about four percent of the African population have received a Covid-19 jab, against the global trend where four in 10 people have been jabbed at least once.It was unclear whether AU member states backed the collective call for mutual certificate recognition. But officials on the continent have separately called out the UK’s red listing.

“I must say I am very shocked that South Africa continues to but on the UK’s red list, given the progress that we have made in combating the pandemic. We regard this keeping us on the red list, really, as a political punishment of some kind that we do not understand at all,” said Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister for international relations and cooperation, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

“It appears that the UK is relying on scientific information, they say. We are not sure from which source but we have now arranged that our scientists, the advisory committee as well as our department of health will now meet with the United Kingdom.”

African leaders have used the recent 76th Session of the UN General Assembly to call for fairness and equity on vaccine distribution.

Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Samia Suluhu of Tanzania and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa argued in their speeches that the world would be unsafe if some people continue to hog vaccines. Ramaphosa, who recently protested the UK’s refusal to remove his country from the red list said eight in 10 doses have been hogged by the West.

Certificates

In a past interview, UK officials told the Nation that vaccines it donated to Kenya are recognised, only that the two sides have to discuss what the certificates should look like.

London says their red-listing decisions are usually based on ‘scientific research and data’ but could not explain how India, a country that has been grappling with a surge in Covid-19 infections more than any African country, as well as with new variants like Delta and Delta Plus, had been removed from the list if it is true that the decisions are science-based. India’s vaccine certificates were yet to be recognised in the UK, however.“

Decisions to introduce or remove countries from the red list are in direct response to the latest scientific and medical data showing an increased risk to UK public health and community transmission,” a spokesperson from the British High Commission in Nairobi explained.

“As with all our coronavirus measures, we keep the red list under constant review and our priority remains to protect the health of the UK public.”

Last week, UK diplomats across Africa issued local statements seeking to clarify vaccine certificate issues. But they ended up angering officials more by not indicating timelines on recognition.

The UK has, in the alternative, dangled partnerships and vaccine donations, as well as pledging to collaborate in research and genomic sequencing, as it promised with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).

Manufacture local doses

Meanwhile, AU says the biggest solution should lie in enabling the continent to manufacture local doses, by being permitted to use copyrighted technology.“American taxpayers, European taxpayers, financed some of this intellectual property (IP) and it should be for the common good,” argued Strive Masiyiwa, the AU special envoy on Covid-19, in a virtual press conference last week

“It is not wrong that we say there should be waivers, it was for the common good.“So, we ask for this IP to be made available because it was a great miracle to have these vaccines, now let this miracle be available to all mankind. To be fair, vaccine manufacturers were given restrictions, they are not selling to us, which is why we will now have to solve this by manufacturing our own.”

Africa and other developing regions had fronted a motion at the World Trade Organisation, seeking waivers on an intellectual properties treaty known as TRIPS, to be allowed licence under emergency terms to use the technology from the West.

The motion, moved by South Africa and India, flopped thrice as Western countries refused to endorse it. WTO rules of decision-making require consensus, rather than a secret ballot, meaning that a single no vote invalidates a decision.

 More than half of Kenya Power’s domestic customers are set to miss out on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Christmas gift of lower electricity prices.

The President issued a directive on Wednesday requiring the Ministry of Energy to reduce power tariffs by 33 percent to an average of Sh16 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the current Sh24 a unit.

The cut to Sh16 a unit is set to benefit domestic consumers who use more than 100 kWh per month and do not enjoy the State subsidy.

© 2008 AFP File photo: A transformer field sits behind a fence at a geothermal plant near the central Kenyan town of Naivasha. ( ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly four million of Kenya Power domestic customers, who consume less than 100 units monthly, pay an average of Sh16 per kWh.

This means that the planned 33 percent cut in electricity prices will benefit homes that consume more than 100 units monthly, mainly middle class homes plugged to gadgets like cookers, water heaters and fridges, who on average pay the Sh24 a unit.

Under the current billing structure, homes in rural Kenya and low-income urban neighbourhoods, which consume less than 100 kWh monthly, enjoy a subsidy of Sh5.72 per unit.

The 33 percent cut implies that all homes will enjoy the subsidy irrespective of their monthly consumption levels.

A State House statement, announcing the handing in of the report of a taskforce appointed to review power purchase agreements, promised that the lower tariff will be implemented before end of December.

“The President has also examined and welcomed the recommendations of the Taskforce that establish a path towards the reduction of the cost of electricity by over 33 percent within four months,” said the statement.“

This cost reduction will be achieved through the reduction of the consumer tariffs from an average of Sh24 per kilowatt hour to Sh16 per kilowatt hour which is about two thirds of the current tariff.”

