A church attack in Nigeria’s central region has killed two and injured several others, Nigerian police said on Monday.

The incident occurred late Sunday when a group of unknown gunmen shot indiscriminately at worshippers attending a program at a Celestial Church of Christ in the Felele area of central state Kogi, said William Ovye-Aya, spokesman of the state’s police in the state capital, Lokoja.

Ovye-Aya said police responded to an emergency call but found two female worshippers already killed and several wounded others in blood. The gunmen fled the scene when police arrived.

The police official said that they are hunting the attackers and that the victims’ bodies have been deposited in a morgue while the wounded are being treated in a nearby hospital. No arrest has been declared yet.

XINHUA

2 (BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, on Tuesday exchanged congratulations on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

In his congratulatory message, Xi said that with an everlasting traditional friendship, the two countries have in recent years established comprehensive cooperative partnership, steadily increasing political mutual trust and deepening cooperation in various fields.

China and Uganda have firmly supported each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, and coordinated closely in global and regional affairs, he said.

The Chinese president said in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two peoples have supported and helped each other in times of difficulty, writing a new chapter of China-Uganda friendship.

Xi said he attaches great importance to China-Uganda relations, and stands ready to work with President Museveni to take the 60th anniversary as an opportunity to deepen cooperation in various fields under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and their people and jointly build a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.

XINHUA

3 (LUSAKA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — The Zambian government said on Monday that it was in the process of formulating a national climate change adaptation plan aimed at building resilience against the negative effects of climate change.

Collins Nzovu, the Minister of Green Economy and Environment, said the plan will identify the country’s medium and long-term climate risks and vulnerabilities and mainstream them into the national development planning and budgeting processes.

‘Additionally, the national adaptation plan will set out priority adaptation actions thereby directing investments into the building of the resilience of our people and the economy to the adverse impacts of climate change,’ he said in remarks delivered the launch of a strategic plan for the Zambian Parliamentary Caucus on the Environment and Climate Change.

The government, he said, has also commenced the preparation of a green growth strategy which will contain concrete actions whose implementation will contribute to transforming Zambia into a green economy.

The green growth strategy will also provide an avenue for catalyzing government’s quest to attain sustainable development aspirations, he added.

XINHUA

4 (Vienna, Oct 18, 2022 (AFP) – Six men accused of helping a gunman who carried out Austria’s first deadly jihadist attack go on trial in a Vienna court on Tuesday.

On November 2, 2020, convicted Islamic State sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

In the wake of the EU member’s deadliest shooting in decades, the Austrian government and in particular its intelligence service were accused of failing to monitor the Islamist movement in the country.

According to the federal prosecutors’ charge sheet seen by AFP, the six defendants — all men aged between 21 and 32 years old — were not directly involved in the deadly attack, but are suspected of actively helping Fejzulai prepare for the shooting.

The six men — four Austrians, a Chechen and a Kosovar — are accused of ‘enabling … or otherwise promoting’ the execution of the crimes ‘due to their shared affiliation with the radical Islamist scene and the terrorist organisation IS Islamic State,’ the confidential court document said.

AFP

5 (Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct 18, 2022 (AFP) – Moscow on Monday stepped up attacks across Ukraine, cutting electricity and killing eight people, including in kamikaze drone strikes on the capital, as a Russian warplane crashed near the border.

The plane struck a residential area of Yeysk, a town in southwest Russia, according to Russian authorities.

The final toll was 13 dead and 19 injured, the ministry of emergency situations, quoted by Russian news agencies, said as the search for survivors ended early Tuesday after the crash caused a massive fire in a residential area.

Moscow is thought to be trying to counter battlefield losses in its eight-month war in Ukraine by waging a punitive policy of striking energy facilities before winter in a move President Vladimir Putin hopes will weaken resistance.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Russia launched five strikes in Kyiv and against energy facilities in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages.

Ukraine said four people were killed in Kyiv, including a married couple expecting a baby, and another four in the northeast region of Sumy.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency