Foreign news

WHO chief denounces claim he owes his position to China

Published

5 years ago

July 27, 2020

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief has rejected as false allegation from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he owed his position to a deal with China.

Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was appointed on July 1, 2017, has been accused by U.S. President Donald Trump and Pompeo of being pro-China during the fight against the coronavirus.

“The comments are untrue and unacceptable and without any foundation, for that matter,” Tedros said in response to a question raised at WHO’s Geneva headquarters briefing about remarks by Pompeo reported in London on Tuesday.

“Our sole focus – and the focus of the entire organization – is on saving lives. … And WHO will not be distracted by these comments. We don’t want the international community also to be distracted.”

A WHO advance team has been in China for nearly two weeks, organizing a WHO-led international mission to investigate the origins of the virus. The outbreak was first reported in a market in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

“We are already beginning to reach out to experts at the international level to see who will be available and most appropriate to be able to support an international mission in the coming weeks,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert.

U.S. adminstration under President Donald Trump has gone ahead to severe ties with the global health agency.

In May, WHO said it will initiate an independent review into its handling of the coronavirus pandemic “at the earliest appropriate moment” and urged countries to continue funding the agency.

Tedros added the WHO was seeing intense transmission of the coronavirus in relatively few countries.

“Two-thirds of all cases are from 10 countries. Almost half of all cases reported so far are from just three countries,” he said, referring to the U.S., Brazil and India.

Worldwide, more than 15 million cases and nearly 620,000 deaths have been reported, he said.

Recorded U.S. coronavirus infections exceeded four million on Thursday, with more than 2,600 new cases per hour on average, the highest rate in the world, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections in the U.S. have rapidly accelerated since the first COVID-19 case was detected on January 21. It took the country 98 days to reach one million cases, another 43 days to reach two million and then 27 more days to reach three million.

It has only taken 16 days to reach four million, at a rate of 43 new cases a minute.

Tedros said that just because cases may be at a low level where someone lives, it doesn’t mean they should let down their guard.

“Know your situation – do you know how many cases were reported where you live yesterday? Do you know how to find that information? Do you know how to minimize your exposure?” he said.

(With input from Reuters

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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