Tag Archives: FRENCH

French pharmaceutical company takes over Nigeria’s Swipha.

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Biogaran, a French pharmaceutical company specialised in generic and biosimilar medicines, and a subsidiary of Servier, on Friday announced the takeover of all the activities of Swipha, a Nigerian company that manufactures and distributes pharmaceutical products known for their quality.

This is an important step forward in the internationalisation of the French company Biogaran.

In order to develop new markets to meet its commitment to provide all patients with quality medication, Biogaran, a pioneer in generics and biosimilars, and a subsidiary of Servier, has just taken over Swipha, a Nigerian pharmaceutical company that produces medicines to meet local health needs. Its portfolio is mainly focused on three families of products: anti-anxiety and tranquillizers, antimalarial drugs and antibiotics, which treat Nigeria’s most widespread infections and health issues.

Swipha was the first Nigerian pharmaceutical company to obtain ISO 9001 certification in 2007. Approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, Swipha employs 300 people locally and generated record sales of NGN 4bn (approximately € 20 million) in 2012. Beyond its production unit, the company also has a wide distribution network covering most parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most dynamic country, with more than 184 million inhabitants in 2016 according to the IMF.

Health issues are particularly important in Africa. Beyond significant needs for good quality, affordable and efficient medicines, the problem of counterfeits is also becoming of concern. The WHO estimates that 100,000 deaths are due to fake medicines in Africa every year. In this context, supplying Nigeria’s population with reliable medicines that are produced locally is a strong commitment made by Biogaran.

“Biogaran’s international expansion strategy is to create synergies by bringing its expertise and investment capacity in production tools to existing structures”, commented Pascal Brière, President of Biogaran. “Swipha’s know-how, network and reputation have immediately convinced us that it was the right partner for us. Likewise, Nigeria quickly came out as the best entry point on the African continent with its strong population and solid economic fundamentals, including a very dynamic market economy”.

 

Source: Premium Times

French Mine Worker Kidnapped Near Chad Border

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A French man was kidnapped in Chad in a remote area near the border with Sudan’s Darfur region early on Thursday, France’s foreign ministry said.

Europe 1 radio said the man in his sixties had been working for a mining company and was seized carrying the staff’s wages, without giving its sources.

The man was kidnapped south of Abeche, a mining area about 800 km (500 miles) east of the capital N’Djamena, a French military source told Reuters.

There were no immediate reports of any group claiming responsibility or making demands in the area crossed by nomadic groups and rebels fighting the Sudanese government over the border in Darfur.

The last French national kidnapped in Chad was an aid worker taken in the eastern border area in 2009 and released nearly three months later inside Darfur.

“We confirm the kidnapping of one of our nationals in Chad,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. “We are mobilized and working with local Chadian authorities to secure the freedom of our compatriot.”

Chad, a landlocked former French colony, hosts the headquarters of France’s 4,000-strong regional anti-militant operation, known as Barkhane.

It closed its northern border with Libya in January to block militants fleeing the conflict there, and has said it is worried about Islamic State operating in its territory.

Around 1,000 French troops are stationed in Chad, including a small detachment at Abeche. About 1,500 other French nationals also live in the country.

Two other French nationals are being held in Africa – one kidnapped in Mali in December by Islamist militants, the other seized in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier in March.

 

Source: Channels TV

Rivers Rerun: U.S., UK, French, EU envoys express concern over rising tension

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The Ambassadors of the United States, United Kingdom, France and European Union on Friday expressed concern over the rising tension in the run up to the re-run national and state assemblies’ elections in Rivers State on Saturday.

The Ambassadors in a Joint statement urged politicians and the various political parties to give peace a chance.

“We note with concern the rising tension in Rivers State ahead of elections on 10 December. We call on the leadership of all political parties and their supporters in Rivers state to allow elections to go ahead peacefully.

“We encourage INEC and the security forces to perform their duties responsibly and impartially. We urge all parties to respect the electoral process and raise any grievances peacefully and through official channels.

“We stress that the leaders of all parties are accountable for the actions of their members and we encourage them to urge their supporters not to use or incite violence”, the envoys said in the statement.

The statement was signed by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright; United States Ambassador to Nigeria, W. Stuart Symington; French Ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Guaer, and the EU Head of Delegation to Nigeria, Michel Arrion.

The various seats available are expected to be straight battles between the ruling PDP in Rivers and Nigeria’s ruling APC.

