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(Bloomberg) -- Global power grids are about to face their biggest test in decades with electricity generation strangled in the world’s largest economies. 

War. Drought. Production shortages. Historically low inventories. And pandemic backlash. Energy markets across the planet have been put through the wringer over the past year, and consumers have suffered the consequences of soaring prices. But, somehow, things are on track to get even worse.

Blame the heat. Summer in much of the Northern Hemisphere is a typical peak for electricity use. This year, it’s going to be sweltering as climate change tightens its grip. It’s already so hot in parts of South Asia that the air temperatures are blistering enough to cook raw salmon. Scientists are predicting scorching months ahead for the US. Power use will surge as homes and businesses crank up air conditioners.

The problem is that energy supplies are so fragile that there just won’t be enough to go around, and power cuts will put lives at risk when there are no fans or air conditioners to provide relief from searing temperatures.

Asia’s heatwave has caused hours-long daily blackouts, putting more than 1 billion people at risk across Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India, with little relief in sight. Six Texas power plants failed earlier this month as the summer heat just began to arrive, offering a preview of what’s to come. At least a dozen US states from California to the Great Lakes are at risk of electricity outages this summer. Power supplies will be tight in China and Japan. South Africa is poised for a record year of power cuts. And Europe is in a precarious position that's held up by Russia — if Moscow cuts off natural gas to the region, that could trigger rolling outages in some countries.

“War and sanctions are disrupting supply and demand, and that’s coupled with extreme weather and an economic rebound from Covid boosting power demand,” said Shantanu Jaiswal, a BloombergNEF analyst. “The confluence of so many factors is quite unique. I can’t recall the last time they all happened together.”

Why Blackouts Bring Suffering and Economic Pain

Without power, human welfare will be under duress. Poverty, age and proximity to the equator will increase the likelihood of illness and death from unrelenting temperatures. Prolonged outages would mean that tens of thousands may also lose access to clean water.

If blackouts persist, and businesses shutter, that will also bring huge economic shock.

In India, power shortages in many states are already nearing levels from 2014, when they were estimated to have shaved about 5% off the country’s gross domestic product. That would mean a reduction of almost $100 billion should the outages become more widespread and last through the year. A run on electricity would also likely contribute to more gains for power and fuel markets, raising utility bills and further fanning inflation. When plants on the Texas power grid failed this month, wholesale power prices in Houston briefly jumped above the $5,000 a megawatt-hour price cap, surging 22 times higher than the average cost of on-peak power that had been secured for the day.

The world is grappling with “more than two years of global supply chain distress caused by the pandemic, the spreading fallout from the war in Ukraine and extreme weather caused by climate change,” said Henning Gloystein, an analyst at Eurasia Group. “The main risk is that if we see major blackouts on top of all the aforementioned problems this year, that could trigger some form of humanitarian crisis in terms of food and energy shortages on a scale not seen in decades.”

How the Energy Transition Brings Strain

This year might enter the record books for the biggest-ever strain on global power, but the hurdles aren’t likely to go away anytime soon. Climate change means that the extreme heatwaves of today will become more common, continuing to mount pressure on electricity supplies.

At the same time, a lack of investment in fossil fuels in recent years coupled with strong demand growth, especially in Asian emerging markets, should keep markets tight for the next few years, said Alex Whitworth, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Shanghai. And while wind and solar’s share of total capacity is expected to soar over the next decade, until energy storage facilities catch up to the shift, that will place even more stress on grids, he said.

“You’ll be facing a supply scare every time there’s clouds or storms or a wind drought for a week,” Whitworth said. “We really expect these problems to get worse in the next five years.”

Of course, the switch to renewable power is crucial in the fight against climate change. Burning even more coal now to cope with the energy shortage would just increase emissions, creating a vicious cycle that can lead to more heatwaves and more strain on grids. 

Here’s a look at what’s happening across the globe. 

US

Supplies of natural gas, the No. 1 power-plant fuel in the US, are constrained nationwide and prices are soaring. Power in much of the country and part of Canada will be stretched, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. It’s among the most dire assessments yet from the regulatory body. Consumers will be asked to step up to help keep the grids stable by curtailing their consumption.  

