Nigeria’s U-20 male football team, the Flying Eagles, began their campaign at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina on a winning note on Sunday, claiming a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Dominican Republic in their opening match.

Placed in the same group with Italy and five-time champions Brazil, both Nigeria and the Dominican Republic knew they needed the best possible outcome from Sunday’s game.

It was thus not surprising, as the initial stage of the game at the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza was fiercely contested, with both teams trying to take charge of the tempo of the game.

However, the Dominican Republic broke the deadlock in the 21st minute when 19-year-old Edison Azcona coolly converted a penalty awarded after a VAR review showed Nigeria’s Benjamin Frederick has committed a foul in the box.

Despite this early setback, the Flying Eagles, who came into the game on Sunday as favourites of the Group D tie, displayed commendable resilience.

They made many attempts to pierce through the Dominican’s defence, with Jude Sunday, who started on the left flank of the attack, in particular, proving to be a thorn in their side.

Finally, in the 32nd minute, Nigeria equalised thanks to an own goal by Guillermo De Pena after an error by the Dominican Republic’s goalkeeper, Xavier Valdez.

Second half

Despite several attempts from both sides, it was Nigeria’s Samson Lawal who emerged as the game-changer, as he scored what proved to be the winning goal in the 70th minute

This came after an earlier effort by Jude Sunday was disallowed for offside, which added to the match’s drama.

The Dominican Republic showed commendable grit and made many attempts to level the score, but Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Kingsley Aniogboso, was up to the task, denying the opposition at crucial moments.

In the final minutes of the match, Nigeria continued to press high, seeking to extend their lead.

The likes of Haliru Sarki and Jude Sunday had further opportunities but were denied by the Dominican Republic’s defence, led by their standout goalkeeper Valdez.

At the final whistle, it was Nigeria’s Flying Eagles who emerged victorious, earning a hard-fought 2-1 win in their opening match.

The next stop for Ladan Bosso and his boys is against Italy on Wednesday before stepping out against Brazil three days later for their last group game.

 

PT

Standing on the stony ground in the bustling Fifa Park car lot, Rokeeb Yaya is haggling over the price of a dark red car. It is one of a couple hundred vehicles, parked in long lines stretching out across the vast lot – some shiny and new-looking, others dented and dusty.

The car Yaya has his eye on, a 2008 US-built Ford Escape, is on sale for around $4,000. It’s relatively affordable – US cars are cheaper than most other brands in the lot – and he wants to upgrade from his motorbike to a car. He is not interested in the history of the vehicle, he said, only that he can afford it.

But how this Ford ended up here – in one of the biggest car lots in the port city of Cotonou – helps tell a bigger story about how many of the West’s gas-guzzling cars are starting second lives in West Africa.

The 14-year old Ford arrived in Benin from the United States last year, after being sold at an auto auction.

Car records reviewed by CNN show it had three previous owners in Virginia and Maryland, and has logged over 252,000 miles on the road. It had one previous recall for its power steering, but unlike some of the other cars on the lot, it arrived in a relatively sound condition – it hadn’t been in any reported accidents.

This aging SUV is just one of millions of used cars that arrive every year in West Africa from wealthy countries such as Japan, South Korea, European countries and, increasingly, the US. Many of these end up in Benin, one of Africa’s top importers of used vehicles.

The stream of used cars heading to West African ports is only expected to increase with the West’s shift to electric vehicles. As wealthy countries set aggressive goals to move consumers towards electric vehicles to cut planet-warming pollution, gas-powered cars won’t necessarily go away.

Instead, many will be shipped thousands of miles away to developing countries like Benin, where populations are growing, along with demand for used cars.

Experts say the effect will be to divert climate and environmental problems to countries that are the most vulnerable to the climate crisis, undermining their own attempts to cut planet-warming pollution.

Exploding demand

The global market for used light-duty vehicles grew nearly 20% from 2015 to 2019, when more than 4.8 million were exported. There was a slight dip in exports in 2020 when the Covid pandemic started, but numbers are now “growing quite rapidly,” United Nations Environment Programme official Rob de Jong told CNN.

The US exports about 18% of the world’s used vehicles, according to UNEP data. These travel all over the globe, including to the Middle East and Central America, but many go to Nigeria, Benin and Ghana.

Some of these are salvaged cars that have been in accidents, were flooded, or are just too old – which get auctioned off for parts. Others are whole used cars that US car dealers are looking to offload.