The bottom-end segment accounts for 55 percent of Kenya Power’s total customer base of 7.6 million.

Millions of homes have recently been hooked to the power grid under a government subsidy meant to speed up electrification. This has increased Kenya Power’s customer base from about two million in 2013.Most are, however, in remote areas and slums with low consumption levels since their electricity use is limited to lighting and charging phones, and powering small electronic appliances.

President Kenyatta also ordered the cancellation of all ongoing and incomplete power purchase agreements being negotiated with the State distributor Kenya Power.

The announcement came in a day when the head of State also replaced Charles Keter with Monica Juma as Cabinet Secretary for Energy. Dr Juma has been in charge of the Defence docket.

President Kenyatta set up the taskforce to review the power purchase agreements in March.

“The taskforce recommendations include: cancellation with immediate effect of all unconcluded negotiations of Power Purchase Agreements,” the State House statement said.

State House said that future power purchase agreements with the government will have to be in line with its Least Cost Power Development Plan, which emphasises the use of renewable energy sources.

Consumers often complain of steep bills, partially due to idle capacity charges that compensate power generators. for what is generated but never used.

Under a typical power purchase agreement, a power producer gets paid for any electricity produced, even if it is impossible for Kenya Power to sell it to consumers because of reasons including excess production.

State House said the taskforce found that there was a huge disparity between the tariffs charged by main power producer KenGen and independent power producers.

KenGen’s prices were much lower than those of the independent power producers. Kenya Power buys most of its electricity from State-controlled KenGen.“The President... notes ...the lack of proper demand forecasting and planning, leading to irreconcilable projections as against demand,” the statement said.

Kenya Power fell to a pretax loss of Sh7.04 billion for its financial year to the end of June 2020.Out of the Sh87.5 billion cost of sales incurred during the period, Sh47.5 billion, or 54 percent, was paid to power producers as capacity charges, officials said.

© Reuters/MARCELO DEL POZO FILE PHOTO: LaLiga - Cadiz v FC Barcelona

(Reuters) - A 3-0 defeat at Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday heaped more pressure on Barcelona's under-fire manager Ronald Koeman but midfielder Frenkie de Jong said sacking him would not solve the club's problems.

Barca have made a poor start to the season, languishing in sixth spot in LaLiga, five points off leaders Real Madrid, and suffering back-to-back 3-0 defeats in the Champions League after losing their opener to Bayern Munich.

Barcelona President Joan Laporta backed Koeman last week but said the board would not shirk tough decisions if they needed to be made.

"I don't think changing the coach is the solution," Dutchman De Jong said. "I can't talk about Koeman, it's not my place.

"We have to keep fighting, stay together and overcome this situation. We can only escape this with hard work and being united as a team."

Koeman said the players were still behind him but added that he did not know if the board felt the same after the Benfica game.

"As I've said just the other day, regarding my future I can't say anything," Koeman said.

"Because I don't know what the club is thinking in this respect, and I don't want to answer any more questions on this because it is not in my hands. We'll see.

 PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty Thursday of illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid.

Sarkozy wasn't present at the Paris court for the verdict’s announcement.

© Provided by Associated Press FILE - In this Monday Nov. 11, 2019 file photo, French former president Nicolas Sarkozy attends a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Sarkozy is facing potential prison term in a verdict to be rendered on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021 about campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid. Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, has vigorously denied wrongdoing during the May-June trial. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP, file)He is accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.

The court stated that Sarkozy “knew” the legal limit was at stake and “voluntarily” failed to supervise additional expenses.

Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, has vigorously denied wrongdoing. He can appeal the decision.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing a potential prison term in a verdict to be rendered on Thursday about campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid — a ruling that comes seven months after he was convicted in a corruption and influence peddling case.

Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, has vigorously denied wrongdoing during the May-June trial.

He is accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.

Prosecutors have requested a six-month prison term, as well as a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of 3,750 euros ($4,354).

Thursday's verdict comes after Sarkozy, 66, was found guilty on March 1 of corruption and influence peddling in another case. He was given one year in prison and two years suspended in that case but is free pending appeal.

In the campaign financing case, prosecutors concluded that Sarkozy knew weeks before the 2012 election that his expenses — which are strictly limited under French law — were getting close to the legal maximum. They accused him of having ignored two notes from his accountants warning about the money issue.

Prosecutors argued Sarkozy is “the only person responsible for his campaign financing” and that he chose to exceed the limit by organizing many rallies, including giant ones.