In California, the most populous state, gas supplies are clipped even further because of a pipeline rupture last year that has limited imports. Plus, climate change is fueling drought, severely curbing hydropower supplies. The California Independent System Operator said this month that the state may be at risk of blackouts for the next few summers amid extreme weather.

On the 15-state grid operated by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), consumers in 11 states are at risk of outages. MISO, which serves about 42 million people, projected it has “insufficient” power generation to meet the highest demand periods this summer, especially in its Midwest states. The grid has never before given a warning of this kind ahead of the start of summer demand.

In Texas, the grid “is still at risk” of shortages despite the state’s scramble to improve resilience after a February 2021 winter storm that left millions in the dark for days, said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at brokerage Tradition Energy.

Aging infrastructure and maintenance delays during the pandemic have added to the problems of more severe weather, said Teri Viswanath, lead economist for power, energy and water at CoBank ACB.

“The US is experiencing more outages globally than any other industrialized nation,” she said. “About 70% of our grid is nearing end of life.”

Read more: The outlook for US summer blackouts

Asia

The epicenter of the outages so far has been South and Southeast Asia, where brutal heat waves have put air conditioners on full blast. Blackouts have been basically nationwide in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, home to a combined 300 million people. And in India, 16 of the nation’s 28 states — home to more than 700 million people — have been grappling with outages of two to 10 hours a day, a state official said this month.

India’s government has recently directed firms to increase purchases of expensive foreign coal, while also rolling back environmental protocols for mine expansions to try to increase fuel supply. But it remains to be seen whether these moves will ease the strain. The looming monsoon season should bring cooler temperatures and trim energy demand, though it can also flood mining regions and hamper fuel supply.

In Vietnam, the state-owned utility has been bracing for power shortages for more than a month as demand rises while domestic coal supply has sagged and foreign fuel costs have surged.

In China, where coal shortages led to widespread power curtailments last year, officials have promised to keep the lights on in 2022 and have pressed coal miners to boost output to a record. Even so, industry officials have warned that the power situation will be tight this summer in the country’s heavily industrialized south, which is far from inland mining hubs and therefore more reliant on expensive foreign coal and gas.

Japan had a power scare in March, when a cold wave triggered a demand surge just days after an earthquake had knocked several coal and gas plants offline. Power supply is expected to be tight during the upcoming summer months, and demand will likely exceed supply again next winter as well, according to grid forecasts. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has started a campaign for energy conservation, asking residents to take measures like watching less television.

Europe

The risk of blackouts is lower in Europe, because fewer people use air conditioning at home. The continent is also racing to fill its gas storage. 

But there’s little room for error. A dry spring in Norway has limited hydropower supplies. Adding pressure to prices and supplies are extended outages at Electricite de France SA's nuclear reactors. The region’s biggest producer cut its nuclear output target for a third time this year, the latest sign that Europe’s power crisis is worsening.

If Russia were to cut off natural gas supplies to the region, that could be enough to trigger rolling blackouts in some countries, said Fabian Ronningen, a power markets analyst for Rystad Energy.

While he said the chances that Russia would make that bold move are “unlikely,” his views have become more pessimistic as the war in Ukraine continues; two months ago, he said, he’d have put the chances at “highly unlikely.”

Some countries have been receiving huge imports of liquefied natural gas and would probably have adequate supplies to absorb the blow, including Spain, France and the UK. The story might be different in Eastern Europe, where nations including Greece, Latvia and Hungary use gas for a significant portion of their power and are heavily dependent on Russian supplies. That’s where the potential would be highest for blackouts, Ronningen said.

“I don’t think European consumers can even imagine a scenario like that,” he said. “It’s never happened in our lifetime.”

DAWSON CITY, Yukon — Yukon’s tourism industry is abuzz with anticipation as Canada's northernmost border opens next week for the first time since before the pandemic began, says the executive director of the Klondike Visitors Association in Dawson City.

