Headline

Flight Resumption To UAE: Fears As FG, UAE Agreement Places Nigerian Carriers At Disadvantage

Published

1 year ago

November 30, 2024

Two months after the Nigerian government changed the Bilateral Air Service Agreement, BASA, it had with the United Arab Emirates, UAE, there are growing concerns about how beneficial the new air pact will be to Nigerian airlines.

In September 27, 2024, ahead of Emirates flight resumption, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, in a statement, said Nigeria had concluded reciprocal rights with UAE authority.

The Nigerian government also disclosed that it had set the foundation for a new BASA between both countries to ensure stronger and mutually beneficial aviation ties.

Meanwhile, the issues surrounding the agreement got interesting when a document seen by Vanguard revealed that the federal government may have put designated Nigerian carriers in a difficult situation as they may not enjoy level playing field with UAE airlines.

The 15-page document assessed by industry analysts showed that Nigeria, in uncertain terms, may have altered its aviation treaty with UAE from BASA to what analysts term Open Skies.

In the air transport sector, while BASA confines airline(s) to certain frequencies and destinations, ‘Open Skies’ permits airline(s) to fly on international routes freely and compete openly with one another for passengers.

What does the document entail?
According to the 3,915-word document, the Nigerian delegation that signed the agreement in Dubai on September 30, 2024, included Head of Delegation, Mr Festus Keyamo; Project Monitoring, Mr Issa Osagie; Director Air Transport Regulations Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Mrs Babaoye-Iriobe; Director of Operations Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Captain Abdullahi Mahmood; and Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Mr Abdullahi Ahmed.

Also, the UAE delegation included Head of Delegation, Deputy Director General & Assistant Director General, GCAA, Omar Bin Ghaleb; Senior Director of Air Transport Department, GCAA, Captain Khalid Humaid Al Ali; Expert Air Transport, GCAA, Mr Nasser Mubarak Al Khater;

Senior Lead Air Transport, GCAA, Ms Valerie Beowne; Lead Air Transport, GCAA, Mrs Jawaher Mohammed Al Abdouli; Senior Officer Air Transport, GCAA, Mr Fahad Abdulrahman Al Rais; and Senior Officer Air Transport, GCAA, Mr Hassan Ahmed Barman.

Titled: ‘Protocol Amending the Air Services Agreement between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates Relating to Air Services between and beyond their Respective Territories,’ UAE’s delegation, in the amended air agreement, re-confirmed their designation of Etihad Airways, Emirates Airline, Air Arabia, flydubai, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi as designated airlines, and added that additional UAE airline(s) may be designated in due course by the aeronautical authority of the UAE.

Similarly, the Nigerian delegation re-confirmed their designation of United Nigeria Airlines and Air Peace as designated airlines, noting that additional Nigerian airline(s) may be designated in due course by the aeronautical authority of Nigeria.

On Principles Governing Operation of Agreed Services, Article 5 of the agreed pact states: “Each contracting party shall reciprocally allow the designated airlines of both contracting parties to compete freely in providing the international air transportation governed by this Agreement.

“There shall be no restriction on the capacity and the number of frequencies and/or type(s) of aircraft to be operated by the designated airlines of both contracting parties in any type of service (passenger, cargo, separately or in combination). Each designated airline is permitted to determine the frequency, capacity it offers on the agreed services.

“Neither contracting party shall unilaterally limit the volume of traffic, frequencies, regularity of service or the aircraft type(s) operated by the designated airlines of the other contracting party, except as may be required for customs, technical, operational or environmental requirements under uniform conditions consistent with Article 16 of the Convention.”

In Article 2, the agreement partly states: “The designated airlines of each contracting party shall enjoy the following rights: to fly across the Territory of the other contracting party without landing; to make stops in the Territory of the other contracting party for nontraffic purposes, and to make stops in the Territory of the other Contracting Party, for the purpose of taking on and/or discharging international traffic in passengers, baggage and cargo, separately or in any combination, while operating the agreed services.