Watch unarmed students assaulted by armed police in Cameroon [Video]

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Armed police in Bamenda which is the capital of northwest Cameroon dragged students across the streets and forced them to roll in sewage due to protests. In a video posted by Sahara Reporters on Twitter, policemen armed with batons are seen dragging unarmed youths and shoving them into a stagnant sewage water.
The video clearly shows how policemen go back and forth to fetch students and then order them to lie down in sewage water. While a particular lady protested, she was shoved and dragged right into the water while the seemingly lifeless bodies of some young men were lying motionless beside the sewage water.
The English-speaking region of Cameroon has been affected by protests by students and teachers over what they termed forceful take over by the government to replace them with French education system.
Armed police in Bamenda which is the capital of northwest Cameroon dragged students across the streets and forced them to roll in sewage due to protests. The English-speaking region of Cameroon has been affected by protests by students and teachers over what they termed forceful take over by the government to replace them with French education system.
English and French are the two official languages in the country but it was lately reported that the government which has been accuse of favouring French-speaking region was taking them to replace teaching in English-speaking schools with French teachers.
Tassang Wilfred who is the secretary-general of Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union said: “The French system of education is the majority and has been trying to wipe out our system of education, and that means wiping out our own cultural heritage.
“We have been trying to resist that, but we have got to the point where they [government] are infiltrating Francophone teachers who cannot speak English and don’t even master our own system of education and sometimes they teach in a language that’s neither English nor French. We call it Franglais or Pidgin,” he went on alleging.
“Anglophone teachers want to teach in English and we want Anglophone children to be taught by teachers who know the English sub-education system of Cameroon.”
Watch video in a tweet posted by SR below:

Rwanda accuses French army of planning and executing the 1994 genocide.

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Rwanda has published a list of 22 French officers it accuses of helping plan and execute the 1994 genocide, in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (known by its French acronym CNLG) issued the list on Monday, a month after French investigators said they were re-opening a probe into who shot down then-president Juvenal Habyarimana’s jet triggering the genocide in which 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were killed.

“High-ranking French officers and political figures committed very serious crimes in Rwanda,” the CNLG said in a statement.

“The refusal to put an end to the judicial investigation and to exonerate Rwandan leaders who ended the genocide is designed to camouflage these responsibilities.”

A Rwandan enquiry found ethnic Hutu extremists responsible for Habyarimana’s assassination, but the French investigation was inconclusive.

That enquiry was reopened following a deposition submitted by former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a one-time confidant of President Paul Kagame who has again pointed the finger of blame at Kagame.

The shooting down of the plane falls within French jurisdiction because the crew were French.

Last month Kagame warned of a “showdown” with France over the allegations. The row over responsibility for shooting down the plane has wrecked diplomatic relations in the past, causing a severing of ties between 2006 and 2009.

The CNLG accused the 22 senior French officers of involvement in the genocide “both as perpetrators and accomplices”.

Among those accused are the former army head, a chief of staff to former President Francois Mitterrand and the French commander of the UN-mandated Operation Turquoise which intervened in Rwanda two months after the start of the genocide.

Trapped Passengers Rescued From French Alps Cable Cars

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Dozens of people trapped overnight in cable cars dangling at 12,000 feet in the French Alps have been rescued safely, officials said Friday.

At least three children and their families were among 33 passengers forced to spend the night in the cabins after weather conditions and the onset of darkness meant the operation to bring them down was halted late Thursday.
The passengers’ ordeal began at about 4:30 p.m. local time Thursday when two cables crossed over each other, a local government official told CNN.
The cable cars became stuck in position, leaving 110 people trapped. French and Italian helicopters were called in, and rescue teams managed to get 65 of them to safety.
Hours later, workers were able to bring down 12 more passengers, who walked to a connecting cable car that took them to the Italian town of Courmayeur.
But Clement Delisle was among those who had to spend more than 12 hours above the mountain valley. He said he and his friends and family had been on the cable car for about 10 minutes when it stopped unexpectedly near l’Aiguille du Midi.
“After two hours, we started getting worried,” he told CNN. “We called and they told us the helicopters were on their way as there was an issue with the wires.”
“Right as the helicopters were about to evacuate us, a cloud of fog started setting in. So the helicopter skipped us, and when they finally circled back … it was nighttime and they could no longer evacuate us.”
Read More: CNN

Smoking Hot Heroes! French Firemen Strip Off For A Charity Calendar

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A group of French firemen stripped off for a scorchingly hot new charity calendar to raise money for Pompiers Sans Frontieres, an organisation that provides humanitarian aid.

The photos were taken by French fashion photographer Fred Goudon, who spent a full year snapping the guys. “For me and for many others, firefighters are heroes. Every single day, these guys are out there saving people’s lives,” Goudon told The Local. “And they’re all so nice, so strong… and you
can see it in the pictures that there is a kind of pride in them that others don’t have.”

Photo credit: Fred Goudon

French Train Gunman Dumbfounded By Being Called A Terrorist

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The gunman who attacked passengers on a high-speed train in France a couple of days ago is “dumbfounded” at having been taken for an Islamist militant and says he only intended to rob people on board because he was hungry, his lawyer said on Sunday.
As details emerged of the gunman’s early adult life in Spain, lawyer Sophie David said her client now in detention near Paris also looked ill and malnourished.