Ricky Mawunganidze said the ferry that is used to access the border from the Canadian side began operating Thursday and the highway has been cleared of snow, which means people will be able to access the border when it reopens on June 1.

The Little Gold—Poker Creek border crossing is only opened during the summer months, and because of COVID-19, it hasn't been in operation since Sept. 22, 2019.

Mawunganidze said local businesses are eager for the season to begin.

"Our operators are experiencing high occupancy already. We're getting a lot of calls from people looking to come in June, which is the time when we start to get busy," he said in an interview. "Right now, folks are just getting themselves organized, and there's definitely a positive buzzabout the potential for more tourists coming in."

Located on the Top of the World Highway, the border crossing separates Yukon from Alaska. It's the main tourist route for those visiting Dawson City, the small mining and tourism town along the Yukon River, about 533 kilometres north of Whitehorse.

Accessing the border from Dawson City means taking a short ferry trip across the river, then a drive of about 100 kilometres.

Mawunganidze said the border is also a conduit for "family connection," particularly for the local First Nation community.

"This year is going to be a Moosehide Gathering year, which is the traditional gathering forTr'ondek Hwech'in, which hasn't been able to happen for the past few years," he said. "A lot of their Alaskan family will be coming over for that in July, so the border opening is critical to that continuation of culture and history."

Americans typically make up most of the territory's tourists. Results from Yukon's 2017-18 exit survey show there were 491,300 visitors to Yukon between November 2017 and October 2018. Sixty-two per cent were American.

Dawson City's website advertises that the town accepts American money.

The Canada Border Services Agency delayed the border's opening by about two weeks and it will close on Sept. 1, about two weeks earlier than before the pandemic. It says in a statement that it will also operate under reduced hours, closing at 7 p.m.

Mawunganidze said a delayed opening isn't unusual as it relies on the river breakup and snowmelt, but the town is lobbying the government to allow the border to remain open until mid-September.

“This year needs to be about uninterrupted operation so that we build back confidence in working in this industry. There's more desire this year to extend our season as far as we can."

Yukon Tourism Minister Ranj Pillai said in an interview that he is "really pleased" that all border crossings in the territory will be open this summer, noting about 13,000 people crossed the Little Gold border in 2019.

"All our government and private sector folks are working very closely to optimize the opportunity that everybody so dearly needs after the two years that the tourism sector went through, and I think we're in good shape going into the summer," he said.

Pillai said another new tourism revenue stream comes in the form of direct flights that are now being offered between Whitehorse and Toronto. The first flight took off May 10.

"It's pretty big, having a direct opportunity to go from the Yukon into the busiest airport in Canada," he said. "That's going to be just another opportunity for us and we're really focusing on making sure that we people in this market know how amazing Yukon is.”

Mawunganidze said tourism in Dawson actually boomed last year due to Canadian visitors, creating a new challenge: staffing shortages.

He said the industry depends on young workers moving to Dawson for the summer to fill seasonal jobs, but this hasn't happened since 2019. With about 200 positions still available and unfilled, he said operators are concerned they won't have enough workers again this year.

"We desperately need seasonal labour. We have a plethora of amazing jobs and great experiences, and we want people to come join us for the summer."

— By Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2022.

———

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press

Global air transport information technology and communications systems provider – SITA has declared that critical aviation personnel and capacity shortfalls in Africa which  impede the continents’ economic recovery could  be rapidly and affordably addressed with the adoption of trusted, secure cloud-based solutions.

SITA’s President for Africa and the Middle East, Hani El Assaad, who made this known, said the recovery of Africa’s air transport market, which lags behind  many bigger markets by a year, needs  to take pre-emptive steps to advance the growth of their airports if they future-proof their operations so as not to become transport choke- points as they ramp up.

Speaking in an interview, he said there was a golden opportunity for cash-strapped airports, including smaller provincial and regional facilities, to alter the stakes. 

This, he said,  could be achieved  by digitalising their various passenger processing systems.

Such processes, the SITA boss said, include health status verification, check-in, and boarding.

His suggestions align with data from the airline trade body-   International Air Transport Association (IATA) , confirming that commercial airline traffic to, from and within Africa, is still below half of 2019 levels, sufficient evidence that recovery is  under way.

