Abba Aliyu, the country’s chief executive officer, claimed some universities are now using solar mini-grids.
On Monday, Aliyu stated this on the Morning Brief program on Channels TV, adding that his organization had made unrealistic goals for Nigerian universities.
“We have already delivered 91 megawatts, starting with the 60 that I promised to deliver.” Eight universities are also involved in the second project.
We have completed all eight, but we are only conducting technical testing on four, I said at least two. These are in Imo State, Owerri, Katsina, Lokoja (Kogi), and Yola, Katsina. He added that we have completed six interconnected systems, including those in the states of Osun, Plateau, Cross River, and Niger.
According to Aliyu, a brand-new university group affiliated with the National Public Sector Solarization Initiative has authorized work with REA. Additionally, he claimed that agreements had been signed with the intention of putting these institutions under the authority of the Education Ministry.
We have signed collaborative agreements with the universities under the Minister of Education that focus on UNILAG, UNIBEN, UI, Obafemi Awolowo, the University of Nigeria, and other universities as regards the new set of universities under the National Public Sector Solarization Initiative (NPSSI). The Federal Executive Council has granted his assertions, “Approval has been granted.”
Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14, and Tia, 12, who he shares with his late wife Rebecca, Rebecca, are now his stepchildren. Kate Ferdinand is their stepmother.
Kate Ferdinand has opened up about her blended family(Image: xkateferdinand/instagram)
Kate Ferdinand has revealed Rio’s kids’ heartwarming reaction when she accidentally referred to herself as their mum. The former TOWIE star, 33, is a stepmum to Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14, and Tia, 12, who Rio shares with his late wife, Rebecca.
Kate, who also shares son Cree, five, and daughter Shae, two, with husband, Rio, told the Happy Place podcast that, happily, her stepkids have no problem if she calls herself their mum, instead of ‘Mummy Kate’.
Opening up about her blended family dynamic after announcing that she and Rio had moved their brood to Dubai, she said: “Sometimes I’m ‘Mummy Kate’. But the other day I found myself going ‘come here to Mummy’, and Tia’s there and I go ‘oh sorry’. Tia said ‘Kate, it’s fine, I’m OK if you say Mummy. You don’t have to say Mummy Kate. It doesn’t bother me’.”
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Kate Ferdinand is a stepmum to former footballer Rio Ferdinand’s three kids, Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14, and Tia, 12,(Image: Instagram)
Kate recently revealed that despite their current strong bond, she had recently moved in with Rio and her three stepchildren and spent the night crying after not receiving a card on her first Mother’s Day.
She stated on the couple’s podcast, “I wasn’t a biological mother.” We had our first Mother’s Day, in my opinion, and it was probably around six months ago. And even though I wasn’t a biological mother, I kind of assumed the role of mother.
I felt like a mother when I went from living alone to taking the kids to school and cooking them dinner.
I really thought I might get a card from you, and I didn’t get one from you, Rio said in a statement. He also lost his own mother Janice in 2017.
Because you guys lost your mother and the kids have lost theirs, I felt bad about telling them that in front of you.
I went into my room and sobbed my heart out, seriously.
How dare I want a card, I thought, “And then I felt selfish for wanting one?”
“So anyone that’s kind of new in this situation might feel like that because it’s a weird one – ‘I wasn’t a biological parent so how could I expect that?’ But I felt like a mum.”
The Ferdinands have now moved to Dubai(Image: xkateferdinand/instagram)
Kate, who met Rio in Dubai in the year after meeting the sports pundit, opens up about her family life and recently teased fans by revealing that they had all relocated to the United Arab Emirates.
The mother-of-two shared a sneak peek of their new family home with her followers on Instagram, saying it was a “new chapter” for the family.
Continue reading the article.
A new chapter, a fresh start, because we won’t know without trying, Kate wrote in the caption. Ahhh ! We’ve been discussing this for a while, but it finally seems like it’s happening. We’re here, we’re making a new home there, and we’ve been talking about it for a while.
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Watch Daniil Mededev smash up his racquet in a match that was postponed because a photographer entered the court.
