Category: Health Care

A heavily armed gunman fatally shot three police officers and a security guard in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, near a French embassy building. Police later killed the man, whose target and motive were not immediately clear.

A gunman near the French Embassy in Dar es Salaam opened fire on Wednesday creating fear among the residents.

The inspector general of police, Simon Sirro, confirmed the incident a few hours later but did not disclose details about the shooting or the suspect.

The police chief said: “We have lost our two soldiers but the man who carried out the murder was also killed but we want to know where he comes from and who he is and I will give you the information later.”

Shortly afterward, officials confirmed the death of another police officer and a security guard in the shooting.

The attack came just hours after President Samia Suluhu Hassan met with police officials.

Eyewitnesses say the shooting caused panic. Daudi Mwamala is an Uber driver who was at the scene.

Those with cars at the front didn’t have any chance to reverse their cars or anything, Mwamala said. What they did was open their car doors and run and some of the traffic police were also running.

Juma Selemani, a Dar es Salaam resident, says he thought police officers were firing shots to stop a bank robbery.

At first, he said, we were not scared as we thought maybe they are soldiers continuing with their work, but later we saw a man firing bullets in the air. He added that one traffic policeman said my fellow officer has died.

The U.S. Embassy in Tanzania has issued a security alert warning its citizens to avoid the area.

Source: Voice of America

At least two people were killed and five wounded Thursday after a suicide bomber detonated a device inside a cafe in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

The suicide bomber targeted a tea shop near a crowded junction in northern Mogadishu, which was reportedly frequented by members of the Somali security forces as well as civilians.

The al-Qaida-linked group Al-Shabab claimed the attack through their Shahada News Agency, according to the U.S. monitoring group SITE.

The early-evening attack, which sent debris flying outside, killed two members of the security forces and injured five people, said Mohamed Ali, a traffic policeman who was at the scene.

"Pieces of metal and destroyed plastic seats were strewn around the whole area," said Abdukadir Sagaalle, who witnessed the aftermath.

Al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally backed government, regularly attacks government and civilian targets in Mogadishu.

Last month, the jihadists claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a crowded tea shop in Mogadishu that killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens.

The group controlled Somalia's capital until 2011, when it was pushed out by African Union troops, but still holds territory in the countryside.

Source: Voice of America

Former Chadian president Hissene Habre, who was serving a life term in Senegal for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has died, Senegalese Justice Minister Malick Sall said Tuesday. He was 79.

"Habre is in his Lord's hands," Sall told the television channel TFM.

The Chadian consulate said he had died of Covid-19.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

He seized power in Chad in 1982, but fled to Senegal in 1990 after he was in turn overthrown.

Habre's rule was marked by brutal crackdowns on dissent, including alleged torture and executions of opponents.

Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed under his leadership of the semi-desert country.

In exile in Dakar, Habre lived a quiet life in an upmarket suburb with his wife and children.

But the former dictator -- who was dubbed "Africa's Pinochet" -- was finally arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the AU under a deal with Senegal.

Habre began serving his life sentence in the Cap Manuel penitentiary in Dakar.

His supporters voiced concerned for his health and pushed for more lenient detention conditions given his advanced age.

Last year, a Senegalese judge granted him a two-month furlough designed to shield him from coronavirus.

Groups representing Habre's victims recognised his right to be treated humanely, but fiercely resisted preferential treatment for the former dictator.

'Pitiless'

Reed Brody, a lawyer who represented Habre's victims, said in a statement on Tuesday that he had been calling "for months" for the former dictator to be vaccinated against Covid.

AFP was unable to independently verify whether Habre had received a jab.

Brody was nonetheless withering about Habre's legacy, saying he would "go down in history as one of the world's most pitiless dictators."

Habre "slaughtered his own people to seize and maintain power... burned down entire villages, sent women to serve as sexual slaves for his troops and built clandestine dungeons to inflict torture on his enemies,” Brody said.

Habre's conviction in 2016 was seen as a turning point for pursuing rights abusers in Africa, where the International Criminal Court (ICC), located in The Hague, was becoming increasingly unpopular.

The former dictator was ordered to pay up to 30,000 euros ($33,000) to each victim who suffered rape, arbitrary detention and imprisonment during his rule, as well as to their relatives.

Source: Voice of America

Despite?COVID-19 vaccine being available to all South African adults, uptake remains low with just 20% of adults having received a first dose.?

The Muslim Association of South Africa is one of many groups combatting vaccine hesitancy by delivering shots to doorsteps.?

