The United Nations has raised the alarm over the devastating impact of Israel’s war in Gaza, warning that the battered Palestinian territory’s economy is on the brink of total collapse and may struggle to survive without urgent global intervention.

In its latest report released on Tuesday, the UN Trade and Development Agency (UNCTAD) said rebuilding the war-torn enclave would cost more than $70bn, adding that the scale of destruction could take several decades to reverse.

UNCTAD described the situation as an “unprecedented collapse across the Palestinian economy”, stressing that the war and long-standing restrictions had shattered all essential systems supporting life in the Gaza Strip.

“The military operations have significantly undermined every pillar of survival — from food to shelter to healthcare — and plunged Gaza into a human-made abyss,” the report stated. It added that the widespread, systematic devastation had cast “significant doubt” on Gaza’s ability to re-emerge as a liveable society.

The current crisis was triggered after Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,221 people. The assault sparked a two-year Israeli military response that has since devastated Gaza.

According to casualty figures from the Gaza health ministry — numbers the UN says are credible — more than 69,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory operations.

UNCTAD said the extensive destruction has unleashed “cascading crises — economic, humanitarian, environmental and social — propelling the territory from de-development to utter ruin”. Even under an optimistic scenario of double-digit growth backed by massive foreign aid, it warned that Gaza would need several decades to return to pre-October 2023 living standards.

To avert further collapse, the agency called for a “comprehensive recovery plan” involving coordinated international support, restoration of fiscal transfers, and easing of severe restrictions on movement, trade and investment.

Highlighting the depth of the crisis, the report noted that every resident of Gaza now faces “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”. It recommended the introduction of a universal emergency basic income — a renewable, unconditional monthly cash transfer for all civilians in the territory.

Gaza’s economy, the report revealed, contracted by a staggering 87 per cent between 2023 and 2024, leaving its GDP per capita at just $161 — one of the lowest in the world.

Although conditions are less severe in the West Bank, UNCTAD said “violence, accelerated settlement expansion and restrictions on worker mobility” had also crippled economic activity there, resulting in the worst decline since it began keeping records in 1972.

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A senior Ugandan judge and former United Nations official has been sentenced to six years and four months in a British prison after being found guilty of modern slavery offences.

Justice Lydia Mugambe, 50, who previously studied law at Oxford University, was convicted at Oxford Crown Court of forcing a young Ugandan woman to work as her maid and childminder without pay. The jury found her guilty of conspiring to breach UK immigration law, facilitating travel for exploitation, forced labour, and attempting to intimidate a witness.

The court heard how Mugambe abused her legal standing to bring the woman into the UK under false pretences and then subjected her to exploitative domestic servitude, barring her from pursuing employment or a normal life.

In a victim impact statement read during the trial, the woman said she lived in “almost constant fear” due to Mugambe’s influence and powerful reputation in Uganda.

Presiding judge, Mr Justice David Foxton, described the case as “deeply troubling”, noting Mugambe’s distinguished legal career but condemning her “illegal folly” and abuse of trust.

“She deliberately used her status to exploit and silence someone far more vulnerable,” said Foxton. “This sentence must reflect the gravity of such offences.”

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Extreme weather events and economic shocks also added to the number of those facing acute food insecurity, which grew by 24 million people compared with 2022, according to the latest global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).

The report, which called the global outlook “bleak” for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.

2023 was the fifth consecutive year of rises in the number of people suffering acute food insecurity — defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.

Much of last year’s increase was due to report’s expanded geographic coverage, as well as deteriorating conditions in 12 countries.

More geographical areas experienced “new or intensified shocks” while there was a “marked deterioration in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip”, Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office within the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), told AFP.

Some 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to 1.1 million in the war-ridden Palestinian territory.

 Children starving

Since the first report by the Global Food Crisis Network covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has risen from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said.

Meanwhile, the share of the population affected within the areas concerned has doubled 11 percent to 22 percent, she added.

Protracted major food crises are ongoing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.

“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report’s foreword.

“War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis — combined with inadequate action — mean that almost 300 million people faced acute food crisis in 2023.”

“Funding is not keeping pace with need,” he added.

This is especially true as the costs of distributing aid have risen.

For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid could “rapidly” alleviate the crisis in Gaza or Sudan, for example, once humanitarian access to the areas is possible.

Floods and droughts

Worsening conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and reduced agricultural production, “where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops”, Wouterse said.

