Central Bank of Nigeria is concerned about the value of the naira and is making deliberate efforts to avert a further downward slide in the currency, it said on Friday. The naira has fallen to successive record lows on the parallel market due to dollar scarcity since July 2021, when the central bank stopped forex sales to retail currency traders to ease pressure on reserves and support the official market. The move funnelled demand toward the unofficial market , where the currency is freely traded. The currency has been trading within a range on the official market. Lawmakers said on…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia. In a late-night television address, Zelenskiy also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighboring Luhansk region, needed to leave. "The more people leave (the) Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation. Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy…

Hours after the leadership of the Nigerian military told President Muhammadu Buhari that it had adopted a ‘new strategy’ to tackle the insecurity in the country, the army announced the redeployment of senior officers. The Chief of Army Staff, Faruk Yahaya, approved the posting and appointment of some top officers to command, instructional and staff positions across formations and units. The appointments were announced in a statement issued by the Director, Army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, on Thursday in Abuja. Mr Nwachukwu said the new postings and appointments were done in an effort to reposition the army for operational efficiency.…

Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war appeared to have been killed when a prison building was destroyed in a missile strike or explosion, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of responsibility on Friday. The deaths, some of which were confirmed by Reuters journalists at the prison where the men were held in eastern Donetsk province, overshadowed a U.N.-brokered deal to restart shipping grain from Ukraine and ease a worldwide food crisis. The deal was discussed by the top diplomats of the United States and Russia on Friday in their first phone call since before Russia's invasion of its neighbour…