Foreign News
Nine West African Countries Disregard ECOWAS Court Rulings – Judge
The ECOWAS Court of Justice said only six West African countries are ready to respect its rulings 20 years after its establishment.
President of the Court, Justice Amoako Asante, said since establishment of the court in 1991, only six countries of the 15 member states, had met the pre-requisite for obeying the court rulings.
Giving an address at the opening of an international conference to celebrate the court at 20 and also seek law reviews and advance its knowledge, Asante said that all countries ought to have set up a national authority to implement its rulings.
The conference has as its theme: “20 Years of ECOWAS Court of Justice: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects”.
Speaking further, he listed Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana, as the six countries that had set up a competent authority to implement the court rulings as stipulated in the protocol.
“The poor rate of compliance with judgments of the Court, which currently stands at about 30 per cent, is also of grave concern to the Court.
“We regret that only six member states have appointed the competent national authorities for the enforcement of judgments of the Court in their respective domains.
“These are the Republic of Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana. We will continue to appeal for the remaining members to do the needful,” he said.
West African countries yet to set up such authority include: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte D’ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Asante said that the 1991 Protocol establishing the court stipulated interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty, Protocols, Conventions, Supplementary Acts, Regulations, Directives and Decisions, as part of the mandate of the court.
He said that the Court also had the jurisdiction to review the legality of the instruments listed, while also serving as an administrative tribunal for ECOWAS public servants.
According to him, the court also acts as an Arbitration tribunal, adding that it was aware of its key role in the integration process of the community and as the guardian of the community law and protector of human rights.
“It is significant to note that the human rights mandate of the Court has become the dominant aspect of its judicial functions. We are proud to note that due to its bold decisions on human rights complaints, the international community has recognized the evolving ECOWAS human rights regime.
“The unique feature of this human rights regime is that there is no requirement for the exhaustion of local remedies. Community citizens therefore, have the option of lodging complaints for human rights violations before their national courts or the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
“We therefore wish to acknowledge with pride, the interest that has been shown in the jurisprudence of the ECOWAS Court of Justice by scholars and researchers from all over the world.
“With all humility, the ECOWAS Court of Justice is a source of pride for our community,” he said.
Reeling out the achievements of the Court, Asante said that in spite of challenges confronting it, the court had lodged a total of 561 initiating applications, delivered 130 Rulings and 301 Judgments.
He said that the court had also registered 38 applications for revision of judgments and had delivered 24 revision decisions.
“It has also given five advisory opinions. The Court has held a total of 1226 Court sessions,” he said.
He thanked all past and serving judges of the ECOWAS Court of Justice that had contributed to this impressive judicial record.
He, however, added that there were currently 166 cases pending before the Court.
Foreign News
Horrors Must Never be Repeated, Says UN Chief
UN Secretary General António Guterres on Monday called for a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant organisation Hamas on Israel.
“Let this anniversary mark not only another year of mourning, but also a renewed determination to build a different future,” Guterres said in New York.
He said Israelis and Palestinians should be able to “live side by side in peace and security, with their rights, dignity, and aspirations fulfilled. “These horrors must never be repeated, “He added.On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other armed groups killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and abducted 251 people to Gaza.The attacks triggered the Gaza war, in which more than 74,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza.
A ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, although deadly attacks have continued.
Relations between the Israeli government and the United Nations remain deeply strained, with Israel accusing Guterres of bias and the UN chief repeatedly criticising Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Guterres also paid tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Nothing can justify these atrocities,” he said.
“Their suffering, and the enduring grief of their families, must never be forgotten.”
The UN chief also highlighted the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza following the war.
“Their suffering, too, demands an end, now,” he said.
Guterres said the ceasefire had brought some relief but had yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace.
He urged all sides to fully implement their commitments and move to the next phase of the ceasefire.
“It is time for the ceasefire to become permanent. It is time to allow humanitarian assistance at scale.
“And it is time to respect international law,” he said.
“We must build the political path to lasting peace across the whole region.”
Foreign News
Kenya Confirms its First Ebola Death as Outbreak Spreads
Kenya has confirmed its first case of Ebola, a Kenyan citizen who has been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past seven years.
Health Minister Aden Duale said the patient, who fell ill a month ago, and was treated in several hospitals in DR Congo, died days after arriving in Nairobi.
Duale said the patient boarded a flight on Saturday and underwent normal public screening at the main airport in Nairobi before he was transferred by a relative to a hospital in the city.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in DR Congo this year, in what is the second most deadly known outbreak of the disease.
