Musings From Abroad

Why the United States removed Nigeria from category one status— Regulator

Published

4 days ago

September 3, 2024

The United States Federal Aviation Administration delisted Nigeria from Category One Status of the International Aviation Safety Assessment program, according to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, because no Nigerian airlines have been operating direct flights to the United States for two years.

This implies that unless Nigeria is re-audited, re-certified, and granted its previous status by the USFAA, Nigerian carriers will not be permitted to operate directly to any US city or airport.

After a rigorous five-year process, Nigeria was granted USFAA CAT One Status in August 2010. However, reports claimed the nation lost the grade as a result of a combination of factors including a decline in quality and the inability of any Nigerian airline to operate directly to the US for seven years.

Nigeria, like most other countries, must obtain Category One Status and complete the International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme to operate in the United States of America, according to a swift response from the NCAA through a statement personally signed by acting Director-General Chris Najomo.

“Upon attaining this status, Nigerian airlines would be permitted to operate Nigerian registered aircraft and dry-leased foreign registered aircraft into the United States, in line with the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement.

“The first time Nigeria attained Category One Status was in August 2010. The US Federal Aviation Administration conducted another safety assessment on Nigeria in 2014. A further safety assessment was conducted on Nigeria in 2017, after which Nigeria retained her Category One status.

“However, with effect from September 2022, the US Federal Aviation Administration de-listed Category One countries who, after two years, had no indigenous operator providing service to the US or carrying the airline code of a US operator,” the NCAA stated on Monday.

It added, “Also removed from the Category One list were countries to who the FAA was not providing technical assistance to based on identified areas of non-compliance to international standards for safety oversight.

“No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the two years preceding September 2022. So it was expected that Nigeria would be de-listed as were other countries that fell within this category. Nigeria was, therefore, de-listed in 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022.”

Delisting the nation, he said, does not count as a safety offence against any Nigerian airline because the nation’s aviation industry has undertaken the required safety and security audits.

“It is important to clarify here that the de-listing of Nigeria has absolutely nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in our oversight system. Nigeria has undergone comprehensive ICAO Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concerns or Significant Security Concerns respectively.

“It is furthermore necessary to add that a Nigerian operator can still operate in the US using an aircraft wet-leased from a country that has a current Category One status,” Najomo noted.

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Musings From Abroad

UN indicts warring parties in Sudan, calls for peacekeepers

Published

19 hours ago

September 6, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A United Nations-mandated panel stated on Friday that both sides in Sudan’s civil war had engaged in acts that may qualify as war crimes, and proposed that to protect civilians, international powers must expand the arms embargo and send in peacekeepers.

The report claimed to be based on 182 interviews with survivors, families, and witnesses. It detailed the rape, attacks, use of torture, and arbitrary arrests committed by Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against civilians.

“The gravity of our findings and failure of the warring parties to protect civilians underscores the need for urgent and immediate intervention,” the U.N. fact-finding mission’s chair, Mohamed Chande Othman, told reporters.

Both parties have denied previous allegations by rights organisations and the United States and accused one another of abusing power. Neither stated in reaction to the allegations or answered enquiries for comment on Friday right away.

Othman and the other two mission members demanded the immediate deployment of an independent force.

“We cannot continue to have people dying before our eyes and do nothing about it,” mission member Mona Rishmawi said. A U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force was a possibility, she added.

The mission advocated for the extension of an arms embargo now in place by the United Nations, which only covers the western part of Darfur and the thousands of documented ethnic killings there. Fourteen of the eighteen states in the country have been affected by the conflict that began in Khartoum in April of last year.

According to the mission, there were also good reasons to suspect that the RSF and its affiliated militias had perpetrated other war crimes, including kidnapping women forcing them into prostitution and recruiting minors as fighters.

Unnamed support groups had received allegations of over 400 rapes in the first year of the war, but mission member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said the actual number was likely considerably higher.

Musings From Abroad

Chinese investments in Africa mutually beneficial, South Africa’s Ramaphosa insists

Published

2 days ago

September 5, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Thursday that Chinese investments in Africa were mutually beneficial and not a “debt trap” for the continent.

Ramaphosa stated this on the sidelines of a China-Africa meeting in Beijing, with delegations from over 50 African states.

“I don’t necessarily buy the notion that when China (invests), it is with the intention of, in the end, ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap or a debt crisis,” Ramaphosa said when asked by reporters about China’s pledge at the summit of $51 billion in new funding for Africa.

China pledged to launch three times more infrastructure projects in resource-rich Africa, a region of significant geopolitical conflict between China, Europe, and the US, and to provide financial support over three years.

Ramaphosa also said, without providing details, that South Africa and China have secured an energy security pact. He claimed South Africa could learn energy sector reform from China.

“They already have done exactly what we are seeking to do. So there are lessons for us to learn from China and how to do it,” he said.

Power outages have slowed economic progress in South Africa in recent years. The country plans to pursue China’s largest electric vehicle producers, Ramaphosa added.

“We had good exchanges with BYD, which has shown a great interest to come and invest in South Africa,” he said.

Africa and China have strengthened commercial and political ties in recent decades. China is a major trading partner and lender. Additionally, Chinese companies invested heavily in Africa, making it a major investor in the continent.