According to  IATA, African airlines reported a 91.8 per cent  increase in demand for air travel this March compared with the same month last year and an improvement on the 70.8 percent  growth seen in February. 

“With so many skilled and experienced people having left the industry during the pandemic, the clock is ticking for airports to ensure they are ready and able to meet the ever-increasing volumes of travellers, their luggage and cargo shipments.The solution is for all airports – from mega-hubs to small municipal and regional facilities – to digitalise and automate time-costly processes like passenger processing and baggage handling. Agile cloud technology platforms that are efficient, flexible, and scalable to fluctuating passenger volumes can help alleviate the pressure. By empowering passengers to use their mobile phones as a remote control for travel, we can reduce bottlenecks and offer a more seamless passenger journey,” said Assaad.

Until recently, tech-infrastructure costs and support requirements deterred many smaller African airports from investing in digital systems. However, capable and scalable cloud-based technology has become significantly more affordable. It is now also well within reach of smaller, regional airports that need to meet the combined needs to be integrated into the global air transport system and to be able to instantly switch-on additional capacity.

In Africa, so much economic activity depends on airports having sufficient capacity to facilitate efficient, reliable, secure, and safe air transport services.  By transforming the passenger experience and meeting their customer airlines’ demands for better efficiencies, smaller airports will be promoting themselves and the communities, industries, and markets they serve as safe, convenient, competitive, agile, and user-friendly destinations.

Over the past decades, the air transport industry has encouraged governments, regulators, and airport and airline operators to embrace digital technology. The result has been the advent of things we now take for granted, such as customer self-service check-in and self-baggage drop solutions, smart-phone boarding passes and various mobile apps, and Digital Health declarations and Trusted Travel Passes for storing and verifying boarding passes and COVID vaccination status, and more. SITA’s print is all over such technologies, and the post-pandemic recovery is a golden opportunity to accelerate and expand digitalisation and take full advantage of the benefits and opportunities it unlocks.

The average monthly mortgage payment for a typical first-time-buyer home has increased by 13%, a jump of £100, since December last year following four interest rate rises, although this is only 11%, or £87, higher than 10 years ago.

By contrast, equivalent monthly rental payments are 40% higher than 10 years ago, as tenants feel the full effect of rising costs. Rents are currently rising at the fastest pace that Rightmove has ever recorded.

“This new analysis shows how it has become increasingly difficult for an average first-time buyer to afford a home on their own. The historic average mortgage payments for a first home provide some good context to the current backdrop of rising interest rates and help explain why so many people take out fixed-rate mortgages,” Bannister said.

“As interest rates are predicted to rise further during the course of 2022, many buyers will be looking to lock in mortgage deals now before further rate rises. With so many variables affecting house prices and affordability, it’s a reminder that the market is extremely difficult to predict, and those looking to buy will be prioritising their own needs and what they can afford rather than waiting to try and time the market.”

For a person looking to buy on their own, on the national average full-time salary, borrowing 4.5 times their income, 10 years ago they would have needed to find a 25% deposit (£35,053) to afford a typical first-time buyer home. Today they would need a 34% deposit (£74,402).

At a national level it means that a person buying on their own on an average salary, looking to buy an average first-time buyer home, now needs a deposit 112% higher than a decade ago.

While average monthly payments for a first-time buyer on their mortgage have remained relatively stable over time due to low interest rates, the data shows that it has become more difficult to raise the increasingly large deposit needed to cover the gap between the price of a first home and what one can borrow.

Two people buying together on the average salary should still be able to afford a first-time buyer home if they have saved a 10% deposit, although that deposit size has increased from £14,269 to £22,312, a jump of 56%.

UK inflation soared to a more than 40-year high in April thanks in part to rising food, energy and fuel prices and the war in Ukraine as the economy deteriorates and people have less to spend.

According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 9%, the highest since it started being calculated in 1997.

ONS estimates that CPI hasn’t been higher since 1982 when it peaked at nearly 11%.

