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The Nigerian Stock Exchange X-Gen News Alert – Great Nigerian Insurance Plc:
Company Name: Great Nigerian Insurance Plc
Company Symbol: GNI
[GNI]>> Company Reports
Great Nigeria Insurance Plc – September 2016 Unaudited Accounts
Gross Premium Written Sept 2016: N1.447b Sept 2015: N2.329b
Profit Before Tax Sept 2016: N640.123m Sept 2015: N466.419m
Taxation Sept 2016: (N235.090m) Sept 2015 (N188.709m)
Profit After Tax Sept 2016: N343.059m Sept 2015: N233.737m
Distributed by APO on behalf of The Nigerian Stock Exchange Corporate News.
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
Ireland steps up its humanitarian response to looming famine in Somalia:
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan T.D., and Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Joe McHugh T.D., announced that Ireland has today (Wednesday) dispatched over 100 tonnes of humanitarian relief supplies to Somalia.
Announcing the airlift, Minister Flanagan said:
“I am deeply concerned that over 6 million people in Somalia are now in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Almost 3 million people are facing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity and there is a very real and significant risk that the situation will further deteriorate to famine, causing starvation and death. This is simply unacceptable in our world of plenty.
“In Somalia today there are worrying similarities to the conditions that led to the worst famine of the 21st century when, in 2011, three-quarters of a million Somali people faced famine and more than a quarter million lives were lost. A massive and urgent scale up of assistance by the international community is required to avoid a similar catastrophe this year. Acting now will save lives.
“Over 400,000 people have been displaced in the country over the last six month because of prolonged drought, loss of livelihoods and acute hunger. They are congregating in informal settlements with nothing, arriving with only what they can carry. Most have walked long distances to reach these camps in hope that they will receive some assistance. Ireland’s donation of emergency supplies that we are announcing today will help to meet the immediate needs of up to 4,000 displaced families.”
“Today Ireland will dispatch an airlift, worth over €600,000, from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Dubai, where Irish Aid pre-positions relief supplies for use in emergencies and humanitarian crises under Ireland’s Rapid Response Initiative.
“The relief supplies, including blankets, jerry cans, cooking sets, family hygiene kits, tarpaulins and solar lamps, will arrive in two loads into Mogadishu today (Wednesday) and Friday, and will be distributed by Concern Worldwide to 4,000 vulnerable families displaced by drought and acute hunger to informal settlements located outside of Mogadishu and Baidoa, and in the Afgoyee Corridor, north-west of Mogadishu.
“Last month, Ireland also announced new funding of €11 million to humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa region, €3 million of which was contributed to the UN-managed Somalia Humanitarian Fund to help our partners to provide life-saving assistance to those most in need and at risk of famine in the country.”
Minister McHugh added:
“Severe drought conditions continue in many parts of Somalia following poor and erratic rains over the last two years. In the worst affected areas, poor rainfall has destroyed crops and killed livestock, and communities are being forced to sell their assets, and borrow food, to survive.
“If the forthcoming rainy season from April to June is as poor as is currently forecast, this hunger crisis will worsen and further displacement will occur. The situation for children is especially grave with over 360,000 Somali children under the age of five now acutely malnourished.
“Urgent action is required to provide emergency shelter and basic services for families that have been forced to move. Ireland is responding quickly through one of our trusted NGO partners. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Distributed by APO on behalf of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ireland.
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
African migrants reportedly being sold in ‘slave markets’ in Libya, UN agency warns:
Hundreds of migrants along North African migrant routes are being bought and sold openly in modern day ‘slave markets’ in Libya, survivors have told the United Nations migration agency, which warned that these reports “can be added to a long list of outrages” in the country.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is sounding the alarm today after its staff in Niger and Libya documented over the past weekend shocking testimonies of trafficking victims from several African nations, including Nigeria, Ghana and the Gambia. They described 'slave markets' tormenting hundreds of young African men bound for Libya.
Operations Officers with IOM’s office in Niger reported on the rescue of a Senegalese migrant who this week was returning to his home after being held captive for months. According to the young man’s testimony, while trying to travel north through the Sahara, he arrived in Agadez, Niger, where he was told he would have to pay about $ 320 to continue north, towards Libya. A trafficker provided him with accommodation until the day of his departure, which was to be by pick-up truck.
When his pick-up reached Sabha in southwestern Libya, the driver insisted that he hadn’t been paid by the trafficker, and that he was transporting the migrants to a parking area where the young man witnessed a slave market taking place. “Sub-Saharan migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans, with the support of Ghanaians and Nigerians who work for them,” IOM Niger staff reported.
Reports of slave markets can be added to a ‘long list of outrages’ in Libya
“The latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages [in Libya],” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s head of operation and emergencies. “The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants.”
Mr. Abdiker added that in recent months IOM staff in Libya had gained access to several detention centres, where they are trying to improve conditions. “What we know is that migrants who fall into the hands of smugglers face systematic malnutrition, sexual abuse and even murder. Last year we learned 14 migrants died in a single month in one of those locations, just from disease and malnutrition. We are hearing about mass graves in the desert.”
He said so far this year, the Libyan Coast Guard and others have found 171 bodies washed up on Mediterranean shores, from migrant voyages that foundered off shore. The Coast Guard has also rescued thousands more, he added.
“Migrants who go to Libya while trying to get to Europe, have no idea of the torture archipelago that awaits them just over the border,” said Leonard Doyle, chief IOM spokesman in Geneva. “There they become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value.
Many describe being sold “in squares or garages” by locals in the south-western Libyan town of Sabha, or by the drivers who trafficked them across the Sahara desert.
Mr. Doyle added: “To get the message out across Africa about the dangers, we are recording the testimonies of migrants who have suffered and are spreading them across social media and on local FM radio. Tragically, the most credible messengers are migrants returning home with IOM help. Too often they are broken, brutalized and have been abused, often sexually. Their voices carry more weight than anyone else’s.”
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations (UN).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