Dawn Crotz received her Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from a paramedic in the comfort of her south Johannesburg home.

While the vaccine has been available to the 64-year-old since April, Crotz said rumors about the side effects made her hesitate. But the reality of the deadly virus changed her mind.

“I decided to get it because I saw my daughter-in-law's father got so sick he passed away," Crotz said. "And then I thought I might also get it. I take a flu vaccine every year. I go in and I buy it and they give it to me. And then I thought, ‘No, let me do this also.’”

With South Africa’s COVID-19 death toll surpassing 79,000, volunteer health workers are scrambling to quell people’s vaccine fears.

The country’s Muslim association launched an at-home vaccination program to provide individual attention to allay concerns and to remove the barriers of traveling to a clinic.

Muhammad Varachia is one of the paramedics delivering at-home vaccine.

“I think it's just a misconception, people reading on social media, people hearing from different people that is bad for you, that it’s man-made," Varachia said. "How can we create a vaccine in a year, etc, etc. So, there's a lot of hesitancy that we've come across, but we put their fears to bed.”

Another problem is access to transportation and basic information about how one can get the vaccine, especially among the elderly.

“The registration for vaccines are electronic," Varachia said. "And even though you can also register at sites, you need to know where the sites are, before you can show up there.”

For some people, like 22-year-old Kurt Fischer who is quadriplegic, getting to a vaccination site is difficult both physically and mentally.

While the rest of his family had been vaccinated, his father, Kevin Fischer, said having an at-home option for his son was a game changer.

“I would have sacrificed not having it to give him my shot, if possible, that he’s, he’s first," Fischer said. "The familiarity of being able to be in his house is a big benefit, that there's no stress of going to a foreign venue.”

Experts said volunteer efforts are closing the gap in vaccinating more people, especially those most vulnerable.

President Cyril Ramaphosa applauded the country’s youth on Monday for rushing to sites as vaccines were made available to those as young as 18.

But experts warn that fears and other barriers still need to be addressed, or the latest uptick could fizzle out as it did among older age groups.

Source: Voice of America

Six of the 136 students kidnapped from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger have died of illness, the school principal told Reuters on Monday.

The abductors have demanded a ransom to release the students, kidnapped in May after an armed gang on motorcycles attacked the school in the town of Tegina.

Criminal gangs carrying out kidnappings for ransom are blamed for a series of raids on boarding schools in northern Nigeria in which more than 1,000 students have been abducted since December.

The principal, Abubakar Garba Alhasan, said the kidnappers had called to say the children died from sickness and to urge that the ransom demand be met.

Abubakar Adam, whose seven children are held by the gang, said the abductors called the principal to demand a ransom.

Kidnappers on Sunday released 15 more students taken last month from a Baptist school in northwest Nigeria, after parents paid an undisclosed ransom to free them.

President Muhammadu Buhari in February called on state governments to stop paying kidnappers, and Kaduna Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai publicly refuses to pay. Desperate parents and communities often raise and pay ransoms themselves.

Source: Voice of America

More than a year after COVID-19 began sweeping the world, abruptly cutting short her Peace Corps stint, Cameron Beach is once again living in rural Malawi — this time on her own dime.

The Peace Corps, a U.S. government program marking its 60th anniversary this year, boasted 7,000 volunteers in 62 countries in March 2020. They were given little time to pack before being put on a plane and sent back to the United States that month.

“It was especially painful for me because I was given 24 hours to leave a place that I’d called home for almost two years,” Beach said during a recent video call from her home in Malawi, a landlocked country in southern Africa.

Beach was trained to speak Chichewa and had been teaching English at the Mkomera Community Day Secondary School in Dedza, located in a compound about 40 kilometers southeast of the capital, Lilongwe. The 25-year-old Greenville, South Carolina, native paid her own way back to her post nine months after evacuation and is living on savings, but says she would “absolutely” rejoin the Peace Corps if it became possible.

It might be: The organization hopes to begin returning volunteers to the field late this year or early next year.

While Peace Corps volunteers would be required to be vaccinated, sending them back will depend on the situation in individual countries. Initially, about 2,400 evacuated volunteers expressed interest in going back and there are about 10,000 applications on file, Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn told The Associated Press.

“Immediately after the evacuation we had tremendous interest from volunteers who were evacuated in returning to their country of service,” Spahn said. “Clearly, as time goes on, you know, people do move on with their lives, but I will say we have a robust pipeline of both people who were evacuated as well as those who were invited, but were unable to go and those who are expressing new interest.”