BY  Sodiq Oyeleke

The Acting Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Isah Idris, has blamed the delay in the issuance of passports on the integration of data between NIS, and the National Identity Management Commission.

He gave the reason in a media briefing on Saturday, warning Nigerians against bribing immigration officials.

Idris said the single data integration policy of the government is aimed at enhancing the nation’s security architecture to protect the identity of Nigerians.

The immigration boss lamented the increasing number of Nigerians seeking override of the newly introduced appointment system for passport issuance, describing it as an abuse of the system.

“Like parcels sent through logistic companies or visa applications, we have introduced a tracking system so that people can stay in the comfort of their rooms and know the status of their passport applications.

“You don’t need to offer anyone any kobo. All that you need to do is to log into our website on www.trackimmigration.gov.ng, upload the required details and see an immediate response on the status of your passports,” he said.

He noted within the next four weeks NIS would deploy a new system for applicants to validate their national identity numbers before they can proceed to make payment for passports online and book appointments for capturing.

“Most delays are usually caused by the NIN validation problems and what we want to do now will allow individual applicants to, first of all, verify and validate their NIN and only upload validated NIN before they can pay for passports. By doing that, we would have successfully tackled the issue of delay from other partners which we don’t have control over,” he said.

Commercial flights resumed on Monday at the Kaduna International Airport two months after it was attacked by bandits.

The bandits had on March 26 launched an attempted invasion of the facility, killing a private security guard attached to the Nigerian Airspace management Agency near the outer perimeter fence.

They were however repelled by security forces attached to the airport.

Following the attack, commercial airlines plying the route suspended their flights, seeking improved security.

It appears efforts have been made to allay fears of airline operators as the first commercial flight since the incident landed at the airport at exactly 8am on Monday morning.

Passengers expressed delight over the resumption of services.

By Seun Opejob

With about one year to the end of the current administration, the much anticipated Air Nigeria has failed to commence operations despite the promises by President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.

Air Nigeria, which was established in 2004, was a joint venture between Virgin Group and Nigerian investors before ceasing operations in 2012.

The ‘Presidential Aviation Roadmap’ was launched in 2016, along with a new national carrier aimed at developing cargo airports, a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, a national leasing company and other initiatives.

In November 2021, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, assured that Nigeria Air would be launched in April 2022 after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) gave approval.

Sirika said Nigeria Air ownership would comprise 49% by equity partners, 46% by Nigerians and 5% by the Federal Government.

President Buhari made the operation of a national airline one of his Presidential campaign promises, setting an initial launch date of 2018 but was pushed to April 2022.

It is believed that Air Nigeria would have cushioned some of the crisis bedevilling the country’s aviation sector. The cost of air travel in Nigeria recently increased astronomically due to the hike in the price of aviation fuel, Jet A1.

The cost of Jet A1 shot up the cost of aviation operations to over 95 percent, thereby causing hardship to passengers.

Speaking on this development, Isaac Balami, the Managing Director and Accountable Manager of 7 Star Global Hangar, said the government would have been more informed about the plight of the aviation sector if Air Nigeria had commenced operations.

Balami stressed that the Nigerian aviation sector would have been better than what it is now if Air Nigeria had been in operation.

Speaking exclusively with DAILY POST, the former National President for Aircraft Pilots and Engineers in Nigeria said: “The aviation sector is not just going to the garage to pick up a new car in Coscharis or Elizade. Aviation is different; even if you have a brand new aircraft manufactured that takes years, you need special equipment and tools to operate them. You still have to train your pilot, engineers, technicians, air hostess, flight dispatchers, and baggage handlers. So, it has a lot of technicalities which I believe the government has been trying to work on

“Since Nigerian Airways went down, we have been struggling as a nation in terms of training aviation personnel. Aviation is beyond just the airline; when you have a national carrier, the government must not become a flag carrier, an example is American Airline, and Delta Airline; they are not US government-owned, but are privately owned.

“As a matter of fact, British Airways is not 100 percent owned by the government; it’s privately driven.

“So, whether you call it a flag or national carrier, if the government understands what is required of them, then laying the foundation and putting basic things on the ground, it will positively affect the airlines itself and the national leasing company.