“A lot of them are going to be two- to five-year-old Hyundais, Toyotas, sedans,” said Dmitriy Shibarshin, marketing director for West Coast Shipping, a company that specializes in shipping cars internationally. “It’s mostly the economy cars that get shipped there.”

Shibarshin’s company and others are “like FedEx” for cars, he said. His company usually specializes in higher-end vehicles, but also ships cheaper cars.

In major African countries like Kenya and Nigeria, more than 90% of the cars and trucks are used vehicles from overseas. In Kenya, where de Jong is based, the vehicle fleet has doubled every eight years; streets that used to be devoid of cars are now jammed with traffic, he said.

There is a tremendous appetite for these used vehicles. “You have a very young population that’s getting richer and richer by the day,” said Etop Ipke, the CEO of Autochek Africa, an online marketplace for cars. “The first thing they want to do, as they can afford things, is some mobility,” he said.

But, unlike in the US, few prospective buyers have access to credit, so new cars are often out of reach.

“That is fundamentally the reason why we’re not able to improve the quality” of cars sold, Ipke said. “It’s not like people want to drive used cars; it’s an affordability issue.”

Experts say demand for used cars could explode further as the take up of electric cars in the West increases the supply of used cars to African countries. Nearly one in five vehicles sold globally this year will be electric, according to the International Energy Agency, compared to less than 5% in 2020. China, Europe and the US are leading the EV market, the agency said.

In states like New York and Florida, where consumers are buying more EVs, dealers are increasingly looking overseas as a place to sell their older gas-powered models, according to Matt Trapp, a regional vice president at the huge auto auction company Manheim.

Those states also have robust port operations, making them an ideal place to ship used cars to Africa. “It’s setting up a really complementary dynamic,” Trapp told CNN.

“I’m not surprised to see how robust the export game is becoming,” Trapp said. “We’re going to see this dynamic more and more. When [auto dealers] see demand in other markets, they will find a way to move the metal there.”

From UNEP’s perspective, not all gas-powered cars are concerning – it’s the older ones, which tend to pollute more and be less safe, De Jong said. There’s evidence that the increasing demand in Africa for vehicles is actually resulting in more old and salvaged cars being shipped to the continent recently than there were 20 years ago.

“What we see at the moment is a wide variety of used vehicles being exported from the global north to the global south,” de Jong said. “Not only is the number increasing, but the quality is decreasing.”

In one section of Fifa Park, CNN finds a 16-year-old Dodge Charger, worn by age.

“We just sold it for 3 million XOF [around $4,500],” its seller, who did not wish to be named, said of the vehicle that arrived in Benin from the US two years ago.

Parked across from the Charger is a 24-year-old Ford Winstar that was shipped to Benin from the US last year. It’s a cheaper alternative for low-income car buyers who cannot afford newer models.

Car dealer Abdul Koura said that US and Canadian cars are very desirable to importers, who often bring in cars that have been in accidents, he told CNN.

“They repair these cars and resell them to make a profit,” said Koura, whose space at Cotonou’s Fifa park includes more than 30 used vehicles imported from Canada.

Victor Ojoh, a Nigerian car dealer who frequents Fifa Park, told CNN that it’s often possible to tell the origin of a car by what’s wrong with it.

“The cars that smoke are mostly from the US,” said Ojoh. “The cars from Canada are mostly flooded cars that start developing electrical faults.”

Some imported vehicles are missing their catalytic converters, an exhaust emission control devices which filter toxic gasses. Catalytic converters contain including platinum and can fetch on the black market. Some of the cars are shipped without catalytic converters or have them removed by dealers upon arrival, Ojo said.

Millions of cars shipped to Africa and Asia from the US, Europe and Japan are “polluting or unsafe,” . “Often with faulty or missing components, they belch out toxic fumes, increasing air pollution and hindering efforts to fight climate change.”

Regulations aimed at reducing pollution and increasing the safety of imported cars into West Africa have tended to be weak. But attempts have been made recently to tighten them up.

In 2020, Benin and 14 other members of the Economic Community of West African States bloc agreed a in the region, including an age limit of 10 years for used vehicles and limits on the amount of carbon pollution cars are allowed to produce.

But it’s unclear how strictly they are being enforced.

UNEP officials, including de Jong, have also had conversations with US and EU officials about putting in new regulations that would crack down on shipping very old or junk cars to developing nations. Those conversations are in early stages and have yet to result in any commitments.

Still, de Jong said climate change and global emissions have made the conversation around used cars “a different ballgame.” Increased shipments of older and more polluting cars are just as much of a problem for developed nations as they are for the developing countries where they are being driven, he added.