How soon they can be sent overseas depends on the worldwide fight against the virus, complicated by the recent emergence of the more transmissible delta variant and the slow rollout of vaccines in developing countries — many of which host Peace Corps programs.

Spahn estimates it will be several years before the Peace Corps is back to its full strength. After all, while volunteers in select countries had been evacuated before, March 2020 marked the first time since the organization was founded by President John F. Kennedy that it had to evacuate all its volunteers at the same time.

Since its creation in 1961, more than 240,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in scores of countries. The goal is to help the countries meet their development needs with a wide variety of programs — from education to health and agriculture programs — while helping promote a better understanding of Americans.

Typical service lasts two years after a training period, the length of which depends on the country and the program. During the pandemic most Peace Corps staff, both U.S. citizens and local hires, remained in place and, in some cases, kept up some programs.

Some former volunteers even worked remotely on development projects from the United States, receiving a small stipend for their work.

Heading back overseas is nonetheless a daunting undertaking between the required training and rebuilding of programs. Areas that have few returning volunteers will also lose the institutional, cross-cultural and local knowledge typically passed on by departing volunteers to their successors.

It’s not just the Peace Corps that has had to recall thousands from remote reaches of the globe and navigate the aftermath.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had to send home about 26,000 missionaries tasked with recruiting new members to the faith known widely as the Mormon church. Many pivoted to doing missions in their home countries with a focus on online work.

In November, the church began sending missionaries back into the field and, in June of this year, the church reopened its missionary training centers in Utah, the Philippines and Mexico.

All missionaries from the United States who serve overseas are required to be vaccinated, said church spokesperson Sam Penrod. Missionaries who do not want to be vaccinated will be assigned to missions in their home countries.

“The church is taking a careful approach when assigning missionaries outside of their home country, based upon local conditions and following the guidance of government and health officials,” he said in an email.

As time goes by, potential recruits and returnees are moving on.

Cullen O’Donnell, 25, originally from Mentor, Ohio, served two years with the Peace Corps in Ecuador teaching English and then extended for a third year. He was planning another year, working on the Galapagos Islands, when COVID-19 hit.

He’d still like to go back — “then again with Peace Corps it’s very vague: ‘Yeah we’re hoping to get back to the field,’ but it keeps getting pushed back.”

So he’s getting on with his life. He now has a fulfilling job at a school for at-risk students in Pennsylvania and was just accepted to graduate school.

The Peace Corps has been accepting new applications throughout the pandemic, but in June the agency began planning for a return to Belize after the government there asked for volunteers who could help local schools recover from the pandemic’s disruptions.

But there is no indication when the first trainees would be sent to the tiny country tucked between Mexico and Guatemala.

A few volunteers refused to be evacuated but their Peace Corps service was ended, Spahn said. Despite their truncated service, volunteers are eligible for the variety of benefits typically afforded those who complete the two years — including resettlement payments, preferred hiring status for federal jobs and special scholarships.

But those former volunteers — like Beach — could help seed the revived Peace Corps, Spahn said.

Beach hadn’t been able to say goodbye. Her students had missed her.

“The time when Madam Beach left Malawi, lots of things went wrong especially in our class,” said Aness Leman Filimoni, who is in her last year of high school. “Madam Beach was teaching us English but when she left, the school could not find a suitable replacement.”

Beach is now teaching her usual two classes a day, five days a week. She’s also helping finish up a girls’ dormitory built in part with a Peace Corps grant.

Just before the pandemic, there were 108 volunteers in Malawi. Peace Corps Malawi Director Amber Lucero-Dwyer, who stayed, has seen a handful of former volunteers return on their own — although she thought most were visiting, not staying indefinitely as Beach is.

“We have tried to be as creative as possible to determine what can we do, what core Peace Corps work can we do in the absence of volunteers,” Lucero-Dwyer said.

Beach was originally sent to Malawi just weeks after her college graduation, and was scheduled to complete her service in August 2020; if she’s able to return to service, she doesn’t know how long the stint would last.

Regardless, she’s found her niche.

“It’s what I feel I’m meant to do,” Beach said of what she sees as the calling that drew her to the Peace Corps and ultimately Malawi. “It wasn’t a very windy road.”

Source: Voice of America

World Health Organization officials warn that decisions by rich countries to provide COVID-19 booster shots to their vaccinated populations will set back efforts to contain the spread of this deadly disease in Africa.

The United States, France, and Germany are among a growing number of wealthy countries planning to offer COVID-19 booster shots to their populations. This, at a time when the world’s poorer nations are struggling to get even one jab of these life-saving vaccines into their peoples’ arms.

WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, warns that moves by some countries to introduce booster shots threaten Africa’s ability to extricate itself from this crushing disease. She says richer countries that are hoarding vaccines are making a mockery of vaccine equity.

"High-income countries have already, on average, administered more than 103 doses per 100 people, whereas in Africa that number stands at six," said Moeti. "Failure to vaccinate the most at-risk groups in all countries will result in needless deaths. … It will also contribute to conditions where the virus will very likely mutate further and could ultimately delay the global recovery from this pandemic.”

The World Health Organization reports there are more than 7.3 million cases of coronavirus infections on the African continent, including 184,000 deaths. It is calling for a two-month moratorium on booster shots, so countries can beef up their vaccine supplies.

Moeti says some progress is being made in this regard. She notes the COVAX Facility has delivered nearly 10 million vaccine doses to Africa so far this month. That, she says, is nine times what was delivered in the same period in July.

"Vaccine coverage, unfortunately, remains low, with only two percent of Africans being fully vaccinated against COVID-19," said Moeti. "… We are hopeful that COVAX shipments will keep ramping up to reach 20 percent of Africa’s population by the end of this year. And coupled with deliveries from the African Union and bilateral deals, WHO’s hoped-for target of vaccinating 30 percent of people by the end of the year is still within our reach.”

West Africa has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. WHO reports a 193 percent increase in fatalities over the past four weeks. This is happening at a time when several West African countries are grappling with outbreaks of other diseases, including cholera, Ebola, and Marburg virus Disease.

Moeti says fighting multiple outbreaks is a complex challenge. She notes that West Africa health systems are more fragile than those in other sub-regions. She says they are under great strain due to the surge of COVID-19 cases. She is appealing for major investments by governments and donors to ensure outbreaks are continuously prevented, detected and quickly contained.

Source: Voice of America

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened problems of conflict, terrorism, and scarce resources in Central Africa to plunge millions of people deeper into poverty. That's according to members of the regional bloc CEMAC. CEMAC heads of state Wednesday called for solidarity to improve living conditions in the six-nation economic bloc.

During a virtual heads of state summit Tuesday, the central African leaders said the advent of COVID-19 forced the closure of many businesses and caused millions of workers to lose their jobs.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is chairman of the CEMAC heads of state conference. He says it is regrettable that many people are reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Biya says it is not possible for CEMAC to attain herd immunity when fewer than 5% of its close to 60 million people have agreed to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He says CEMAC member states should make sure all their people are vaccinated against COVID-19 so that the economic bloc can get to the crucial point of revamping its economy to fight against hardship.

Christophe Mbelle is an economist at the University of Yaounde. He says the COVID-19 crisis increased unemployment by between 60% and 70% across CEMAC countries.

Not even pharmaceutical companies were immune to the effects of the pandemic.

Mbelle says local companies only produced 5% of medicines needed by central African countries last year. He says in 2020, CEMAC countries invested more than $269 million to import drugs from Europe and America. Mbelle says if not for COVID-19, he is sure the $269 million would have been invested in home industries to create jobs and improve the well-being of suffering civilians.

The six nations of CEMAC are dealing with multiple crises within their borders in addition to COVID-19. Cameroon and Chad are fighting Boko Haram terrorism on their common borders with Nigeria.

Cameroon is fighting armed separatists in its English-speaking western regions. The U.N. also says that rebels have continued to challenge authorities in the Central African Republic with unending clashes since 2014.

The region is also dealing with the effects of climate change. This week, CEMAC said several thousand people fled intercommunal violence sparked by conflicts over water from the Logone River that separates Cameroon from Chad. The Lake Chad Basin Commission says the lake's water resources have diminished by 70% within the past 50 years, and several million people in the area lack water and food.

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, issued a statement Tuesday after her virtual participation in the CEMAC summit from Washington. She said in 2020, COVID-19, combined with an ensuing decline in oil prices and security issues, had led to a deep recession and imposed a heavy toll on CEMAC member states.

She said the countries’ fiscal positions were weakened and external reserves depleted.

Georgieva said CEMAC must accelerate the vaccination campaign to ensure a sustainable economic recovery.

CEMAC anticipated a 2.8% economic growth rate in 2021. In April, though, the Bank of Central African States, which serves as the central bank for CEMAC countries, cut the anticipated growth rate to 1%, saying COVID-19 was slowing the economy.

Source: Voice of America

KAMPALA - Uganda has resumed mass vaccinations against COVID-19 after running out of doses in June. But even with less vaccine hesitancy, essential workers say the rate of vaccination is too slow.

