8 February 2021
Congo-Kinshasa/Ebola: Another Ebola outbreak? It would be the country’s 12th. The 11th in the country’s west happened only a few months ago. According to the health ministry, a woman from Biena, near Butembo in eastern DRC, has died from Ebola.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world/africa
Nigeria/Covid-19 vaccines: It will take more… Nigeria’s government recently released N10 billion (about US$26 million) in support of the local production of COVID-19 vaccines. But with no human vaccine produced at the Federal Vaccine Production Laboratory since 1991, Daniel Oladimeji Oluwayelu, professor of virology thinks that “the allocation of the funds to initiate local vaccine production is a step in the right direction, but I doubt that the amount will be sufficient. The reason is that Nigeria does not have a functional vaccine production facility in place. The only laboratory for human vaccine production is at Yaba, Lagos, but it has not been functional for many years now. It will need a lot of money to revamp it and increase its production capacity. It will also need to be staffed with people who have the requisite expertise and experience in modern technologies for production of safer and more efficacious vaccines such as recombinant DNA technology. So, in addition to the N10 billion, there is a lot more that government would have to do to get local vaccine production going.”
https://theconversation.com/what-it-will-take-to-produce-vaccines-in-nigeria-moneys-just-the-first-step-153497
Africa/Football World Cup: “To date, only 13 African nations have qualified and participated in the World Cup Final tournament: Cameroon (7 times), Nigeria (6), Morocco (5), Tunisia (5), Algeria (4), Côte d'Ivoire (3), Egypt (3), Ghana (3), South Africa (3), Senegal (2), Zaire (1), Angola (1) and Togo (1). Egypt was first, in 1934, the rest followed from 1970 onward.”
None of them has ever progressed further than the quarter finals. Reasons for Africa’s poor showing being “indiscipline, poor game management, tactical naivety and lack of disciplined organisation”.
Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Professor, Health and Kinesiology, provides “10 defining and memorable moments” “that revealed, tested and shaped the perception and trajectory of the African and global game of football.”
https://theconversation.com/africa-at-the-football-world-cup-10-defining-moments-153989
South Africa/Covid-19 vaccine: AstraZeneca vaccinations have been halted after a small study found low effectiveness against the new variant.
BBC Africa Live 08 February 2021. 5:56
Sudan: Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Sunday dissolved the cabinet and is expected to announce a new one shortly.
BBC Africa Live 08 February 2021. 5:12
Nigeria: Irepodun and Orolu in Osun state (south-western Nigeria) have been put under a 24-hour curfew after violence between Ilobu and Erin-Osun communities over land on Saturday.
BBC Africa Live 08 February 2021. 12:00
Algeria/France: General Bouzid Boufrioua of the Algerian army demands that France assume its historical responsibilities. The polluter pays – so France will have to decontaminate the sites where it conducted nuclear tests in the 1960s, four above ground in Reggane and thirteen underground in the region of Ekker, both in the country’s south. So far, France has even refused to provide the maps for the nuclear waste buried in the Algerian desert.
BBC Africa Live 08 February 2021. 14:55
7 February 2021
Ethiopia/Famine in Tigray? Hundreds of thousands may be at risk of starving to death. Aid agencies estimate that 4.5 million are in need – more than 60% of Tigray's population. The Ethiopian government says that everything is under control. However, Ethiopia has a history of denying famines: it has happened in 1973 under Haile Selassie, in 1984 under Mengistu Haile Mariam and in 2001 under Meles Zenawi.
For now, the UN cannot declare a famine, because they have no data to feed into their IPC (integrated food security phase classification) system. “Without data on malnutrition, child deaths and food consumption, the members of the IPC committee arrive at the cautious conclusion that it's an emergency, but they can't say "famine" because they don't have the information to prove it”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55879681