“Today with climate change, it doesn’t really matter where the emissions are taking place,” de Jong said. “Whether in Washington, DC, or Lagos, it makes no difference.”

Ipke doesn’t think that it is inevitable that Africa will accept all the old gas-powered cars the West no longer wants. He hopes that the transition to electric vehicles will come to the African continent as well, although that will require significant improvements to the charging infrastructure.

“In terms of where Africa goes, the transition shouldn’t necessarily be from used cars to brand new combustion engines, it should be from used cars to EVs,” Ipke said. “I think the continent has to be prepared for EVs, used or brand new, because that’s the direction the world is taking.”

For Yaya, however, this all seems a long way off. What brought him to Fifa Park, and to the old Ford SUV, was a lack of other options.

“I can only purchase what my money can afford,” he said.

 

CNN

Brandon Hatton, an Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) Accelerator member in Miami, founded Conscious Wealth to provide wealth management services that help people live with purpose and create impact. 

Brandon is on a quest to build a conscious wealth movement at scale, so he created Conscious Wealth Living to provide actionable tools for people to heal their relationship with money, facilitate healthy intergenerational dialogues about money, and overall help individuals and families find confidence in having enough money.

When we think of money, we think of all the things we can do with it. What is all too often overlooked is what we have lost in the pursuit of it. Nature dictates that destruction is always synonymous with creation. I argue something is always destroyed when wealth is created. 

Individuals with financial assets have something that most people in the world don't have – money. The good news is that we can actually use that money to heal ourselves from the destruction that the acquisition of it created in the first place. 

The healing begins with a mindset shift – from scarcity to abundance. At the root of a scarcity mindset is fear, which makes people constantly anxious about money even when they have more than enough. 

They often feel utterly consumed by competition and comparison, and the constant feeling of needing more leaves them stuck in an endless cycle of guilt, desire, and shame.

In particular, entrepreneurs tend to live for the future; their deep sense of ambition has them always chasing the next accomplishment, even when they have achieved levels of success they once only dreamed of. 

It is not uncommon for them to abide by the rule that "bigger is always better": bigger teams, bigger exits, and most importantly, bigger revenues. So entrepreneurs will continue to work harder and longer to reach those goals, but this hard work doesn't lead to what they really want to achieve: a life of security.

Your relationship with money – and therefore your relationship with your business – doesn't have to be based on scarcity. You can shift your mindset to one of abundance, meaning your decisions, or indecisions, are no longer coming from a place of fear. 

To do so, you must first embrace a fact that can be difficult for many entrepreneurs to believe: There is an abundance of opportunities, resources, and wealth available to you right now. The tricky part is seeing yourself as worthy of that prosperity.

Being financially successful cannot make you emotionally or spiritually whole; that kind of happiness is only achieved when you truly understand your relationship with money and therefore, the world at large. 

To that end, here are a few tips to help you change your relationship with money from a place of scarcity to that of abundance:

1. Examine your subconscious beliefs around money

What I like to call your "Money Memory" is shaped before you ever even hold money in your hands. These long-held, often limiting beliefs are influenced by the financial behaviors of parents or caregivers in early childhood. 

So ask yourself a few questions: How do you spend money? How do you earn it, how do you save it, and how do you give it away? 

Evaluating this highlight reel of your lifetime of experiences or interactions with money will reveal your Money Memory and allow you to confront and transform your negative beliefs.

2. Consider who you are without your money (and your business)

If you have plenty of money but find that you are using more energy to protect possessions instead of preserving your personal relationships, your money is likely getting in the way of what really matters. 

Connection to others is necessary to discover who we are and who we could be – we never really understand ourselves in isolation. If you have lost sight of the abundance around you, then you can never be truly wealthy.

3. Figure out what is "enough"

Not in terms of your finances alone, but what is enough to make you feel truly fulfilled. It's easy to lose track of this when you fall into a materialistic competition with the people around you. 

A huge part of financial planning is considering how much money you might need in retirement, yet you will never be able to narrow down that number until you figure out what it means to truly enjoy life, even when you are still heading your business. 

So consider this: Do you have a number in your head that you need to accumulate before you feel safe? What is that number based on? How do you define what it means to be "wealthy"? Is that attainable?

Adopting a mindset of abundance not only frees you from the fear of scarcity but also allows you to see money as a tool for a greater impact. With this perspective, you are better able to align your financial decisions with your values and purpose. 

