Briefly

CHINA

Vice-premier to hold climate talks with EU

China's Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang will travel to Europe next week for the fifth China-EU High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian announced on Friday. Ding will also make a visit to Luxembourg. Lin said China hopes to take this round of China-EU dialogue as an opportunity to enhance cooperation with Europe. China also hopes to strengthen communication, mutual understanding and cooperation with Luxembourg through Ding's visit.

MALAWI

UN asked to intervene in plane crash probe

Malawi's political party Alliance for Democracy has written to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, asking the UN to intervene in investigations surrounding Monday's plane crash that killed Malawian Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others. The party is one of nine parties in the coalition that led Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera to power in the 2020 election. The letter, dated Thursday, said the political party takes the tragedy "as a matter of national concern for it involves a highly politically risky person", hence the UN's intervention is needed. The letter also called for the support of the Southern African Development Community and the African Union "in having a proper closure on the accident".

DR CONGO

42 killed in Islamic State-linked attack

An attack blamed on Islamic Statelinked militants has left dozens of people dead in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's Beni region, local authorities said on Thursday. Alain Kiwewa Mitela, a local official in Lubero territory where the overnight attack struck, said 42 bodies had been found. It brings to nearly 150 the number of people killed since the start of the month by militants of the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, according to figures from local authorities and civil groups. The ADF has established a presence over the past three decades in eastern DR Congo, killing thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, which portrays the ADF as its central African branch.

NIGER

Immunity of deposed president Bazoum lifted

Niger's top court on Friday lifted the immunity of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, paving the way for a possible trial after his ouster in a military coup on July 26. Bazoum and his family have been under house arrest since a military coup that overthrew his rule last summer. The junta authorities said they planned to prosecute him for "high treason" and for undermining national security, and earlier this year initiated legal proceedings to lift his immunity in a newly created State Court, which became the country's highest judicial authority.