The El Nino weather phenomenon could also lead to severe drought in West and Southern Africa, she added.

According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people have suffered.

Extreme climatic events such as floods or droughts were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.

“Decreasing global food prices did not transmit to low-income, import-dependent countries,” said the report.

At the same time, high debt levels “limited government options to mitigate the effects of high prices”.

On a positive note, the situation improved in 17 countries in 2023, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, the report found.

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The UN is aware that AI technology is racing ahead of the capacity to set its boundaries and directions, and so it brought together some of the best minds on the topic — whether human or man-made.

The “AI for Good Global Summit”, in Geneva on Thursday and Friday is being convened by the UN’s ITU tech agency — and many unaware attendees were startled by the humanoid robots suddenly turning to look at them as they passed by.

“When generative AI shocked the world just a few months ago, we had never seen anything like it. Nothing even close to it. Even the biggest names in tech found the experience mind-blowing,” ITU chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin told the summit.

“And just like that, the possibility that this form of intelligence could get smarter than us got so much closer than we ever thought — including those behind the technology.”

No answers

The summit is bringing together around 3,000 experts from companies like Microsoft and Amazon as well as from universities and international organisations to try to sculpt frameworks for ensuring AI is used for positive purposes.

Bogdan-Martin painted an alternative nightmare scenario in which AI puts millions of jobs at risk, disinformation spreads widely, and unchecked AI advances lead to “social unrest, geopolitical instability and economic disparity on a scale we’ve never seen before”.

“Many of our questions that we have on AI have no answers yet. Should we hit pause on giant AI experiments? Will we control AI more than it controls us? And will AI help humanity, or destroy it?” she asked.

The robots gathered in Geneva came in many forms: dogs, farm machinery, but also exceptionally realistic avatars, singers, artists and nursing home workers.

AI robot frontwoman “Desdemona” by Hanson Robotics performs during the world’s largest gathering of humanoid AI Robots as part of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

With cameras inside their eyes, many were actively following what was going on around them: tracking movement, answering questions, smiling, frowning and even eye-rolling.

The Jam Galaxy Band features humanoid robot Desdemona — Desi to her friends — on lead vocals

A visitor takes a picture of humanoid AI robot “Ameca” at the booth of Engineered Arts company during the world’s largest gathering of humanoid AI Robots as part of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Created by roboticist David Hanson, she throws out jazzy lyrics on all sorts of subjects — love, credit cards, meetings in gardens — and the band interacts and goes with it.

“It’s pretty amazing. You would think it’s weird but it’s really cool because her AI-generated lyrics are really out there,” said soprano saxophone player Dianne Krouse.

“I’m just improvising around that and doing interpretive saxophoning to what she’s singing.”

Conscious robots

Nadine, a robot modelled on University of Geneva professor and virtual human pioneer Nadia Thalmann, was first built in 2013 and can answer questions on the spot.

“I was created to be a humanoid social robot, with human-like physical appearance, to interact with people and to explore the potential of AI technologies,” Nadine told AFP.

“I am feeling excited and curious about the AI for Good Global Summit and the potential of AI technologies,” the robot said.

“The most interesting person I have met at the AI for Good Global Summit is Professor Nadia Thalmann. She is the one who created me and is a pioneer in the field of AI robotics.”

“She’s very loyal!”, Thalmann added, laughing.

A staff places a wig on the head of healthcare assistant robot “Grace” at the booth of SingularityNET company during the world’s largest gathering of humanoid AI Robots as part of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Nadine has improved dramatically over the years and Thalmann said that in the future, “she will be more able to understand her surroundings, ask direct questions — so not just answer questions — analyse more, and be more conscious of what is going on.

“Because most robots are not conscious. They can speak but they are not aware of what they say.

“It will take years, because it’s quite complex. Self-awareness would be even more complex.”

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Global temperatures are soon set to exceed the more ambitious target set out in the Paris climate accords, with a two-thirds chance that one of the next five years will do so, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said.

The hottest eight years ever recorded were all between 2015 and 2022 — but temperatures are forecast to increase further as climate change accelerates.

“There is a 98-percent likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record,” the WMO said.

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at “well below” two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 — and 1.5C if possible.

The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15C above the 1850-1900 average.

The WMO said there was a 66 percent chance that annual global surface temperatures will exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the years 2023-2027, with a range of 1.1C to 1.8C forecasted for each of those five years.