Money becomes not the goal itself but a means to invest in your vision for your family, community, and even society at large. An abundance mindset is about making the world a better place; it is an avenue in which you can strengthen your commitment to living a more purposeful and intentional life.

 

Inc

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it will call 100 witnesses to testify at the presidential election petition court.

Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the PDP, had filed a suit challenging the election through which Bola Tinubu emerged as the president-elect.

Addressing the court on Saturday, Chris Uche, counsel for Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, said all the parties met and agreed on the number of witnesses that would be presented and the duration.

He said the PDP intends to call no more than 100 witnesses, adding that while seven weeks were given to call these witnesses, only three weeks will be needed since the issues are getting narrower.

Meanwhile, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it has two witnesses that will testify while the counsel to the president-elect said it has 39 witnesses ready.

All the parties agreed to streamline the number of witnesses as well as the duration needed for each party to call their witnesses.

For the evidence in chief, they categorised them into 30 minutes for the lead witness because they will tender and identify documents.

Fifteen minutes was proposed for each respondent for cross-examination and five minutes for re-examination.

However, 10 minutes was proposed for other witnesses of the petitioner and 10 minutes for cross-examination of these witnesses by the respondents.

It was also proposed that 30 minutes be given for the star witnesses of INEC, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On its part, Labour Party (LP) says it will call 50 witnesses to testify at the presidential election petition tribunal.

Peter Obi, candidate of the LP, had filed a suit challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu at the presidential election.

Addressing the tribunal on Saturday, Awa Kalu, counsel for Peter Obi and the LP, said they will require a period of seven weeks to get it done due to the fact that they haven’t done a forensic investigation of the BVAS as directed by the court.

Kalu added that they are waiting for some documents requested for.

They have also agreed that the star witnesses will need 30 minutes to demonstrate any electronic evidence.

That class of witnesses will be cross examined for 20 minutes and 5 Minutes for re-examination, while 10 Minutes was allotted for other witnesses.

For the respondents, 20 minutes was allotted for the star witnesses and 30 minutes for cross examination.

INEC said it has five witnesses set to testify in the LP’s petition and proposed seven days to get it done.

However, Abubakar Mahmoud, the lead counsel, disagreed that there should be a separate time for demonstration of electronic evidence.

Roland Otaru, counsel to the president-elect and his vice, proposed nine days to call their witnesses excluding expert witnesses.

The APC aligned with the submission of the counsel to Tinubu and Shettima, and said it will be presenting seven witnesses for nine days.

Hundreds of protesters on Saturday thronged the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect’s election is being challenged.

A barricade mounted by the police to divert traffic away prevented the demonstrators from gaining entry to the court premises where the court’s five-member panel was holding hearing sessions on Saturday.

The protesters, including many women clad in black and red attires, carried placards with inscriptions urging President Muhammadu Buhari, whose administration is in its dying days, to live up to his promise of bequeathing a transparent electoral process.

Other placards called out the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, for what they described as a “shambolic election”.

The protesters marched through the Eagle Square to the headquarters of the Court of Appeal where the Presidential Election Petition Court is located.

They converged adjacent the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Abuja, about 200 metres from the court premises where the election petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) against Tinubu election are being heard.

The protesters who go by the name ‘Free Nigeria Movement’ were chanting anti-electoral fraud songs while milling around a barricade by police operatives to divert vehicular traffic from the court.

Some of the women amongst the protesters were writhing on the floor as they demanded an end to electoral fraud and corruption in Nigeria.

Armed police officers stood by to prevent a breakdown of law and other.

Since the court began its inaugural sitting on 8 March, it has witnessed a handful of protests.

The protesters have consistently called for justice in determining the complaints before them.

A five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani is presiding over the petitions.

The protest echoes the acrimony that followed the announcement of Tinubu as winner of the keenly contested 25 February presidential election on 1 March.

The leading opposition candidates – Atiku and Obi – held separate press conferences in the wake of the announcement of the poll, alleging widespread manipulation of the results, and vowing to challenge the outcome of the election in court.

The two candidates, in March, beat the 21 day-deadline from the day of the announcement of the results to file their petitions to challenge the outcome of the election.

Three other political parties similarly filed separate petitions to challenge the election, but two of them withdrew their cases within the first week of the sitting of the Presidential Election Petition Court this month.

Apart from the petitions filed by Atiku and Obi, there is one more case by the Allied Progressives’ Movement (APM), making a total of three petitions now pending before the court.

 

PT

Bola Tinubu, president-elect, has returned to the country after a working visit to Europe.