“We hope that, as the Minister of Aviation said, it’s going to happen this year before the elections; we want it to work so that jobs will be created. We also want local airlines like Dana, Air peace, and Arik to be carried along, because I don’t think that the issue of having a national carrier is to kill the local domestic carriers that have been there for us all these years.

“You know, aviation is not just about buying cars and starting to drive them to work.”

Belamy also affirmed that Nigerian Air would have cushioned the crisis in the aviation sector if it had been in operation.

He said: “It will because the government has a stake, even if it’s just 5 percent in the proposed national carrier. If they are there on the board, they would know what is happening and clearly know that things are tight.”

“There is nothing wrong with the government having a small stake in feeling what the people are going through. We won’t be where we are if we have a robust flag carrier. There would be some incentives and support that are not happening the way they should, so we wish something better happens soon,” he added.

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — 

Kidnapping for lucrative ransoms has become a big business in some countries in Africa, and the criminal act affects Chinese nationals as well as other foreign workers, say analysts. They say that due to China’s massive presence on the continent, whether in oil or other industries, it is inevitable Chinese often end up being targets.

The problem has not gone unnoticed by Beijing, and earlier this month, Chinese officials and representatives from local Chinese companies in Nigeria held a video conference to discuss security issues.

The oil-rich country is Africa’s largest economy and China is a key partner, having invested billions of dollars over the years. Some 8,616 Chinese were working in Nigeria in 2020, according to the latest available data from the China-Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins University.

Nigeria is home to Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, as well as opportunistic criminal gangs known locally as “bandits,” both of whom often kidnap locals but also pose a huge threat to foreign workers.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has regularly vowed to crack down on insurgent groups and armed gangs in the country, while a new bill passed by the Senate last month makes paying ransoms a crime.

Why the Chinese?

Asked why Chinese might be favored targets for kidnappers, Cobus van Staden, senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said, “One of the contributing factors in all of this is the perception you see in African countries that Chinese people keep lots of cash on hand.”

A “sweet pastry” for kidnappers — that’s how Chen Hanqing, a Nigeria-based engineer, described himself and the many other Chinese nationals working on infrastructure projects in Africa.

Chen told China’s state newspaper the Global Times that Chinese are prime targets for violent militants and that one compatriot who had been kidnapped by an armed group had described the experience as “hell on Earth.”

It’s difficult to find clear statistics on the number of Chinese who have been kidnapped in Africa because “these cases are often not publicized either from the law enforcement side or the Chinese side,” van Staden said. It’s also not always reported when victims are freed and whether ransoms are paid.

“We do, however, know that in some cases in terms of how the Chinese deal with it, they do pay the ransom” van Staden said, adding, “I think in some places the corporates would be more likely to pay ransoms than the embassies.”

Increasingly, Chinese companies are using private security firms to protect their workers, he added, pointing to Frontier Services Group, based in Hong Kong and Beijing, which recently provided security for Chinese executives visiting work sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The meeting earlier in the month, involving Chinese officials and stakeholders, was attended by the head of the Ministry of Public Safety’s working group, Yin Guohai, as well as China’s ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, and its consul general, Chu Maoming. Also in attendance were representatives from numerous Chinese companies operating in Nigeria, including Dejin Mining and Dahua Paper.

According to a summary of the meeting on the website of the Chinese embassy in Nigeria, Yin Guohai commended Nigerian authorities for “the successful destruction of a group of kidnapping criminal gangs” and noted, “Many Chinese citizens who were kidnapped had been rescued.”

Cui, however, said Chinese working in the country still faced numerous security risks, “posing a serious threat to production” as well as affecting the quality of life for workers.

Earlier this year, three Chinese nationals working on the Sino-Hydro Power Dam in the central state of Niger were kidnapped by armed men, and two of their local colleagues were killed.

Last year, gunmen kidnapped four Chinese rail project workers and killed their police escort in Nigeria’s Ogun state. The workers were freed less than a week later according to media reports, with the Daily Post Nigeria newspaper reporting that an “undisclosed” ransom was paid.