Shortly after DR Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola in May, it was also reported in Uganda, where two people have died. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the county free of the disease in August.
Since then, all cases of the disease have been declared in DR Congo.
The current outbreak has been caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare, with no known vaccine.
Duale confirmed that the Kenyan national had tested positive for the Bundibugyo species.
According to the minister, the patient first travelled by road from DR Congo to the Ugandan capital Kampala, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi
Duale said that after being taken to the Nairobi Hospital, the patient was transferred to an isolation facility which was built during the Covid-19.
It was there that the patient “developed fever, chills, intense fatigue and weakness, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding under the skin”.
The patient died at 23:30 (20:30 GMT) on Monday and his burial is planned for later on Tuesday in line with public health safety protocols.
At least 28 contacts, including family members and healthcare workers, have been identified, while health authorities are tracing a further 23 passengers and four crew members who travelled on the same flight.
So far, WHO has recorded 4,082 deaths out of 8,463 cases since the emergence of the Bundibugyo species of the virus.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the species, which is highly infectious.
Foreign News
Trump Escalates Media Fight after Week of Setbacks
President Donald Trump has infused his ongoing feud with the White House press with a new level of acrimony.
Journalists from three major media outlets – CNN, Politico and MS Now – were denied access and had their press credentials confiscated on Saturday morning as they attempted to enter the White House grounds for work.
As media watchdog organisations and the White House Correspondents Association cry foul, Trump appears set to press ahead with a sweeping effort to punish these outlets.
In his Truth Social post announcing his decision on Friday, he said he was “banning” the organisations because “of their constant ‘reporting’ of fake news”.
In remarks later that day, he complained that “something is wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories”.“If they want to write them, that’s fine,” he continued. “I don’t have to let them into the people’s house”, he said, referring to the White House.
The president’s frustration at the media, however, came after a week of setbacks in which major institutions handed him a series of losses across his agenda.
First, the Supreme Court blocked his plan to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. This prompted Trump to lash out at the court’s justices including those he had appointed. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” he said.
The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, then raised interest rates after Trump had spent months arguing they should be cut. This was followed by a judge ordering his administration to give 30 days’ notice before making any changes to the Kennedy Center arts venue in Washington DC after the president warned it could be “ripped down”.
These headlines, combined with approval ratings that recently sunk to record lows for his second term, suggest Trump is facing challenging political headwinds.
His latest attack on the press, however, raises clear legal questions.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution forbids Congress from “abridging” the freedom of the press. It is language that courts have long interpreted as preventing the government from discriminating against the media based on the content of their coverage.
All three targeted news outlets have promised to file lawsuits challenging Trump’s decision.
Although the breadth of this move is unprecedented, it is far from the first time the Trump administration has attempted to limit or deny access to the White House to members of mainstream media outlets.
In his first term, the administration revoked CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press credentials, setting off a legal battle that was ultimately resolved in the journalist’s favour. It also temporarily suspended the pass of a reporter who had a heated argument with White House adviser Sebastian Gorka – a move that also was subsequently blocked by the courts.
Last year, the White House banned reporters for the Associated Press from participating in the president’s press pool – which allows media outlets access to smaller in-town and travelling presidential appearances – because the newswire service would not follow Trump’s move to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
That dispute also led to a protracted – and yet to be fully resolved – legal battle, prompting the White House to change press pool rules to drop the guaranteed spot for all wire services.
The White House bans, however, represent a dramatic escalation.
The restrictions include access to the entirety of the White House grounds, not just the press pool. And they target entire news organisations, not just a single disfavoured correspondent.
While Trump has been clear about the motives behind his decision, he has shed little light on why he has acted now. He has regularly criticised his press coverage since he first entered national politics more than a decade ago, but he said on Friday there was no specific incident that prompted his announcement.
At the moment, however, the president is embattled.
Even beyond the week of clear setbacks, he is in the midst of an unpopular and difficult-to-resolve war of choice in Iran, which has led to a surge in energy and other consumer prices, deflating his standing with the American public.
Polls also suggest his party faces an uphill battle to retain control of the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate in November’s crucial midterm congressional elections.
His attempts to improve the public’s mood by touting his accomplishments in campaign events and at his Republican Party’s convention earlier this month in Texas have, at least so far, proven ineffective.
There may be more behind Trump’s decision to lash out at the media this weekend. But it could also simply be an indication of presidential frustration in the face of events and circumstances, some of his own making, that are turning against him.