During his hearing, Sarkozy told the court the extra money did not go into his campaign, but instead helped make other people richer. He denied any “fraudulent intent.” He also insisted he did not handle day-to-day organization because he had a team to do that and therefore could not be blamed for the amount of spending.

In addition to the former president, 13 other people went on trial, including members of his conservative Republicans party, accountants and heads of the communication group in charge of organizing the rallies, Bygmalion. They face charges including forgery, breach of trust, fraud and complicity in illegal campaign financing.

Some have acknowledged wrongdoing and detailed the system of false invoices that aimed to cover up the overspending.

Prosecutors have requested mostly suspended prison sentences, and up to one year in prison for Bygmalion's co-founder.

Sarkozy retired from active politics in 2017, but is still playing a role behind the scenes. French media have reported that he is involved in the process of choosing a conservative candidate ahead of France's presidential election next year.

 Sept 30 (Reuters) - Myanmar's ongoing economic problems were caused by "outside factors" and two waves of COVID-19 infections, but the military government takes full responsibility and is working hard to address them, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Speaking after the kyat currency hit new lows this week, the ruling military council's spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the central bank had been unable to meet local demand for dollars.

Myanmar's currency has lost more than 60% of its value since the beginning of September, driving up food and fuel prices in an economy that has tanked since a Feb. 1 military coup.

"The government is working its best to solve this situation as best as possible," Zaw Min Tun told a regular news conference.

"As it is happened under this government, the current government will have to take responsibility."

Many gold shops and money exchanges have closed in Myanmar due to the turmoil, while the slumping kyat has been a hot topic on social media networks, where users on Thursday posted images of panic-buying of fuel, or gas stations closing due to shortages.

Rising prices of goods and fuel have posed major challenges to previous military governments in Myanmar, with the cost of cooking gas among the triggers of a monk-led "Saffron Revolution" in 2007.

Zaw Min Tun said the economy had worsened due to outside factors as well as the coronavirus, but did not specify what those were.

"We have responsibility to build it back," he said of the economy.

The World Bank predicted on Monday the economy would slump 18% this year and Myanmar would see Southeast Asia's biggest contraction in employment.

In August, the Central Bank of Myanmar tried tethering the kyat 0.8% either side of its reference rate against the dollar, but abandoned that earlier this month as pressure on the exchange rate mounted. (Reporting by Reuters Staff Writing by Martin Petty Editing by Ed Davies )

 hree people have been injured after a tornado ripped through NSW's Central West this afternoon, damaging properties and leaving a 30km trail of destruction.

David Hagney's home at Clear Creek, near Bathurst, was damaged when the tornado struck about 2:00pm.

He estimated 300 trees had been ripped from the ground around his property.

© Provided by ABC NEWS A tornado has blown over trees and torn down powerlines in an area from Clear Creek, near Bathurst, to Meadow Flat, near Lithgow.  (Supplied: Stephen Williams)

"It just all went grey and there was limbs flying through the air, and it just basically hit us ... it was so fast," he said.

"There were tree branches, tin, iron, things flying everywhere."

Trees landed on Mr Hagney's house, and destroyed two cars.

He and his family watched the tornado from inside their house.

"If this was a giant it was like he just grabbed hold of the trees, screwed them up and threw them on the ground," he said.

"We just stood in amazement waiting for it to stop. The good thing is we are OK."

Bureau of Metereology (BoM) senior climatologist Agata Imielska confirmed there was damage to houses and power lines north-east of Bathurst.

"We have a line of damage roughly 25 to 30 kilometres," she said.

Ms Imielska said the tornado was part of a broader weather system that the BOM had been warning about for several days.

The system is moving across Australia's east coast, and there are severe weather warnings are in place for large parts of NSW, including Sydney.

Damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall potentially leading to flash flooding are all on the cards for the eastern seaboard.

Further inland, in north-east NSW and southern Queensland, the risks include possibly destructive winds, giant hail and heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding.

Paramedics were called to two demolished homes — one in Meadow Flat and another in Clear Creek.

In Clear Creek, a man suffered facial injuries and a woman was taken to Bathurst Hospital with back and neck injuries.

In Meadow Flat, a man in his 40s was taken to Orange Hospital with an arm injury.

Inspector Meah Ferguson said patients were lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries considering the damage the tornado caused.

"It's not every day you get called out to a tornado and this one packed quite a punch," she said.

Local Rural Fire Service (RFS) Patrick Sinclair, who was cleaning up at the Meadow Flat house, said the family pet had been sucked up by the tornado.

