26 August 2021
Malaria: Combining a vaccine with taking a preventive drug in the run-up to rainy season reduces malaria deaths in small children by 70% – these research results were described as “striking” even though it sounds complicated.
BBC Africa Live 26 August 2021. 6:39
Polio: A year ago, Africa has been declared polio free. But “(d)espite the efforts of health programmes around the world, there is still a threat that polio could spread again.” Vigilance continues to be needed and vaccination coverage needs to be kept high.
https://theconversation.com/its-been-a-year-since-africa-was-declared-polio-free-but-a-threat-remains-166625
Ethiopia: In Oromia region’s East Wollega zone (where “fertile lands have been a source of tension between the two communities”), clashes between Oromo and Amhara have killed more than 200. It seems like both Oromo and Amhara militia are to blame.
BBC Africa Live 26 August 2021. 17:23
25 August 2021
Zimbabwe: In the 1980s in Matabeleland, around 20,000 dissidents were killed in the Gukurahundi massacres. The children of those victims that died/disappeared without being declared dead have suffered because, without the parent’s death certificate, they cannot get identity documents. They cannot exercise their right to vote or may become stateless if going abroad to look for work.
BBC Africa Live 25 August 2021. 12:28
Mali: In the article’s author’s view, the objectives set out in Prime minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga’s Action plan are laudable but do not go far enough, especially where national security is concerned and where “everyday peace at the local level” is forgotten. “(S)ome of the non-state armed forces (should be integrated) into the national army to better protect local communities from criminal violence and intransigent insurgents. This would create the kind of everyday peace in the markets, schools and neighbourhoods that is now lacking.” On a different count, there are elements in Maïga’s Action plan that may be setting up a prolongation of the transition period, the allotted time simply being too short.
https://theconversation.com/malis-roadmap-for-lasting-peace-has-laudable-goals-but-it-doesnt-go-far-enough-166419
Kenya: The Court of Appeal considers that President Kibaki’s Constitution Amendment Bill 2020 (also known as the Building Bridges Initiative) goes too far, is no longer an amendment but amounts to a dismemberment of the Kenyan constitution. The Court of Appeal has thus upheld the High Court’s prohibiting the bill.
https://theconversation.com/kenyan-judges-stop-presidents-reforms-as-attempt-to-dismember-the-constitution-166587
Niger: 16 soldiers were killed and 9 wounded when Islamists attacked an army post near Diffa. According to the army, its counter-attack killed 50 Boko Haram fighters. “Earlier, the army in Niger said it had killed about 100 jihadists in the south-west of the country, near the border with Burkina Faso.”
BBC Africa Live 25 August 2021. 18:47
Nigeria: A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in Plateau state capital Jos after gunmen killed at least 18 people during an apparently carefully planned raid on a Christian community Tuesday night in the city’s outskirts. “Plateau state has suffered years of deadly ethnic and religious violence as well as clashes between farmers and herders.” Earlier in August, “dozens of Muslim travellers (were killed) by a mob in a Christian dominated neighbourhood”.
BBC Africa Live 25 August 2021. 17:50