02 December 2022
Kenya: The Governor of Nairobi has urged mosques and churches to reduce noise levels. “The city recently banned nightclubs from operating in residential areas” because of their high noise levels. Before possibly extending a ban to mosques and churches, there would first be dialogue with the places of worship.
BBC Africa Live 02 December 2022. 6:45
Ghana/Film: “Borga”, derived from “Hamburg”, refers to Ghanaians who have travelled abroad, return and show off their riches. Danny Damah’s film “Borga” is about two brothers who grow up on Accra’s Agbogbloshie e-waste dump site, extracting valuable metals by burning dumped devices, one of them making it to Germany. Filming in toxic Agbogbloshie during two weeks proved difficult: “We'd go there in the morning and by evening time we would have changed about four different industrial masks throughout the day, and we would have to wash and rinse our eyes and wash our skin.”
BBC Africa Live 02 December 2022. 12:29
01 December 2022
Somalia: A bill on sexual offences to be introduced by Deputy Speaker Sadiya Yasin Haji Samatar looks like it will be rejected after lower house speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur said he would reject any bill running counter to Islamic values. A “previous bill created controversy over sections dealing with sexual offences between married couples, and the minimum age of marriage” of 18 years in the country’s draft constitution.
BBC Africa Live 01 December 2022. 6:53
Nigeria: The new National Language Policy will introduce mother language instead of English teaching in the six years of primary school. Before the implementation begins, authorities will “first provide teaching materials and teachers” capable of teaching in local languages – there are over 600 in the country.
BBC Africa Live 01 December 2022. 4:36
Sahel/AU: Before any decision about sending troops to the Sahel for assisting the fighting of terrorism, the article argues, the AU and its Peace and Security Council “should thoroughly review its decade-long military and security strategies”. The article ponders developments in the Sahel, where there is no doubt that the situation is deteriorating and coastal countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin) have been targeted. Beyond that, spillover includes the terrorists’ funding and logistics activities, “covert networks and activities (which) constitute a supply chain of resources that fuel terrorism.” The AU should consider supporting the Nouakchott Process (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal) and collaborating with the Accra Initiative (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger).
https://issafrica.org/pscreport/psc-insights/past-lessons-crucial-to-stemming-sahels-tide-of-violent-extremism?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=ISS_Weekly_FR&utm_medium=email
HIV-Aids & PrEP: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), first introduced in 2012, is highly effective and very safe. Ideal “for those who could not necessarily control when or how they had sex”. But there is one problem with it: it is very expensive, so many who would need it, for example in Africa, will not have access.
https://theconversation.com/hiv-prevention-new-injection-could-boost-the-fight-but-some-hurdles-remain-195305
HIV-Aids & Public health: This short article serves to point to three The Conversation articles that deal with the role of inequalities for HIV-Aids, the vulnerability of women and girls (4,900 of whom are thought to contract HIV every week and prevalence for 15 to 24 year old women is twice as high as for 15 to 24 year old men) and barriers to treatment.
https://theconversation.com/ending-hiv-as-a-public-health-threat-3-essential-reads-195477
South Africa/Access to HIV treatment for migrant women: Covid “lockdowns significantly reduced access to and the provision of antiretroviral treatment services”, one study estimated a reduction of 46%. Amongst others, Covid reduced the support and counselling necessary after diagnosis. Migrant women on the move were amongst the most concerned. Part of the problem was that they were ill-informed – and for example thought that, to prevent mother-to-child transmission, they could stop treatment once their child was born.
https://theconversation.com/covid-affected-access-to-hiv-treatment-the-stories-of-migrant-women-in-south-africa-show-how-195214