President of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Receives Shakhboot bin Nahyan
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His Excellency Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), received His Excellency Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, Minister of State, during an official visit to the capital, Kinshasa.
H.E. Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan conveyed the greetings of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, to H.E. President Tshisekedi, along with their wishes of further progress and prosperity for the government and people of the DRC.
For his part, H.E. President Tshisekedi conveyed his greetings to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, along with his wishes for further development and growth for the leadership, government, and people of the UAE.
During the meeting, H.E. President Tshisekedi welcomed the visit of H.E. Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan, and discussed mutual efforts to expand and develop bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries and peoples. The two sides also explored areas of collaboration across several fields including economy, trade, energy, mining, technology, AI, and education.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Canon Central & North Africa Celebrates 10 Years of Growth and Innovation at The Executive Circle 2025 in Seychelles
- The annual exclusive conference marked the celebration of 10 years of Canon Central and North Africa's growth, expansion, and partner success across the continent.
- Canon showcased its new “Canon's World Unseen: 2.0 – Coral” brand campaign and highlighted the coral-restoration partnership in Seychelles with Nature Seychelles and Coral Spawning Lab.
Canon Central & North Africa (CCNA) (www.Canon-CNA.com), successfully concluded its Executive Circle Partner gathering, hosted on 3–4 November 2025 in Seychelles. Marking a decade since CCNA's establishment, this milestone edition brought together strategic partners, executives, and industry leaders to reflect on achievements and align on future growth opportunities across the African continent.
Established in 2016, Canon Central & North Africa was created to expand Canon's presence across the African continent, forge deeper collaboration with partners, and accelerate regional growth. Over the past 10 transformative years, CCNA has strengthened Canon's footprint across the African continent by expanding its operations and establishing a local presence in key markets. During this time, the organization has built a strong ecosystem of distributors, resellers, and channel partners, enhancing customer access to innovative imaging and print technologies. Additionally, CCNA has consistently delivered industry-leading service support and training programs, ensuring that partners and customers are equipped with the expertise and resources needed to succeed.
Through strategic partnerships and localized market initiatives, CCNA has consistently driven business value and fostered meaningful relationships, ensuring that Canon's portfolio, solutions, and expertise truly serve the needs of Africa.
ICE: Canon's Strategic Pillar – Innovation, Customer & Employee Experience
This year, the Executive Circle continued to reinforce ICE—Innovation, Customer, and Employee Experience, as the strategic pillar guiding Canon's regional direction. The focus is on driving innovation through new markets and product categories, enhancing customer engagement across every touchpoint, and empowering employees through ongoing development to better support partners and customers.
“Our commitment to Africa goes beyond business, it is about collaboration, innovation, and shared growth,” said Somesh Adukia, Managing Director, Canon Central & North Africa. “As we celebrate 10 incredible years, we remain focused on enabling our partners, investing in our customers, and empowering our people. Together, we are shaping the future of imaging in Africa.”
Canon Launches Global Brand Campaign: ‘Canon's World Unseen 2.0 – Coral Campaign'
Unveiled during the conference, the new brand campaign - “Canon's World Unseen: 2.0, showcases Canon's commitment to storytelling and sustainability. The campaign reveals the breathtaking beauty of coral reefs, much of which remains unseen to the world, and uses photography and imaging technology to raise awareness about the urgent need to protect marine ecosystems.
Hosting the Executive Circle in Seychelles, one of the world's most pristine island nations, reflects Canon's belief in the power of imagery to inspire change, creativity, and environmental stewardship.
Earlier this year, Canon EMEA announced the pioneering sustainability initiative in partnership with Nature Seychelles, a leading environmental non-profit in the region, and Coral Spawning International (CSI), recognized pioneers in land-based coral reproduction and restoration. This collaboration underscores Canon's commitment to sustainability and marine ecosystem preservation in Seychelles and beyond. As part of the event, we also took our partners to witness these efforts firsthand and gave them a guided tour of the project site, allowing them to see the tangible impact of this collaboration in action.
This collaboration supports a first-of-its-kind coral restoration project in the Western Indian Ocean using an innovative coral regeneration method that strengthens reefs against climate change. The project leverages CSL's groundbreaking expertise in coral spawning and Nature Seychelles' deep environmental stewardship to protect and restore coral ecosystems at scale.
Regional Growth, Collaboration and Recognition
The Executive Circle aims to elevate partner collaboration and align strategic priorities across Africa. Through immersive discussions, knowledge-sharing, and business planning sessions, partners engaged directly with Canon's leadership to accelerate collective growth and innovation in the region.
To commemorate the conclusion of the conference, Canon hosted a gala dinner and awards ceremony, recognizing top-performing partners across B2B and B2C segments for their exceptional contribution to the business over the past year. The evening also featured the special 10th Anniversary Awards, honoring our partners who have been with us on this incredible journey for the past 10 years.
The Executive Circle 2025 in Seychelles marked a significant milestone, celebrating a decade of partnership, regional growth, and shared success.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA).Media enquiries, please contact:
Canon Central and North Africa
Mai Youssef
e. Mai.youssef@canon-me.com
APO Group - PR Agency
Rania ElRafie
e. Rania.ElRafie@apo-opa.com
About Canon Central and North Africa:
Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) (www.Canon-CNA.com) is a division within Canon Middle East FZ LLC (CME), a subsidiary of Canon Europe. The formation of CCNA in 2016 was a strategic step that aimed to enhance Canon's business within the Africa region - by strengthening Canon's in-country presence and focus. CCNA also demonstrates Canon's commitment to operating closer to its customers and meeting their demands in the rapidly evolving African market.