‘Uncharted territory’

While this does not mean that the world will permanently exceed the Paris benchmark, “WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency”, said the agency’s chief Petteri Taalas.

“A warming El Nino is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory.

“This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared.”

El Nino is the large-scale warming of surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The weather phenomenon normally occurs every two to seven years.

Conditions oscillate between El Nino and its opposite La Nina, with neutral conditions in between.

The WMO said earlier this month that the chances of El Nino developing were 60 percent by the end of July and 80 percent by the end of September.

Typically, El Nino increases global temperatures in the year after it develops — which in this cycle would be 2024.

Despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions over much of the past three years, the warmest eight years on record have all been from 2015 onwards, with 2016 the hottest.

Heat gets trapped in the atmosphere by so-called greenhouse gases, which are at a record high.

The three major greenhouses gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Temperatures rising since 1960s

Global land and sea mean near-surface temperatures have increased since the 1960s.

The chances of temperatures temporarily exceeding 1.5C above the 1850-1990 average have risen steadily since 2015, a year when they were considered close to zero.

Britain’s Met Office national weather service is the WMO’s lead centre on yearly to 10-yearly climate predictions.

While there is a 66 percent chance that one year between 2023 and 2027 will exceed the 1.5C threshold, there is now a 32 percent chance that the entire five-year mean will do so, the Met Office said.

“Global mean temperatures are predicted to continue increasing, moving us away further and further away from the climate we are used to,” said Met Office expert scientist Leon Hermanson.

Temperatures in 2023 are likely to be higher than the 1991-2020 average in almost all regions except for Alaska, South Africa, South Asia and parts of Australia, the WMO said.

Parts of the South Pacific Ocean are likely to be cooler than average

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Its Deputy Secretary General and former Minister of Environment, Hajia Amina Mohammed stated this, while on a courtesy visit to the Minister in his office in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Tuesday.

According to her, “the Niger Delta Region has a special place in my heart because I was deeply involved in the granting of Amnesty to former militants in the region by former president Umar Yar’adua. I must commend the Minister for the sustained peace in the region.”

Speaking further, the deputy UN Scribe noted that, “the UN agenda for the Nations must also be seen in the Niger Delta, and we would be very happy to collaborate with the Niger Delta Ministry, adding, “the Ministry needs very strong institutions to drive home the goals and objectives that were set by those who established the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC)”.

Earlier in his welcome speech, Akpabio described the visit of the Deputy UN Scribe as “home coming of someone who did a lot for the region in the area of environment and security, adding “the region that you did so much for, is today the most peaceful in Nigeria, a feat achieved through engagement of strategic stakeholders whenever we noticed any slight sign of discontent.”

Speaking further, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State said, “President Mohammadu Buhari has done so well for the region, through adequate funding of interventionist agencies, because of his committed interest in the development of the region and that was why, when the south-south governors met with the president and demanded an audit of the account of NDDC because they believed so much has been released to the agency in the past and nothing on ground to show for it, he immediately acceded to their request by ordering a forensic audit into the finance of the commission.”

Akpabio disclosed further that, “the interim report on the auditing of the NDDC account is very revealing. Over twelve thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight (12,128) projects with no clear-cut ownership, were built and abandoned and they all became sanctuaries for hoodlum and kidnappers.”

“In order to stop this anomaly, we have developed within the ministry, a system called Strategic Implementation Work Plan, where whatever is on ground is captured to avoid duplication of projects, he stressed.”

The president, Akpabio disclosed, “is determined to commission the East West road by next year and have just commissioned the 25year old abandoned headquarters building of the NDDC.”

On calls for secession, Akpabio stated, “Let me inform you here that the south-south are not interested in any form of secession. Our stakeholders have said so repeatedly and we stand by that. Let me also call on the UN to assist the Niger Delta people in the area of security, provision of infrastructure and empowerment of our teeming youth”.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Jerusalem to discuss “strengthening cooperation” between their countries, Netanyahu’s office said.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi tasked Kamel and his delegation, who were also to visit the occupied Palestinian Territories, with hammering out a permanent ceasefire deal, senior Egyptian security officials told AFP.

On the same day, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi made the first official visit by an Israeli top diplomat to neighbouring Egypt in 13 years, for talks with his counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

Ashkenazi tweeted on his arrival that they would “discuss establishing a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, a mechanism for providing humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Gaza with a pivotal role played by the international community”.

