🌟 Good morning! This is 4minit, delivering today's top stories from Mauritius and around the world.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes ⏱️

New here? Subscribe to our FREE daily newsletter!

Silver Bank's collapse leaves Rs 907 million in public funds with 'extremely unlikely' recovery

Rs 907 million in public money, and PM Navin Ramgoolam says the odds of getting it back are 'extremely unlikely.' The admission came in a written parliamentary response this week, confirming what depositors feared: Silver Bank, placed into receivership on 30 March 2026, had been used to drain funds into offshore accounts.

Ramgoolam described the bank's history as 'a classic case of institutional conspiracy,' designed to systematically siphon depositor money across international jurisdictions over time. The parliamentary response details a financial deficit that left local depositors with almost nothing to show for their savings.

With receivership proceedings ongoing, the focus now shifts to who held Silver Bank's licences, who approved its operations, and how the outflows went undetected for so long. Those are not accounting questions. They are accountability ones.

The 'extremely unlikely' phrasing is careful civil service language. It means gone.

Rat-infested warehouses and Rs 200 million in expired medicines: PAC releases its health audit

The Public Accounts Committee published a special report Tuesday detailing how the Ministry of Health's warehouses at Plaine-Lauzun lost more than Rs 200 million in medicines to rats, crumbling ceilings, and buildings that had no electricity. The Central Supplies Division, responsible for managing national medicine stocks, was found in a state of advanced neglect.

Medicines requiring cold storage were held at New Grove without air conditioning. PAC report called it a 'grave systemic failure.' The committee, chaired by opposition Whip Adrien Duval, is recommending urgent modernisation of the national storage network. A new warehouse site has been identified at Phoenix as a first step.

These are not budget shortfalls. These are medicines that patients never received.

Anti-money laundering chief faces FCC complaint as St-Louis power plant case goes to DPP

Who watches the country's anti-money laundering unit? Activist Bruneau Laurette took that question to the Financial Crimes Commission Tuesday, filing a complaint against ASP Balmick Dussoye, head of the Central CID's Anti-Money Laundering Unit. The complaint cites alleged corruption and obstruction of justice linked to a disputed Rs 45 million loan from the Mauritius Investment Corporation.

In a separate action, the FCC confirmed its investigation into the CEB's St-Louis power plant deal has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. What happens next is the DPP's call.

Two FCC actions in one day. Someone is pressing the button.

116 cybercrime cases, 6 arrests, one court case: the digital crime unit is stretched thin

116 cases. Six arrests. One before a court. Parliament received the cybercrime statistics Tuesday covering the police Cyber Crime Unit from November 2025 to April 23 this year. The unit runs on 17 officers and authorities admit the volume of cases is growing faster than its capacity to process them.

Six prosecutable outcomes from 116 cases is not a clearance rate. It is a backlog.

Between 32 and 61 days of fuel: the minister lays out the numbers in parliament

Commerce Minister Michaël Sik Yuen told parliament the STC holds between 32 and 61 days of fuel reserves depending on product type, with the most recent annual contract covering 319,000 metric tonnes. Opposition leader Joe Lesjongard had asked for full details on the contracts, costs, and pricing after weeks of concern about the country's exposure to Hormuz supply disruptions.

🗞️ SHORTS

Murder charge for Rodrigues woman – A 29-year-old Rodrigues woman appeared at Curepipe District Court Friday on a provisional murder charge.

Chagos bill waits for UK-US handshake – PM Ramgoolam told parliament the Chagos legislation will only be tabled once a formal UK-US agreement is signed.

New energy rules take effect Thursday – Energy efficiency regulations take effect May 1, limiting commercial and residential electricity waste across the island.

Police warn of WhatsApp account hijacks – Police has issued warnings after a man from Eau Coulée lost his WhatsApp account to hackers who demanded Rs 20,000 from his contacts.

Pre-budget consultations open today – Budget consultations for 2026-2027 open today under Dhaneshwar Damry ahead of the June budget.