Canon has been represented in the African continent for more than 15 years through distributors and partners that have successfully built a solid customer base in the region. CCNA ensures the provision of high quality, technologically advanced products that meet the requirements of Africa's rapidly evolving marketplace. With over 100 employees, CCNA manages sales and marketing activities across 44 countries in Africa.
Canon's corporate philosophy is Kyosei (http://apo-opa.co/43xEHwr) – ‘living and working together for the common good'. CCNA pursues sustainable business growth, focusing on reducing its own environmental impact and supporting customers to reduce theirs using Canon's products, solutions and services. At Canon, we are pioneers, constantly redefining the world of imaging for the greater good. Through our technology and our spirit of innovation, we push the bounds of what is possible – helping us to see our world in ways we never have before. We help bring creativity to life, one image at a time. Because when we can see our world, we can transform it for the better.
For more information: www.Canon-CNA.com
Sierra Leone’s President Bio Chairs United Nations (UN) Security Council Debate, Calls Starvation a “Crime” and Food Security a Global Peace Imperative
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His Excellency Dr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chair of the ECOWAS Authority, today presided over a high-level United Nations Security Council open debate on “Threats to International Peace and Security: Conflict-Related Food Insecurity” at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Addressing the Council for the second time in two years during Sierra Leone's tenure, President Bio warned that hunger is increasingly being used as a weapon of war and called for stronger global action to prevent the deliberate starvation of civilians. He stressed that such acts are prohibited under international law and constitute war crimes.
The President highlighted that conflicts across regions—from Gaza and Sudan to Haiti, Ukraine, and the Sahel, continue to devastate food systems, destroy livelihoods, and deepen humanitarian crises. He described starvation as a “slow, silent, corrosive” form of violence that fuels instability, displacement, and renewed conflict.
President Bio outlined three core messages saying starvation is not collateral damage but a crime; food insecurity is both a driver of conflict and a peacebuilding imperative; and sustainable peace requires investment in agricultural resilience, markets, and human capital, especially women and youth.
He presented Sierra Leone's Feed Salone Initiative as a national model demonstrating that food security is integral to the peace and development nexus. The four-pillar programme, production, resilience, markets and value chains, and human capital, aims to strengthen productivity, reduce import dependence, and build climate-smart systems that secure stable livelihoods.
At the regional level, President Bio emphasized ECOWAS efforts to integrate food security into peacebuilding, early warning, and trade frameworks, including the expansion of the ECOWAS Food Security Reserve and the ECOWARN early warning network.
Proposing six concrete global actions, the President urged the Council to protect food systems in conflict zones, institutionalize early-warning mechanisms, safeguard humanitarian access, advance accountability for starvation crimes, link peacebuilding finance to agriculture and livelihoods, and prioritize the empowerment of women and youth across agricultural value chains.
He affirmed that Africa does not seek sympathy but partnership, noting that the continent holds the majority of the world's uncultivated arable land and significant youth-driven innovative potential. Preventing future wars, he stressed, requires treating food security as central to peace and security rather than a secondary humanitarian concern.
President Bio concluded by calling on the global community to “ensure that no child is starved into submission, no harvest held hostage, and no community driven to violence by hunger,” urging nations to align moral conscience with international law and collective action.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of State House Sierra Leone.United Nations (UN) aid office pushes for ‘unhindered’ humanitarian access in Sudan
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In recent days the Emergency Relief Coordinator has travelled to various parts of the war-torn country and met leaders, frontline responders and survivors of the crisis.
“We need more UN boots on the ground,” Mr. Fletcher said. “The UN is a ship that was not built to stay in the harbour, and this visit has been part of that big push to make sure we're mobilised closer to those we serve.”
Progress on negotiations
Mr. Fletcher said he had a “useful” meeting with General Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), focused on getting “unlimited” and “unhindered” humanitarian access.
He also met representatives from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in what was a “tough” discussion, where he set out “unequivocally” that the UN will be expecting protection for civilians and insisting on accountability and safe passages for civilians and aid convoys.
“We have, I think, a pretty strong agreement from the authorities [of the military government] in Port Sudan and the RSF on full access and safe passage for our convoys to go in and for civilians to get out,” Mr. Fletcher said. “Now let's see what happens next.”
‘Crime scene' in El Fasher
The UN also made progress on getting teams into El Fasher, in Darfur, on the organization's terms, Mr. Fletcher added.
“We're not going to be instrumentalised,” he emphasized. “This is a potential crime scene, and we've got to make sure we've got the right people going in, and that the aid is genuinely neutral and impartial.”
El Fasher was captured by the RSF last month after more than 500 days of siege, leading to the displacement of some 90,000 people since the end of October.
When asked about the number of deaths in El Fasher, Mr. Fletcher said there is no credible answer on how many have been killed so far.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in Tawila, but “many people clearly aren't getting out of El Fasher,” he said.
“One of the things we want to do when we go in is to find out why that is and to see what the conditions are, in which they are being held there.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.