The Egyptian foreign ministry tweeted that the ministers’ talks were “part of Egypt’s relentless and continued efforts to revive the peace track and to build on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was also expected in Cairo for talks, senior Egyptian security officials said, without providing further details.

Egypt played a pivotal role in negotiating the May 21 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that brought an end to 11 days of deadly fighting.

Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, health officials said.

Rockets and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, medics said.

Prisoners

Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s demand “for the prompt return” of Israelis being held in the Gaza Strip, according to the statement.

Ashkenazi also said Israel was “fully committed” to repatriating Israeli prisoners held by Hamas.

Since Israel’s 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group has held the bodies of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, although Hamas has never confirmed their deaths.

Hamas is also believed to be holding two Israeli citizens who entered Gaza alone and whose families say they have mental health issues.

Israel is meanwhile holding more than 5,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Sisi has pledged $500 million to help reconstruction efforts in the densely populated Gaza enclave, which was pummelled by Israeli air strikes.

Hamas has pledged not to touch “a single cent” of international aid to rebuild Gaza.

Israel, which has enforced a land and maritime blockade on the enclave since 2007, accuses the group of diverting international aid to military ends.

The statement from Netanyahu’s office said he and Kamel also discussed “mechanisms and processes to prevent the strengthening of Hamas and its use of the resources that will be directed to the civilian population in the future”.

Root causes

The latest violent flare-up was sparked by increased tensions in Jerusalem, including over Israeli security forces cracking down on Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

A bitter divide between Hamas and Fatah has long plagued Palestinian politics, but analysts say the latest escalation has served to unite the geographically fragmented Palestinian community in a way not seen in years.

Sisi also tasked Kamel with working to help iron out political divisions between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Egyptian officials said.

The UN Human Rights Council decided Thursday to create an open-ended international investigation into violations surrounding the latest Gaza violence.

It said it would also look at the “underlying root causes of recurrent tensions and instability, including systematic discrimination” in the occupied Palestinian Territories and inside Israel.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced particular concern about the “high level of civilian fatalities and injuries” from the bombing of Gaza and warned the Israeli strikes on the enclave “may constitute war crimes”.

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In goodwill messages to mark Adesina’s inauguration, Presidents Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Alpha Conde of Guinea, George Weah of Liberia, President Sassou Nguesso of Republic of the Congo  and Guinea Bissau’s Umaro Embalo, commended the Bank’s interventions, especially its assistance to member states in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Dr. Adesina, you have our full support as you continue to lead the Bank through this COVID-19 period, marked by turmoil but also the prospect of new opportunities for our continent,” Kagame said, noting that the Bank had played a key role in ensuring that Africa’s interests reflected on the international agenda during the crisis.

Adesina, who first took office as the 8th elected president of the Bank Group in 2015, was unanimously reelected by the Board of Governors with a 100 percent vote at the end of the Bank’s 2020 Annual Meeting on 27 August. For the first time, the meetings were held virtually due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

President Buhari noted that the unanimity of Adesina’s reelection was a vote of confidence in his leadership and programs, especially the Bank’s High 5 priority agenda. If diligently implemented, the High 5s will help Africa to meet most of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.

“Under your leadership, the Bank has made admirable progress and we are confident that this gain will be consolidated and scaled up in the next five years,” Buhari said in a message presented on his behalf by the Bank’s Governor for Nigeria.

While congratulating Adesina for his overwhelming reelection, President Conde urged him to continue to pursue the High 5s and related policies to provide jobs for the continent’s growing youth population.

President Weah pledged Liberia’s continued partnership with the Bank under Adesina’s leadership. “Dr. Adesina, your reelection signifies Africa and the world’s confidence in your leadership,” he added.

Niale Kaba, the Ivorian Minister of National Planning and the immediate past chairperson of the Bank’s Board of Governors, represented Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who also reaffirmed his country’s strong bond with the Bank.

There were solidarity messages also from former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, under whose government Adesina served as Agriculture Minister. Messages also poured in from regional bodies, including the African Union Commission, the Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), ECOWAS and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

In his inaugural speech, Adesina outlined a renewed vision to build a much stronger and resilient African Development Bank Group, with the leadership and capacity to deliver greater quality impacts for Africa, while remaining financially strong and sustainable.

To achieve this, he said he would focus on building a stronger institution, strengthen human capacity, enhance effectiveness, deepen quality and impact and maintain financial sustainability.