“If because of armed conflict, political disturbances or developments or special and unusual circumstances a designated airline of one contracting party is unable to operate a service on its normal routing, the other contracting party shall use its best efforts to facilitate the continued operation of such service through appropriate temporary rearrangement of routes as is mutually decided by the contracting parties. The designated airlines shall have the right to use all airways, airports and other facilities provided by the contracting parties on a non-discriminatory basis.”

In addition, Section 1 of the agreement states that designated airline(s) of the UAE can operate from any point in the UAE to any point in Nigeria. For intermediate and beyond points, it states: “Any points.”

Section 2 of the deal states that designated Nigerian airline(s) can operate from any point in the UAE to any point in Nigeria. For intermediate and beyond points, it states: “Any points.”

On the operation of the agreed services, the revised deal says: “Designated airline(s) of both contracting parties are entitled to exercise, in any type of service (passenger, cargo, separately or in combination), full fifth freedom traffic rights to/from any intermediate or beyond point(s) without any restriction whatsoever.

“Designated airline(s) of both contracting parties are entitled, either as operating carrier or marketing carrier, to exercise own stopover rights at any intermediate point(s) and/or beyond point(s), as well as at points within the Territory of the other contracting party. For services within the Territory of the other contracting party, these rights are to be exercised without cabotage.”

Contacted to evaluate the air pact, a senior official faulted it, asserting: “This appears like an Open Skies.”

Speaking to Vanguard on the condition of anonymity, he explained that when a country’s airlines cannot compete with mega carriers, they are protected.

The official said: “You don’t open your market when you cannot compete. What everybody does is to first protect their market and let it grow. Here in Nigeria, our airlines are dying because they are not economically viable, yet you are now telling people (UAE carriers) to fly into any part of the country. That’s not protecting your own. You must try to protect your own.”

Also speaking to Vanguard, an industry analyst questioned the rationale behind such an agreement, saying: “Nigeria is a signatory to the Single African Air Transport Market, SAATM. Yet, you are not giving African airlines fifth freedom. You are giving it to UAE carriers. Our airlines should be fighting this thing. Why are they keeping quiet?”

The analyst, who didn’t want his name in print, also noted that the representative of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, at the meeting was not the AON president.

“Why is somebody sitting on a bilateral agreement bearing the name of president when he is not the president of the AON? What is going on here? That is a very serious issue,” he insisted.

Explaining the fifth freedom, an industry analyst, who didn’t want to be named, told Vanguard: “If given fifth freedom, a country’s airline(s) can make a pit stop and carry passengers while on its way. What it means is that you have eroded the local market. Let us say a UAE carrier is coming from Accra or Niger, what it will do is to go to Kano, pick passengers.

“It will go to Port Harcourt, pick passengers. Without making a final stop, it will go to Lagos and pick passengers. It is a right for flight beyond. Fifth freedom is granted, but granted in a situation where your carriers are very strong.

“Already, our carriers cannot even compete with Emirates and other Middle East carriers. So, what they will do is to clean the market here. They can deploy two flights daily from Accra to just clean the market. They do not even need to start operating to Nigeria. Although five of our airlines, like theirs, can go to the UAE if they like, do we have the capacity? We have put UAE airlines at an advantage over ours.”

Meanwhile, an industry observer, who spoke to Saturday Vanguard in confidence, called for a review.

According to him, the country will start seeing the effect of the deal when flydubai and Etihad begin operating to Nigeria.

He said: “It is when these airlines start coming that we will begin to see the serious effect because they will clean the market. However, agreements are bound to be renegotiated. If a party feels that it is short-changed or it is not getting any benefit from it, they can come for a review. There is no permanent agreement. Agreements are reviewed as time goes on. We can do that.”
VANGUARD

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

3 days ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

4 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

4 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.