News Digest: NANS lauds Buhari for assenting to NOUN amendment Act; Nigerian Air Force: 6 gunship helicopters will be delivered from Italy

1.NANS lauds Buhari for assenting to NOUN amendment Act

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) amendment Act.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports  that Sen. Ita Enang, the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, on Friday, Dec. 7, disclosed to newsmen in Abuja that Mr President had assented to the amendment bill.

NANS’ National Public Relations Officer, Mr Bestman Okereafor, gave the commendation in a statement in Enugu on Sunday.

2. Nigerian Air Force: 6 gunship helicopters will be delivered from Italy

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it was expecting delivery of new fighter aircraft from both the United States and Italy to intensify its aerial campaign against the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

The aircraft being expected are 12 Super Tucano, which the United States said would not be ready until 2023 and 6 Augusta 109 Power Helicopter gunship from Italy. The Air Force chief did not state the date of delivery of the latter.

3. At least 7 officials killed in Sudan helicopter crash - news agency

 At least seven local government officials were killed in a helicopter crash in Sudan’s eastern al-Qadarif state on Sunday, state news agency SUNA reported.

The state’s governor and three security officials were among the dead. A number of people were also injured in the incident, SUNA said. The officials had been carrying out a security tour of the province.

4. M-Pesa outage: Safaricom explains exactly what happened

The Saturday outage on Safaricom’s mobile money service M-Pesa was due to a slow database response which resulted in a reduction of the number of transactions being processed, the telecommunications giant has stated

“This led to the queuing of incoming transactions and a delay in responses to customers,” said Safaricom in a statement issued on Sunday.

Safaricom stated that the outage began on Saturday at 7:04 pm but the services were brought back up at 10:53 pm.

5. Thousands walk on Ethiopia Car Free Day

Thousands of people have marked Car Free Day in cities across Ethiopia by walking and exercising.

Major roads were shut as Health Minister Amir Aman led the walk in the capital, Addis Ababa.

This was the first Car Free Day held in Ethiopia to promote healthy living, and to reduce pollution on roads usually clogged with traffic.

Tents were also set to offer free health checks to those who were walking and exercising.

Generally, city-dwellers in Ethiopia are not in the habit of exercising, the BBC's Amensisa Negera reports from Addis Ababa.