Rs 16.5 billion – the trade deficit Mauritius recorded in February 2026, an 18% rise compared to the same month in 2025, according to Statistics Mauritius, as import costs continue to outpace export earnings.

$8.5 million – in compensation the International Criminal Court ordered Tuesday to victims of Al Hassan, the Malian jihadist leader convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2024. The ICC described it as a landmark reparations ruling.

$3.2 billion – BP's first-quarter underlying profit, more than double the same period a year ago, driven by the energy price spiral that followed the war in Iran. The windfall is the clearest signal yet of how the conflict is reshaping oil company balance sheets.

❤️ Enjoying this 4minit? Share this newsletter with someone who would enjoy it too.

If you found your way here but are not yet subscribed, let us help you with that: Subscribe for FREE!

Mali's capital reaches for calm as Kidal falls, PM breaks his silence

After 48 hours of near-silence, Mali's Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga finally spoke Tuesday, urging citizens 'not to give in to panic' following the most significant coordinated offensive in years. Jihadist fighters and Tuareg separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front have captured Kidal, the strategic northern town long seen as a symbol of resistance, after two days of intense fighting.

The cost to the government has been severe. Defence Minister General Sadio Camara was killed in a suicide car bombing during the attacks, Malian troops and their Russian allies withdrew from Kidal, and Air Mali suspended flights to the country's north and centre. Analysts say the attacks reveal a deepening alliance between separatist groups and the al-Qaida-linked JNIM, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, pointing to a level of coordination that the junta did not expect.

Kidal has changed hands before, but never while Russian troops were on the ground to prevent it.

Islamic State kills 29 at a football pitch in northeastern Nigeria

Gunmen opened fire on civilians watching a football match in Adamawa state, northeastern Nigeria, at least 29 people were killed, the Islamic State claimed responsibility. The attack, targeting a crowd gathered at a local pitch, is the latest evidence of an expanding jihadist presence across Nigeria's northeast.

Targeting a football crowd is not random. It is deliberate theatre, chosen for maximum visibility.

Uganda rounds up 231 foreigners in a crackdown on traffickers and cyberscam networks

Ugandan authorities detained 231 foreigners this week in an operation they say is linked to illegal migration, human trafficking, and online cyberscam operations run from within Uganda's borders. The internal affairs ministry said some of those held were connected to networks using migrants to staff online fraud centres.

UAE quits OPEC after 59 years, promising to pump more oil from May

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it is leaving OPEC and the wider OPEC+ group effective May 1, ending a membership that began in 1967. UAE officials cited frustration with production quotas that, they say, unfairly capped exports at precisely the moment the country could produce more.

The timing matters. With Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz still in place and global oil markets in turmoil, the UAE is betting it can act independently and maximise output. OPEC's ability to hold together as a cartel, already under strain, takes another visible blow.

OPEC without the UAE is like a price floor with a gap in it. The remaining members are already doing the maths.

Ukraine shot down a record 33,000 Russian drones in March, but Odesa still took a hit

Ukraine shot down more than 33,000 Russian drones in March alone, the highest monthly total since the war first began. The record defence effort has not stopped strikes: a drone hit Odesa on Tuesday, wounding 14 people, as Kyiv pressed Washington for more Patriot air defence batteries to close the gaps in coverage.

Both Iran and the US watched a sanctioned oligarch's yacht sail through the Strait

The Nord, a superyacht owned by sanctioned Russian magnate Alexei Mordashov, passed through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz without objection from either Iran or the US Navy. Both sides had every reason to stop it. Neither moved.

A sanctioned oligarch, an active blockade, two naval powers watching. No one acted. Diplomacy is complicated.

A guilty plea 24 years later: the man who killed hip-hop's Jam Master Jay

In October 2002, Jam Master Jay, DJ for pioneering rap group Run-DMC, was shot dead in his Queens recording studio. The case went cold for two decades. This week, Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to federal murder charges for his role in the killing.

The motive was a drug deal gone wrong. Bryant was linked to a cocaine distribution network that intersected with Jay's circle, and it took DNA evidence and federal surveillance to close the file.

Solved after 24 years. Somewhere, there is someone else who knew all along.