Russia’s Medvedev threw up after umpire Greg Allensworth ordered a second first serve after the incident at halftime, causing a six-and-a-quarter-second delay for the match.
Medvedev fought back to extend the fifth set, but Bonzi came out on top 6-3 7-5 6-7 (5-7), 0-6 6-4.
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At the end of the 2025 season, Jonathan Rea, the six-time World Superbike champion, will stop competing fully for motorcycles.
After the final round of the championship in Spain in October, the Yamaha rider will retire from his decorated career.
Rea, a 38-year-old Northern Irishman, won six consecutive World Superbike titles between 2015 and 2020 to clinch his spot as the series’ most successful rider ever.
Rea won 119 race victories and 105 of his 459 championship races, earning 264 podium finishes.
Rea stated, “I’ve been considering this day for a while, and finally I’ve made the decision to stop doing full-time racing and retire.”
“I have a passion for this sport. From a young age in Northern Ireland with hopes of competing in the sport of motorsports to achieving success in the World Superbike Championship.
I’ve only ever had one goal in my career, and that was to win, which made me who I am throughout my career. I never competed to be the best, but I did so to pass the test.
Rea won his first two race victories with Honda the year before taking the stage again in 2008.
In 2011, he made the switch to Kawasaki, breaking every championship record.
He received the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2017 as a commendation for his accomplishments in the sport.
He came in second place behind Sir Mo Farah in the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year competition.
Rea praised the accomplishments I’ve made throughout my distinguished career, including six world championships, more than 100 race victories, and numerous other accomplishments along the way.
“These are some records that I didn’t think could be possible,” he said. However, the people and memories that I’ll always carry with me are more important than the records, medals, or race victories.
Rea surprisingly signed for Yamaha last year following a record-breaking nine-year partnership with Kawasaki, which led to over a century of race victories.
However, the Ballyclare rider’s unsuccessful attempt to win a seventh world title ended in disappointment as he only finished third overall.
Rea battled a challenging 2024 on the bike, and this year he suffered a serious crash during pre-season testing, which has hindered his progress.
Andrea Dosoli, Yamaha division manager, described Jonathan as an “extremely talented rider who has accomplished remarkable things in his 17 years racing at the highest level of production racing.
One of NI’s greatest sporting ambassadors, in your opinion?
Images courtesy of Getty
Jonathan Rea was only eight years old when we first met. He warned me, “Watch out for the Rea name.” I’m going to be a world champion because racing is in my family’s blood.
Although it may have been the youth’s dream, Jonathan’s dream came true 20 years later, and the memory of that day endures.
Rea was able to surpass his hero with the help of Northern Ireland’s five-time world champion Joey Dunlop.
He is the country’s most successful motorcycle rider after winning six straight world championships, and Kawasaki’s partnership is unquestionably one of the best in motorsport history.
Rea has always been a fierce and determined competitor, and she was also crowned Irish Motorcyclist of the Year nine times in a row. He is one of the most sage, modest, and articulate sportsmen I have ever met.
I feel very fortunate to have had a front row seat to his remarkable journey because of his career, which has given BBC Sport NI unprecedented access to his life.
He will undoubtedly gain a lot of interest as a test rider in the future, and we might even see him compete in endurance races.
Many people in Ethiopia’s fragile, troubled northern Tigray region are being impacted by an oddly familiar set of headlines.
Successive delegations of civil society and religious leaders have, in recent weeks, travelled to the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, for “dialogue”. Some may find it to be a remembrance of the events that took place in the days leading up to Tigray’s invasion in November 2020.
About 5 million people were internally and 600,000 were killed in the war. It brought global attention to Ethiopia’s fractured politics and tarnished the reputation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had won a Nobel Peace Prize for mending long-severed ties with neighbouring Eritrea.
The war was supposed to end with a ceasefire two years later, but according to analysts, another conflict may be brewing. Eritrea and, possibly, that nation’s own allies could be involved in this situation, as well as the Tigrayan regional authorities. It is not a conflict that the region can withstand, experts fear.
Abel Abate Demissie, an analyst for the Chatham House think tank in the United Kingdom, told Al Jazeera, “We are now at a point where we are all frightened at another conflict in Tigray and with Eritrea. It would be “absolutely devastating.”
