28 May 2022
Nigeria: Inhabitants of coastal areas Niger delta see “oil and flood risks as normal parts of their lives”. What they worry about are other things. According to the author’s research in three coastal towns, “(t)he availability and location of toilets and drains scored highest among residents’ concerns.” Maybe some environmental education is necessary…
https://theconversation.com/oil-hazards-arent-the-main-worry-of-nigerias-coastal-residents-toilets-are-178689
South Africa: Drop-out rates in South African schools have always been very high. Before Covid, “those most likely to drop out were female, from poor households, and attending poorly resourced schools with low academic performance.” And it matters: drop-outs “are more likely to have limited earning potential, chronic unemployment and lower socio-economic status. They’re also more likely to engage in high-risk behaviours, such as having older sexual partners and having condomless sex.” Existing inequalities were further exacerbated by the Covid lockdown. According to the article’s author’s research, more than 50% of girls were not able to continue with their studies because of lack of cellphones or internet access. Without much surprise, “(t)he girls who were most likely to experience educational disruption were those in the poorest families, who were orphaned, who had no access to a cellphone or who had experienced hunger.” But others struggled to carry on with their education. The author makes recommendation how to smoothen a future transition to online learning.
https://theconversation.com/south-africas-covid-school-closures-hit-girls-hard-but-they-showed-resilience-too-182804
27 May 2022
Polio: The global eradication programme has run into trouble. A case of wild poliovirus in Malawi in February and another connected one in Mozambique a few weeks after are not the only wild poliovirus cases. Add to that the vaccine-derived poliovirus cVDPV which is also threatening the elimination effort (the oral vaccine contains live attenuated virus and can, on occasion, mutate and cause the disease that it is meant to prevent). Total eradication, that seemed so close (with poliovirus type 1 now endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan) has become elusive, with Covid, the wars in Yemen and Ukraine adding to the problem. There is even debate whether the great cost of total eradication is worth it, whether the money would not be better spent on other interventions that threaten many more lives. An in-depth overview.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00973-4/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email
Ethiopia: In what apparently is a crackdown on critical voices, 13 reporters and media workers have been arrested over the past week. This comes simultaneously with a “law enforcement operation” in the Amhara region where at least 4,500 people were arrested according to the authorities. Last year already, Ethiopia had been termed “one of the worst jailers of reporters” by the Committee to Protect Journalists (US-based).
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 8:20
Gambia/USA: A 3.5m USD mansion at Potomac, Maryland has been seized by the US because it was bought by former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh with corruption proceeds through a trust set up by his wife. The mansion will likely be sold and the money “used to benefit the people of The Gambia harmed by former President Jammeh’s acts of corruption and abuse of office”.
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 4:39
South Sudan: As recommended by an expert panel and because of “‘persistent ceasefire violations’ and rising violence in the country”, the Security Council of the United Nations has extended the arms embargo first imposed in 2018 for another year.
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 9:06
Eritrea: A reporter of Economist magazine reports from the capital Asmara that “(c)afes are mostly empty, shop shelves are almost bare and chemists are running low on supplies”. In the Tigre war, Asmara has been supporting Addis Ababa against its arch-enemy, the Tigrayan TPLF (its neighbour) which the Eritrean President absolutely wants “diminished in force”.
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 10:59
Covid/South Africa: A study based on blood donors has found that 98% of South Africans have some Covid antibodies – has either been infected by Covid or vaccinated against it. Black donors are more likely to have been infected, white donors more likely to have been vaccinated – “white donors are both unusually likely to avail themselves of vaccination, and they are unusually able to avoid exposure, for instance by working predominantly from home, [and] living in smaller family units”
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 14:29
Sudan/Women: The Irish NGO Front Line Defenders today Friday announced that Amira Osman Hamed will obtain the Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. A women’s rights defender for more than two decades, now in her 40s, though arrested several times, she “never deterred from her mission and actively participated in peaceful demonstrations”.
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 11:44
Malawi: The Central Bank has announced a 25% devaluation of the kwacha, Malawi’s currency. It seems that the exchange rate had been kept artificially high. The Central Bank said the devaluation had nothing to do with ongoing negotiations with the IMF for assistance.
BBC Africa Live 27 May 2022. 15:23