The president-elect, who spent about 10 days in Europe, was received at the Abuja airport by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Kashim Shettima, vice-president-elect, Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, and Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, among others.

Tunde Rahman, Tinubu’s media aide, had said his principal would meet with investors and finetune transition plans.

The former governor of Lagos state is expected to assume office on May 29 when the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari elapses.

 

The Cable

The meeting between President-elect Bola Tinubu and Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has continued to raise dust, especially among leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano.

It would be recalled that Tinubu and Kwankwaso met for four hours in France, discussing a wide range of issues, including the possibility of the NNPP Presidential Candidate joining the incoming cabinet.

Responding, Abdulmajid Kwamanda, an APC leader in Kano, said Tinubu must not give any appointment to Kwankwaso, not even that of a messenger.

“We in the Northwest do not welcome Rabiu Kwankwaso to our party, APC. We do not accept the idea of Bola Tinubu giving him any appointment even as low as a messenger in our dear party. Should Tinubu ignore our outcry and appoint Kwankwaso, we are going to disrupt the entire APC in the north and withdraw our support for him,” Kwamanda had told reporters.

Moments after Kwamanda spoke, the audio of phone call between Ganduje and Ibrahim Masari, a former placeholder vice presidential candidate of the APC, leaked.

In the audio, the governor was heard lamenting being treated unfairly by the president-elect in meeting with Kwankwaso.

The governor had started the conversation by saying there is noise all over Kano over the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso.

Ganduje said even though Masari had told him of the possibility of such meeting, there was nothing he could have done about it.

“But at that time, you could have spoken with him (Tinubu). You can (sic) call him and talk to him,” Masari said.

The governor was then heard saying “what could I have told him? Now he (Tinubu) is seeing Kwankwaso as an alternative to us? No problem. Because we don’t have a government? And it’s even because of him (Tinubu) we lost the government in any way.

“Even if he would see him (Kwankwaso), he ought to have called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if symbolically.”

In the audio, Masari, an ally of Tinubu, was then heard pacifying Ganduje and urging him not to be angry over the development.

He asked the governor to remain calm until he visits Tinubu on Thursday and until they meet in Abuja.

“And all these things are from God. And the calculation that he is doing is not even accurate… And this man, how did he end up with Jonathan?” Ganduje said.

Daily Trust gathered that the governor left Kano for Abuja late Friday and will hopefully be meeting Masari over the weekend before the former would meet with the president-elect, who returned to the country yesterday.

When contacted, Abba Anwar, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, said he had no authority to speak on the issue.

However, he never denied nor authenticated the veracity of the phone conversation.

Daily Trust investigative team subjected the audio to multiple verification processes, and found no indication of manipulation.

 

Daily Trust

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Key Donbass city fully liberated – Moscow

The Russian troops have completely liberated the strategic Donbass city of Artyomovsk, the scene of a grueling battle for many months, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in the early hours of Sunday. 

The operation in the city known to Ukrainians as Bakhmut was executed by the “offensive actions” of the private military company Wagner Group with artillery and air support from regular Russian forces, the MOD said.

The statement from the MOD came hours after Wagner chief Evgeny Prigozhin announced on social media that his fighters had taken complete control of the city.

Ukraine has denied that the city had fallen to the Russians. Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar claimed that the statements about the capture of Artyomovsk were “premature.”

A salt mining city with a pre-conflict population of 72,000, Artyomovsk has become the stage of a bloody battle for many months as Russian forces nearly encircled it and were methodically pushing the Ukrainian army from its western suburbs. The city itself has been largely destroyed during the fighting.

Prigozhin warned earlier this month that his soldiers were taking heavy casualties due to ammunition shortages. He later said that the situation with supplies had improved and that Wagner troops were clearing the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance. 

** Putin congratulates troops on battlefield success

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated members of the Wagner private military company and regular soldiers with liberating the Donbass city of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, from the Ukrainian army, the Kremlin said in the early hours of Sunday.

Wagner chief Evgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that his soldiers had taken full control of the city.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the capture of Artyomovsk several hours later.

According to the MOD, the operation was completed with the assault by the Wagner fighters who had artillery and air support from regular troops.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has claimed that the fighting for the city is not over.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia claimed on Saturday to have fully captured the smashed eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war.

The assault on the largely levelled city was led by troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said earlier in the day that his troops had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city.

Taking Bakhmut - which Russia refers to by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk - would represent Moscow's first big victory in the conflict in more than 10 months.