Ghana’s Finance Minister and incoming chairman of the Board of Governors, Kenneth Ofori-Atta, presided over the swearing in ceremony.

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More than $182 million is needed to sustain lifesaving aid to Africa’s most populous country over the next six months, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.

“We are concerned by conflict-affected communities in northeast Nigeria who already face extreme hunger and who are especially vulnerable. They are on life-support and need assistance to survive,” said Elisabeth Byrs, WFP senior spokesperson, in reference to Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Insurgency

The three so-called BAY states, have been plagued by a decade-long insurgency that has spilled over into the Lake Chad region.

It remains among the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with some 7.9 million mainly women and children in need of urgent assistance today.

“That’s why WFP is distributing now two months’ worth of food and nutrition assistance in IDP camps and among vulnerable communities to ensure that people have enough food while they are on full or partial lockdown”, Ms Byrs said, outlining plans to help a total of 1.8 million people there.

Needs are great nationally too, the UN agency has warned, linked to a steep drop in international oil prices – Nigeria’s major export commodity – since the outbreak of the virus.

Coronavirus lockdown

To date, latest World Health Organization (WHO) data indicates that the country has seen more than 12,800 confirmed cases of new coronavirus and over 360 deaths linked to the respiratory disease.

More than 3.8 million people mainly working in the informal sector, face losing their jobs amid rising hardship, Ms. Byrs said, and this could rise to 13 million if movement restrictions continue for a longer period.

“This would add to the almost 20 million (23 per cent of the labour force) already out of work,” the WFP spokesperson said.

“In a country where about 90 million people – 46 per cent of the population – live on less than $2 a day, this is a real concern”, Ms. Byrs continued. “The urban poor who depend on a daily wage to feed themselves and their families have been very hit by movement restrictions to contain the spread of the virus.”

Three million individuals among the most vulnerable, will receive help, the WFP spokesperson explained, with additional support to government social protection systems in the cities of Abuja, Kano and Lagos – places where the agency has not been present until now.

“We are actually scaling up our operations in the Northeast to serve more people  in response to the new challenges of more food insecurity posed by COVID-19“, said Ms Byrs. “However, there have been a few delays with COVID-19 containment movement restrictions that are affecting supply chains. These have been generally managed and we have continued providing assistance. We continue to appeal to all parties to ensure access to people in need and respect humanitarian space.”

Take-home food solution

WFP’s involvement has included re-adjusting school meals programmes during school closures by providing food to take home.

The initiative kicked off in the federal capital Abuja and the commercial capital Lagos, in mid-May.

The programme – led by Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs – aims to reach nine million children in three million homes across the country’s 36 states, where school closures have affected some 39 million youngsters.

The urban poor remain the focus of the scheme, including the floating slum community of Makoko, where tens of thousands of people live cheek by jowl, on stilt houses in a village on the outskirts of Lagos.

‘No money to feed my children’

“When the Government said nobody should go anywhere, I couldn’t go to the market”, said fish-seller and mother-of-four, Marceline Wanu, who is 25. “But when I couldn’t go to the market, there was no money to feed my children sometimes and that is very painful. My children received food when they were going to school but when their schools closed, that became an extra burden. But since they gave use some food, it has helped us a bit.”

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The UN Resident-Coordinator, Edward Kallon said, “The UN family stands in solidarity with the federal government of Nigeria during these trying times.”

Mr Kallon, who was represented by the Officer-in-Charge (OiC), World Health Organization (WHO) Nigeria, Dr Fiona Braka, emphasised the assurances of the UN support in fighting COVID-19 in Nigeria and noted that the donation of the ambulances would undoubtedly boost the fight against COVID-19, and support the commendable efforts of the Lagos State Government in containing the pandemic.

Receiving the keys to the ambulances from Dr Braka, the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, thanked the United Nations for the donation of the three ambulances and especially for the support being received since the first index case of Coronavirus was announced on 27 February 2020.

In his remarks, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, appreciated the UN’s gesture and said, “These ambulances will aid in contact tracing as well as other activities involved in bringing the last case to book.”

He called on the general public to continue complying with the rules and regulations set by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure the spread of the virus is fully contained in the country. “Other states should also emulate Lagos’ response to the pandemic.” He added.

Secretary to the Government of Nigeria, Boss Mustapha, and other members of Presidential Task Force, including the Director General Nigeria Center for Disease Control Dr Chikwe Ihekewazu and Lagos State government functionaries witnessed the hand-over ceremony.

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