Fractured agreements signed back in November 2022 that ended the war between the regional Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government are at the root of the tensions. Analysts claim that this is the most terrifying development of the year because of the growing resentment between neighboring Ethiopia and Eritrea.
As neighboring Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia deal with the ongoing armed conflict, war there could undermine regional stability. Ethiopia is a key player in East Africa. It could also affect Africa’s self-reliance in the aviation sector, as Addis Ababa is one of Africa’s most important air travel hubs.
On February 12, 2025, internally displaced people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Sebacare, pass through the camp.
Disregarded as a peace agreement
War broke out in Tigray in November 2020 after Ethiopia’s Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a command centre of the national army, the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).
In what experts claim was an autocratic system, the TPLF ruled Addis Ababa’s ruling coalition for decades. In Ethiopia, where regions are divided along ethnic lines, the group was despised in nearly all ten of its regions. Eritrea, which fought a border war with TPLF-dominated Ethiopia in 1998, also had gripes with the party. Abiy, an Oromo, won the election in 2018 and began working on reforms to create a more powerful central government. However, the TPLF sought to overthrow Abiy’s administration by posing a threat to its authority.
Addis Ababa, in its military response to the TPLF attack, teamed up with other TPLF-opposed entities, including the Amhara army and allied militias, as well as Eritrean forces. Rights groups claimed that the federal government purposefully obstructing aid to Tigrayans and causing a near-famine were all sides were accused of attacking civilians. Many Tigrayans claim that the conflict was a genocide, while the United States described Amhara militia attacks as “ethnic cleansing.” Many were forcibly displaced from western Tigray, which the Amhara region claims. There were countless women raped.
The Pretoria peace agreement was signed by Addis Ababa and the TPLF in November 2022. The ceasefire deal mandated that the TPLF disarm and a new government be jointly appointed by both sides. Additionally, it mandated that all third-party armies withdraw and that Addis Abeba supervise the safe return of displaced people.
However, Getachew Reda, the Abiy-appointed Tigray mayor, and Debretsion Gebremichael, the TPLF’s head, and a power conflict broke out in the organization. It began when Getachew attempted to implement the disarmament clause. However, he was allegedly a sellout by the core TPLF members. The TPLF faction, in conjunction with Debretsion, staged a coup in March, seizing control of Mekelle radio station, and forcing Getachew to flee Mekelle to Addis Ababa. The coup was a direct affront to Abiy, analysts say. Addis Ababa and TPLF have exchanged insults and threatened attacks, despite the fact that he has since removed an additional interim president from Debretsion’s camp.
According to Chatham House’s Abel, “Both sides have downplayed their responsibility,” referring to how both parties appear to have resisted the Pretoria agreement. The TPLF accuses Addis Ababa of failing to resettle people, with some 1.6 million still displaced, and is threatening to forcibly return them. The national electoral body claims that the government has revoked its status as a political party because the TPLF has previously convened a general assembly.
On the other hand, Addis Ababa accuses the TPLF of uniting with Eritrea and faults it for not disarming.
In a speech in parliament in July, Abiy urged religious leaders and civil society members to warn TPLF leaders against escalation, because when conflict starts, “it would be too late”.
The Tigray Democratic Solidarity Party is the name of Getachew’s new political organization after being fired from the TPLF. According to analysts, Tigray could be the place the party would be.
Meanwhile, Amhara militias and the TPLF continue to clash. Many of the young members of the TPLF who enlisted in the TPLF in the 2020 conflict attempted an attack on the TPLF in July, starting new militias allied with Getachew’s group.
On March 18, 2021, soldiers dressed as Eritreans parade past the town of Adigrat, Ethiopia [Baz Ratner/Reuters]
The problem with Eritrea
Since 2020, Ethiopia and Eritrea have been at odds with one another because of their ongoing entanglement.
After Abiy’s government and the TPLF reached agreement, cracks started to appear in their pasture. President Isaias Afwerki, who has been Eritrea’s de facto leader since 1994, was reportedly angered as he did not feel sufficiently consulted, even as Eritrean troops are still in Tigray.