"I'm told the dog was picked up and lifted about 300 metres and survived, so that's good," he said.

"The SES are doing their job and trying to put a cover over the top (of the house) and just trying to keep everyone safe," Mr Sinclair said.

He said the owner's livelihood was now in jeopardy as his tree lopping equipment had been ruined.

Peel resident Kathy Jones said she came home to see her house "swirling around".

"It took the house, the roof, it took everything," she said.

"Everything was just swirling around, the house there's not much left, we've got a big mess to clean up."

She said she could see a "big black cloud" in the sky and with her house destroyed, she had nowhere to seek shelter.

"There's broken windows, you always think you can go and hide under a bed but there's glass everywhere in the house, even ... the chimney's torn out of it so there's smoke all in the house.

"There's trees just up against the fence, the chooks yard is all blown down, there's chooks everywhere."

Ms Jones said her neighbours were helping her clean up and offered her a place to stay.

Electricity provider Essential Energy said roofing iron was blown into the electricity network at Clear Creek, bringing down powerlines.

About 164 customers are without power in the Limekilns, Clear Creek, Peel and surrounding area after it was automatically switched off as a protective measure during the storm.

BoM forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse said tornadoes were "reasonably rare" but "not completely out of the question".

"Tornadoes are really quite … very localised phenomena, so it's quite difficult to be able to predict those well in advance of time," she said.

Ms Woodhouse said the storm season was "really kicking off" and urged residents to check the BOM's website for the latest weather warnings.

 The Romanian authorities decided to keep the schools open irrespective of the incidence of Covid-19 cases in a particular city - while only the classes where infected pupils are spotted will be closed.

© Provided by Romania Insider

Under the previous regulations, the schools were supposed to be closed with the education process continued online, for cities and villages with incidence rates of above 6 per thousand. This threshold was already exceeded in Bucharest and other several big cities.

Instead, massive testing will be carried among pupils with the aim of spotting the infection cases.

To this end, the ministry of education requested the medical licensing body to approve the use of non-invasive tests that would be much easily accepted by parents, Economica.net reported.

Most of the parents have been reluctant to give their consent for such tests in their absence - but since then the testing became a much more common procedure among people seeking to spend their holidays abroad.

Consequently, the massive testing policy is much more likely to be accepted, unlike the vaccination campaign that still meets robust skepticism.

 Sept 30 (Reuters) - Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano was erupting in "full swing" late on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, with local media reporting that the eruption posed no immediate danger to residents.

"What was once a cooling lava lake is now a new fissure eruption," USGS Volcanoes said in a tweet.

© 2020 Andrew Richard Hara KILAUEA, HI - DECEMBER 21: Gas and steam erupt from the Halemaumau Crater of the Kilauea Volcano on December 21, 2020 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. The Kilauea Volcano has been inactive for the past two years, reactivating the previous night on December 20th. (Photo by Andrew Richard Hara/Getty Images)

The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) elevated  Kīlauea's  volcano alert level from "WATCH" to "WARNING" and its aviation color code from "ORANGE" to "RED" as the  new eruption and associated hazards are evaluated, USGS said.

The latest alert level and color code imply that a hazardous eruption is "imminent, underway or suspected," according to the USGS website.

The eruption was not in an area with homes and was fully contained within the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii News Now reported, citing officials. 

 UN chief Antonio Guterres urged young people on Thursday to keep up their pressure on world leaders, praising them for "setting a powerful example" ahead of a vital climate summit next month.

"The window of opportunity to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is closing quickly," he told hundreds of youth activists gathered in Milan. 

© MIGUEL MEDINA The activists in Milan will outline their priorities for climate action in a joint communique to be presented to ministers meeting Saturday as part of pre-COP preparations

"We know what needs to be done and we have the tools to do it. Young people have been in the forefront of putting forward positive solutions, advocating for climate justice and holding leaders to account."

The COP26 UN climate summit, which begins October 31 in Glasgow, is being billed as crucial to the continued success of the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

The landmark 2015 accord commits nations to limiting global temperature rises to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels through sweeping emissions cuts.

Countries also promised to work towards a safer temperature cap of 1.5C. 

But emissions have continued to rise in the six years since the deal, while the latest round of national carbon-cutting pledges puts Earth on track to warm a "catastrophic" 2.7C this century, according to a UN assessment this month.

Guterres urged delegates in Glasgow to bring their emissions plans in line with a 1.5C pathway.

"This means that they must commit to net-zero by mid-century, with ambitious 2030 targets, and clear plans to achieve them," he said.

