The fatal incident happened as the country celebrated Eid-Ul-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan. A local official confirmed that five people died and two were seriously injured.

The attack is alleged to have been carried out by armed terrorists who were on motorcycles.

The Tillabéri region is regularly hit by jihadist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.

Niger is among the Western Sahel countries which are under insurgencies from jihadists. Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Chad are members of the G5 Sahelian countries and they have been working together since 2017 to fight against jihadists.

“G5-Sahel soldiers have been dispatched to Fantio and will stay in the village for a few days at the request of the governor of the region,” a source close to the authorities in Tillabéri said.

Since the beginning of the year, Jihadists have killed over 300 people in a series of attacks launched in Niger.

In March, at least 137 people were killed by suspected militants at several locations in West Niger near Mali’s border.

No one has claimed the attacks however Groups affiliated to the AlQaeda and Daesh groups are said to be responsible for these attacks.

The officer identified as Simon Muita Mwongela is said to have shot the security guard after an altercation ensued between them.

According to witnesses, the officer arrived at a lodging in Masimba, Kayole and demanded the guard to open the gate for him.

The guard however refused to give him access since the lodging was closed. This prompted the officer to shoot him, killing him instantly.

“He had gone to the club in the morning and demanded to get in and when he was told it had been closed, he shot one bullet towards the gate, and it went through to where the guard was standing, hitting him straight on the chest,” said a police officer who witnessed the incident.

Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai said investigations are ongoing to establish what caused the incident.

“He has been arrested and is now under investigation for murder,” Mutyambai confirmed.

The body of the guard has been taken to City Mortuary.

The two, Loic Njeukim alias Shakiro and her friend Roland Mouthe alias Patricia, have today been sentenced after being found guilty of “attempted homosexuality.”

According to their lawyers, the pair who were arrested in February 2021 were found guilty of the charge as well as outraging public decency and problems with their Identification Cards.

The two were also fined 200,000 francs each and if they fail to pay the fine, they will face another year in prison which is separate from the five-year sentence.

“It’s a hammer blow. It’s the maximum term outlined in the law. The message is clear: homosexuals don’t have a place in Cameroon,” said Alice Nkom who is one of their lawyers.

Richard Tamfu, also a lawyer representing the pair said that they will appeal against the ruling since there is no proof showing the two committed homosexual acts.

Cameroon is among 31 countries in Africa that criminalizes gay sex. Human rights have come out saying this arrest is part of a growing trend in the country to criminalize minorities and transgender people.

Shakiro is a YouTuber with massive followers on social media, Patricia on the other hand is highly profiled. Critics claim this prosecution is a political decision.

The Ministers of Health of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 11th May 2021, held a virtual meeting to discuss the COVID-19 epidemiological situation in the Region and come up with recommendations to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.

In a statement issued by SADC, the meeting was chaired by Minister of Health of the Republic of Mozambique, Hon. Professor Tiago in his capacity as the Chairperson of the SADC Ministerial Committee on Health.

Tiago said despite the efforts and progress made in the Member States so far in relation to COVID-19, there is still a need to strengthen and reinforce joint plans to ensure the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as to sustain the gains achieved in the Region. 

SADC Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax, said while the COVID-19 general outlook in the SADC Region has been steadily improving, the trajectory of the outbreak remains unpredictable. She noted a decline in the number of new cases of COVID-19, except in few States.

The organization urged members to continue strengthening existing disease control activities, including epidemiological surveillance, strategic testing, and increase routine systematic sequencing of representative samples of SARS-CoV-2 isolates from across the country whenever possible.

SADC executive also requested Member States to share information on the types of vaccine and numbers of doses they are receiving from suppliers in order to strengthen vaccine coverage monitoring in the Region through the Secretariat for wider dissemination.

Among the issues discussed was strengthening the Regulatory Capacity of National Regulatory Agencies (NRA) to conduct vaccine assessment and issue emergency use authorisations; and to proactively build and maintain trust in the COVID-19 vaccine by engaging communities in order to mitigate the increasing mistrust and vaccine hesitancy as part of the pandemic response.

They called upon Member States to vaccinate SADC citizens residing within their territories including, but not limited to diplomats, migrants, students and those residing along the borders.

Ministers of Health proposed Member States to continue using COVID-19 Test Certificates to allow a smooth and gradual resumption for all economic activities and ensure non-discrimination until Herd Immunity is reached for all Member States, and gradually move towards the vaccine certificates.

The Ministers also requested the World Health Organisation to help Member States to track and tackle new variants by helping to build and boost complex genomic surveillance capacities needed to detect and respond to new variants, shipping samples to sequencing laboratories and providing supplies, technical guidance and financial support to countries for laboratory equipment.