However, Abiy’s assertions that landlocked Ethiopia has an “existential” need to access a seaport since 2023 are a bigger problem. As a result of Eritrea’s campaign to secede in 1993, Asmara believes that Addis Ababa may invade and seize the coastal areas it had previously lost. In one comment, Abiy described Ethiopia losing sea access as a “historical mistake”.
According to analysts, Eritrea has been expanding its defenses by sending military tanks to the border, while Ethiopia has also done so. Eritrea solicited conscription into the military in February. Asmara is also reportedly in cahoots with the TPLF to undermine Abiy, although officials deny this.
According to analyst Abel, neither party is really going to war and is just posturing. Ethiopia is not interested in tarnishing its reputation as a developing regional leader in Addis Ababa, where the African Union has its main office.
“The problem, though, is it only takes one small act to ignite a war, even if both sides don’t want it”, the analyst said.
Abiy made an attempt to minimize the tensions during a legislative address in March.
He continued, implying that any port deals would be commercial because “our intention is to negotiate based on the principle of give and take.” “Our plan is not to fight but to work together and grow together”.
Abiy’s search for a port has irritated Asmara as well. After Abiy sealed a port deal with Somaliland’s self-declared state last year, neighboring Somalia almost declared war. Somalia, which views Somaliland as part of its territory, was furious, but Turkiye, Somalia’s close ally, mediated repairs between the two in December. Eritrea met with Somalia and Egypt before the two countries agreed to a truce. Egypt is also angry with Addis Ababa over the Grand Renaissance Dam, which it claims will encroach upon the country’s water supply from the Nile.
Isaias Afwerki, president of Eritrea, and Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, attend the ceremony observing the reopening of the Eritrean Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Can all sides find peace?
Analysts claim that the key to finding common ground lies primarily with Abiy because Asmara, for one, lacks diplomacy and appears more confident in the support of rumored Eritrean backing.
The big question is whether Abiy will and will be able to rekindle diplomatic ties with Eritrea or the TPLF without feeling isolated on either side. In the background, as well, are the Amhara militias who are still present in disputed western Tigray. Any efforts to get rid of them could cause conflict.
In any case, according to analyst Micheal Tsegay Assefa’s conclusion in a brief for the Atlas Institute for International Affairs, Abiy is already experiencing a legitimacy crisis.
“Regional leaders, particularly from Amhara and Oromia, increasingly question the central government’s capacity to secure peace and manage inter-regional conflicts”, he wrote, due to Addis Ababa’s inability to enforce the peace deal.
Tigrayans are once more frightened of losing their lives as the sabre-rattling continues. Numerous people are fleeing the area as a result of the recent upheaval, some taking deadly paths to avoid the entire country.
Researchers say Ethiopian migrants attempting, and dying, to enter Yemen via the Gulf of Aden increasingly appear to be from Tigray, based on the clothing or jewellery found by rescuers during shipwrecks.
Another war must not occur, according to analysts.
A law in Cambodia has been passed that gives the government the authority to revoke citizenship for people who “collude” with foreigners.
Anyone found guilty of conspiring with foreign countries, plotting against Cambodian interests, or engaging in “destruction of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security” is granted a new legal authority under the law that was passed on Monday.
The 125-member National Assembly, which is dominated by the long-running Cambodian People’s Party, approved the legislation by all but five members.
A committee established at the request of Interior Minister Sar Sokha decides citizenship revocation under the law.
Although the upper house, the king, and the government of Cambodia still have to approve the legislation, these procedures are still regarded as formalities.
The action is in response to the government’s continued crackdown on its foes, which included former strongman leader Hun Sen and his son, current prime minister Hun Manet.
Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for more than three decades before his son took control in 2023, stated in June that it needed to impose laws against those who “side with foreign nations.”
In the midst of the crackdown, a number of well-known political figures have fled Cambodia, including Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, cofounders of the under-regime Cambodia National Rescue Party.
A coalition of 50 human rights organizations warned on Sunday that the law would “destroy disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens.”
The group claimed that the abuse potential in the passage of this vaguely worded law, which targeted people based on their political views, speech, and activism, is “too high” a possibility.