The UN chief also called on developed nations at COP26 to make good on their promise to deliver $100 billion each year to countries already bearing the brunt of climate disasters. 

The activists in Milan will outline their priorities for climate action in a joint communique to be presented to ministers meeting Saturday as part of pre-COP preparations. 

"Your solidarity and demands for action set a powerful example," Guterres told the youth delegates. 

"We need national leaders to follow your example and ensure the ambition and results we need at COP26 and beyond."

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country will host COP26, said via video link that "young people around the world are already paying the price for the reckless actions of their elders."

"There is still just enough time to put on the brakes. We know what needs to be done, we just have to get on with it. Change on the scale we need is perfectly possible." 

Johnson summed up the summit aims as: "Coal, cars, cash and trees." 

"We want to move away from using coal as a way we generate electricity and move towards renewables," he said. 

"We want everybody to stop using internal combustion engine vehicles. We want to raise the funds that the whole world needs -- the developing world in particular -- to tackle climate change, and we need to plant hundreds of billions if not trillions of trees," Johnson said. 

"If we do that, we can make COP a success." 

 The Taliban on Thursday violently cracked down on a small women's rights demonstration, firing shots into the air and pushing back protesters, AFP journalists witnessed. 

A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the right for girls to return to secondary school, after the hardline Islamist group excluded them from classes earlier this month. 

© BULENT KILIC The Taliban pushed back women protesters as they tried to continue with the small demonstration in Kabul, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming

The women unfurled a banner that read "Don't break our pens, don't burn our books, don't close our schools", before Taliban guards snatched it from them. 

They pushed back the women protesters as they tried to continue with the demonstration, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming.

A Taliban fighter also released a brief burst of gunfire into the air with his automatic weapon, AFP journalists saw.

© BULENT KILIC The demonstrators -- from a group called the "Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists" -- took refuge inside the school

The demonstrators -- from a group called the "Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists" -- took refuge inside the school.

Taliban guard Mawlawi Nasratullah, who led the group and identified himself as the head of special forces in Kabul, said the demonstrators "did not coordinate with security authorities regarding their protest".

"They have the right to protest in our country like every other country. But they must inform the security institutes before," he said.

Isolated rallies with women at the forefront were staged in cities around the country after the Taliban seized power, including in the western city of Herat where two people were shot dead. 

But protests have dwindled since the government issued an order that unsanctioned demonstrations and warned of "severe legal action" for violators.

It has been almost two weeks since girls were prevented from going to secondary school. 

The Taliban follow a strict interpretation of sharia law that segregates men and women, and have also slashed women's access to work. 

They have said they need to establish the right conditions before girls can return to the classroom, but many Afghans are sceptical.

 Kagara, Niger state - Suspected bandits on Tuesday, September 28, invaded the palace of Alhaji Ahmadu Attahiru, the Emir of Kagara in the Rafi local government area of Niger state.

Daily Trust reported that details of the attack were still sketchy but cited a palace source as saying that the monarch was absent when the gunmen struck.

© Provided by Legit Bandits invaded the palace of Alhaji Ahmadu Attahiru, the Emir of Kagara in Niger state, on Tuesday, September 28. Photo credit: The Governor of Niger-State Source: Facebook

The source said the attack took place around Maghrib prayers.

The Emir reportedly left Kagara for a programme in Minna, the state capital, on Monday, September 27.

It was gathered that the mobile network service in Kagara was disconnected on Friday, September 24.

An indigene of Kagara based in Minna was quoted to have said:

“I cannot give you the details now. The people who called this evening are no longer reachable again. The network in Kagara has been disconnected since Friday.”

“I believe even those who called went to bush to access network but it is true that the palace of Emir of Kagara was attacked."

Gunmen invade palace, abduct Niger district head

Similarly, Legit.ng had earlier reported that gunmen suspected to be bandits kidnapped the district head of Wawa community in Borgu kingdom, Niger state, Dr Mahmud Aliy.

The district head was kidnapped in his palace around 9.30pm on Saturday, September 4.

According to a source, the gunmen stormed the palace with different weapons and went straight to the community leader’s room after he had retired to bed.

Emir dies few months after bandits killed his son

In another report, Alhaji Saidu Umaru Namaska, the emir of Kontagora in Niger state has died at the age of 84.

The emir died at an Abuja hospital after spending 47 years on the throne.

His death comes three months after bandits gunned down his son during an attack on the monarch’s farm. The deceased’s son was on the farm along Zuru road in Kontagora local government area when the bandits struck.