Nigeria isn’t the only place where Chinese corporations face security threats.

Other countries

The mineral-rich and conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo is another country where kidnappings have occurred. Last November, five Chinese nationals working at a gold mine in the eastern DRC were kidnapped.

The abductions prompted the Chinese embassy in the DRC to issue an alert, warning citizens not to go to high-risk provinces there, and for the Chinese Foreign Ministry to warn about security risks in African countries, according to the Global Times .

Shortly after that warning was issued, local authorities said people were kidnapped and two Chinese nationals killed during an attack by a militia on a mining camp in the eastern DRC.

Van Staden noted that the fact that there have been warnings from Beijing and that meetings like the one between Chinese officials and the Nigerian government are taking placed showed the kidnapping issue was “clearly receiving high level concern.”

Oluwole Ojewale is an analyst at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies. He told VOA that extremist groups or criminal gangs are looking for profitable ransoms. Ojewale said because of that, he thinks large Chinese corporations will now have money set aside for such security risks and will either pay ransoms or use private security operatives to try to protect their staff.

Asked whether the level of threats Chinese face in Africa — which is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to build and invest in infrastructure in various regions of the world to promote trade — will lead to a decrease in direct foreign investment, Ojewale said he thinks profits will likely trump security concerns.

“I don’t think Chinese businesses will pull out … irrespective of how volatile the environment is,” he said.

Average petrol prices have exceeded £1.70 per litre for the first time, new figures show.

The average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts on Tuesday was 170.4p, according to data firm Experian Catalist.

Diesel also reached a record high of 181.4p per litre.

Petrol has become around 41p per litre more expensive over the past 12 months, adding around £23 to the cost of filling a typical 55-litre family car.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said the price of petrol has reached “another unfortunate landmark”.

“While wholesale prices may have peaked for the time being last week, they are still worryingly high, which means there’s no respite from the record-high pump prices which are so relentlessly contributing to the cost-of-living crisis,” he said.

“We badly need the Government to take more action to ease the burden on drivers, which we hope will feature in its announcement expected this week.

“VAT at 20% on fuel is currently benefitting the Treasury to the tune of around 30p a litre, which seems very unfair when you consider it’s a tax on a tax as fuel duty – despite being cut to 53p a litre at the end of March – is charged at the wholesale level.”

AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet said petrol has passed “yet another milestone of misery along the road of record pump prices”.

He added that there is “still quite some variation in pump prices among fuel stations in most areas”, and it is “particularly galling” when supermarkets of the same brand charge “significantly more” at one superstore compared with another in the same region.

By  Abdullateef Aliyu

The Lagos State government has urged the citizenry to be wary of unlicensed e-hailing operators within the state as they pose security threats to the safety of lives and property.

The Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, who made the plea stated that the state government has observed high levels of non-compliance by some unlicensed operators who flagrantly violate the guidelines developed to regulate their activities.

He disclosed that the government is displeased over the refusal of the App owners and partners (drivers) to comply with the law guiding their operation in the wake of criminal activities in the State.

The transport commissioner maintained that the state government has held a series of meetings geared toward compliance with the regulations guiding e-hailing operations within the metropolis.

He urged residents to ensure that they patronised only the licensed operators as many of the unauthorised operators do not have a traceable operational base within the state in case of emergencies or safety concerns.

Highlighting the importance of the safety of lives and property in the metropolis, the commissioner declared that only eight out of the several e-hailing operators are registered and recognized by the state government.

He further mentioned; Lagos Ride, Uber, Bolt, Let Me Run, Global Taxi, Zoom Run, Treepz (Plenty Waka) and Shuttlers as the lawful e-hailing operators recognised and licensed to operate in Lagos by the Lagos State government, while In-drivers, Rida, and others are not licensed, urging anyone transacting business with them to be wary.

While assuring that the state government will soon commence a clampdown on the violating operators, the transport commissioner enjoined the citizenry to collaborate by reporting any e-Hailing operators different from the ones listed above to the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation.

He maintained that the state government will not relent in its effort to make Lagos State safe for all.