"As a result of offensive actions by Wagner assault units, supported by artillery and aviation of the Southern Group of Forces, the liberation of Artyomovsk has been completed," the Russian defence ministry said in a one-line statement.

Kyiv denied Prigozhin's claim earlier on Saturday, but did not have an immediate response to the defence ministry's statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated troops on capturing the city and said those who had distinguished themselves would be given awards, domestic Russian news agencies reported.

The claims came after a week in which Ukrainian forces have made their most rapid gains for six months on Bakhmut's northern and southern flanks.

Prigozhin, who has repeatedly denounced Russia's regular military for abandoning ground captured earlier by his men, said his own forces would pull out of Bakhmut in five days to rest, handing the ruins over to the regular military.

"Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken," Prigozhin said in a video in which he appeared in combat fatigues in front of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners. "We completely took the whole city, from house to house."

Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi, reacting to Prigozhin's comments before Russia's announcement, had told Reuters: "This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut."

SPLIT BETWEEN WAGNER, RUSSIAN FORCES

Whether the Ukrainian forces have left Bakhmut or not, they have been slowly pulling back inside it, to clusters of buildings on the city's western edge.

Meanwhile, to the north and south, they have seized swathes of territory from Russian troops.

Russia has acknowledged losing some ground around Bakhmut in the past week, while denying assertions by Prigozhin that the flanks around the city guarded by regular troops have collapsed.

Kyiv says its aim in Bakhmut has been to draw Russian forces from elsewhere on the front into the city, to inflict high casualties there and weaken Moscow's defensive line elsewhere ahead of a planned major counteroffensive.

The battle for Bakhmut has revealed a deepening split between Wagner, a mercenary force that has recruited thousands of convicts from Russian prisons, and the regular Russian military. For two weeks, Prigozhin has been issuing daily video and audio messages denouncing Russia's military leadership, often in expletive-laden rants.

In Saturday's video he said that because of the "whims" of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, "five times more guys died than they should have". He thanked Putin "that he gave us this chance and great honour to defend our motherland".

Moscow has long claimed that capturing Bakhmut would be a stepping stone towards advancing deeper into the Donbas region it claims to have annexed from Ukraine. It has made it the principal target of a massive offensive that failed to capture any significant ground elsewhere.

Prigozhin has acknowledged that Bakhmut, formerly a city of 70,000 people, has little strategic significance, despite its huge symbolic importance because of the scale of losses in Europe's bloodiest ground battle since World War Two.

KYIV PREPARES COUNTEROFFENSIVE

Saturday's claims came as Kyiv prepared its counteroffensive, the next major phase in the war after six months during which it kept its forces on the defensive while weathering Russia's big offensive.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended the G7 summit of major industrial powers in Japan on Saturday, winning pledges of support including a signal from Washington that it would now back the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 warplanes. Previously, sending combat aircraft had been a taboo.

En route to Japan, Zelenskiy stopped at an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

The Vatican said on Saturday that Pope Francis had asked Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops' conference, to carry out a peace mission to try to help end the war.

 

RT/Reuters

Sudan's army and paramilitary RSF sign seven-day ceasefire

Sudan's warring factions signed an agreement late on Saturday for a seven-day ceasefire as fighting that has plunged the country into chaos and displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.

The ceasefire will take effect at 9:45 p.m. Khartoum time (1945 GMT) on Monday, the sponsors of the talks, the United States and Saudi Arabia, said in a joint statement.

Numerous previous ceasefire agreements were violated. However, this agreement will be enforced by a U.S.-Saudi and international-supported monitoring mechanism, the statement said without providing details.

The agreement also calls for distributing humanitarian assistance, restoring essential services and withdrawing forces from hospitals and essential public facilities.

"It is past time to silence the guns and allow unhindered humanitarian access. I implore both sides to uphold this agreement — the eyes of the world are watching," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to a collapse of order. Stocks of food, cash and essentials are rapidly dwindling, and mass looting has hit banks, embassies, aid warehouses and even churches.

Aid groups have said they are unable to provide sufficient assistance in Khartoum, the capital, in the absence of safe passage and security guarantees for staff.

AIR STRIKES

Air strikes were reported on Saturday by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan's "triple capital". Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.

"We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking," Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.

"It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What's happening is a nightmare," she said.

The RSF is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.

Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.

The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighbouring countries. Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.

In recent days ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei.

Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country's largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locally brokered truce.

A local activist told Reuters there were sporadic gun clashes near the city's main market close to army headquarters on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.

The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.

 

Reuters