French and Spanish sources close to the case identified him as a 26-year-old Moroccan named Ayoub el Khazzani who was known to European authorities as a suspected Islamist militant.

“(I saw) somebody who was very sick, somebody very weakened physically, as if he suffered from malnutrition, very, very thin and very haggard,” David said.

“He is dumbfounded by the terrorist motives attributed to his action,” she added.

David said the man was barefoot and wore only a hospital shirt and boxer shorts for the police interrogation in Arras, northern France, where the train stopped after the incident.

The Moroccan told David he had found the Kalashnikov he had taken onto the train in a park near the Gare du Midi rail station in Brussels where he was in the habit of sleeping.

“A few days later he decided to get on a train that some other homeless people told him would be full of wealthy people traveling from Amsterdam to Paris and he hoped to feed himself by armed robbery,” David said.

The lawyer said the Moroccan had untreated wounds on his face when he spoke to her through an interpreter. He also told David he did not think he had fired any shots before his gun jammed.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve however, said on Saturday there had been “several shots” before the Moroccan was subdued by the passengers, who included three Americans.

Reuters

French Beheading Suspect Denies Jihad Motivation

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The man being held in France under suspicion of beheading his boss and trying to blow up a chemicals plant has told investigators there was no religious motivation behind the attack, a source close to the inquiry said on Monday.

The source said Yassin Salhi, 35, told investigators he was not a jihadist and repeated earlier statements that he committed the act outside the southeast city of Lyon on Friday after a row with his wife the day before and his boss a few days earlier.

Salhi, who was arrested on the scene of the crime on Friday, can be held for a maximum 96 hours under French law before being charged or released.

Read More: yahoo

This Ghanaian Twin Insist They Are Better Than P-Square

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A France-based Ghanaian group, Los Grumos, is itching for the spotlight with an outrageous claim: that they are better than Nigeria’s P-Square.

They are also a set of twins, named Rey (born Panyin Yaw Amponsah) and Ro (born Kakra Yaw Amponsah). Though relatively unknown, the twins are said to write and perform songs and are not constricted within any certain genre. Now, they are out to ‘dethrone’ Africa’s most famous twins, P-Square.

In an interview with Ghanaian blog Myjoyonline, Rey and Ro are quoted to have said:

“What makes us bigger than P-Square is that we are big in Europe. Our music cuts across the
European market, our band also cuts across the USA market. Our music is big just that we are not more focused in Africa that’s why we promoting our new single ‘Adjoa’ for all Africans to know we are the best across the globe and also make Africans proud (sic).”

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“We have performed on almost all the biggest shows in Europe. That makes us different from P-Square and also bigger than them.”

Meanwhile, P-Square’s Peter and Paul have just returned from Morocco where they headlined the massive 2015 Mawazine Music Festival alongside Jennifer Lopez, Pharrell Williams, Sean Paul and others.

Los Grumos, who were born in France, reportedly started recording in 2006 and have over 40 songs under their belt.

Now they are promoting their new single, ‘Adjoa’, which is a “tasteful mixture of Afrobeat and hiphop style that reflects our African and French backgrounds.”

P-Square is yet to respond to the ‘challenge.’.

P square

Do you think they have enough to challenge the Okoye’s

French Tourist killed, Wife Molested In Ebonyi State

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A French couple, Nagnan Denis, 52, and his wife, Nagnan Mee Lavaud Liana, 53, were attacked by unknown hoodlums at a place where they set up a tent in Abomege axis of Onicha LGA of Ebonyi State on Monday June 1st. The man was killed while the woman was molested.

Ebonyi state Commissioner of Police, Maigari Dikko while speaking on the incident, said the victims were tourists who traveled through several countries to get to Nigeria and had traveled through many states and were heading to Calabar, Cross Rivers state when they made a brief stopover in Ebonyi state.

“We got the report yesterday from the DPO of Onicha council about the French nationals, a couple; they were tourists who left their country in December 2014 and arrived Nigeria through Badagry on May 3. They passed through Abeokuta, Benin, Onitsha, Enugu to Ebonyi with their vehicle; they were passing through Ebonyi to Calabar, when the incident happened. They arrived Abomega in the night. According to the widow, her husband had complained that he was tired and since it was late, they decided to pass the night there. They did not report their presence to any law enforcement agents around, but decided to look for a place that has natural shelter and so they went two kilometres off the road to pass the night. They found a quarry site and decided to camp there. According to the wife, when they were at the location, a motorcyclist and another man asked them who they were. Unless investigation proves otherwise, we are thinking that the motorcyclist was the informant to the hoodlums because an hour after he left, three people came into the camp. By then, they had already erected their tent atop the vehicle.”

The commissioner said 1,150 Euros and N13,000 was stolen from the couple during the attack. He also said 32 suspects have been arrested and are being interrogated at the state police headquarters. The French Embassy in Nigeria has been notified and their are plans to fly the victims body to France for burial.