Two health workers share a table facing a long line of Ugandans waiting to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Many are here for their second shots and the officials have to check the system, to see if they qualify for it.

Seventeen-year-old Kawalya Paul is among those standing in line as he waits for his card to be verified and stamped.

Even though he is not on the priority list of those to be vaccinated, Paul explains to VOA why he decided to come.

“Actually, my mom’s boss, succumbed to Covid. Every time he was all very protective. He could not talk to you in case you’re not putting on a mask. So, I was like, if he was able to get it, yet he‘s a doctor and a big man, I was like, what about me, why shouldn’t I? Because I saw the virus was close,” he said.

The priority list for vaccinations includes teachers, security personnel, health workers, the elderly – who are defined as people over 50 years old – and those between 18 and 50 with underlying health conditions.

At the end of July, Ugandan authorities received 1.72 million doses of vaccine, and are hoping to get another 11 million in September.

The pace of vaccination remains slow. So far only about 1.1 million Ugandans have been inoculated.

But, officials are hopeful that Ugandans are now eager to get the vaccine and have opened up vaccination centers at Kampala’s Capital City grounds and the Namboole National stadium.

Pius Okethwengu, the Namboole hospital administrator, said they are seeing a large turnout of people at the stadium. He predicts the goal of inoculating 10,000 people this week will be surpassed.

“We are having this activity, starting today, in the next five days, to be able to have attended to all these clients that we are looking for. But, with the response that we are seeing, we are estimating that actually we should be able to even exceed that. And the beauty is, the vaccines are there and, we should be able to give the services to the people,” he said.

The vaccination drive is raising hope that authorities will lift the restrictions on schools, public transportation and religious institutions imposed last month amid a new wave of coronavirus cases.

The minister of education said on July 30 that schools could reopen if all children between the ages of 12 and 18 are inoculated.

Othieno Leonard, a secondary school teacher, does not expect to see educational facilities reopen any time soon.

“I don’t think so. I really feel, given the pace at which they are vaccinating, it is going to take us way longer to put us in a situation where we can call it normal. So, for now, I don’t have hope that they can open soon,” said Leonard.

The Ministry of Health says about seven million children would need to be vaccinated before classes can resume.

Source: Voice of America

KAMPALA, UGANDA – Uganda has lifted some COVID-19 restrictions after 42 days, while others stay in place. The lockdown of schools remains until, the government says, some essential workers including health workers, security personnel, teachers, and those over 45 years old, are vaccinated.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Friday night announced the partial lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown after 42 days.
Museveni says the decision was made by the National Task Force after considering a decrease in cases, positivity rates and hospital admissions.
Among other factors, the task force also considered the degree of adherence to safety, procedures by the population and the effects of a continuous lockdown on the economy and on residents. However, there are still restrictions even with this partial lifting of the lockdown.
“Curfew time is maintained at 7:00 p.m. Number two, boda bodas are now allowed to move up to 18:00 hours,” Museveni said. “They are now allowed to carry one passenger. Schools should remain closed until sufficient vaccination of the eligible population of children aged 12 to 18 years old has taken place.”
Business centers are now required to clear pathways through rented kiosks and places of worship remain closed for another 60 days. In addition, outdoor sports events will be held without spectators, and bars and indoor sports activities remain closed until the population is sufficiently vaccinated.
With this partial lifting of the lockdown, Museveni says the National Planning Authority and task force officials project that cases could be reduced to 85 per day by the third week and 66 cases per day by the 28th day. Officials are urging the population to observe standard safety procedures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
As of July 29, Uganda had registered 252 new cases with 29 deaths in the previous 48 hours. Cumulative confirmed cases stand at 93,927.
Public transport has been allowed to resume with half the normal number of passengers and private vehicles are only allowed three occupants.
Ugandan Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng says the COVID-19 mass vaccination program was slowed down by the global shortage of vaccine because the demand outweighs production.
Aceng says the Ugandan government has issued a list of vaccines that can be used in the country including AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Sputnik Light and Moderna, adding that Health Ministry officials are doing everything possible to obtain vaccine.
“Government of Uganda’s strategy is mass vaccination of the eligible population of 22 million people, representing 49.8% as a means of optimal control of the pandemic and full opening up of the economy,” Aceng said. “In addition, consideration will be given to children aged 12 to 15 years with comorbidities.”
In his address, Museveni said schools should continue teaching online, something that has kept many schools and poor students out.
Ismail Kisule, a private school teacher says the past year has been difficult since his income has been cut.
“Since the first lockdown, we have not got any hope of going back to teach. Which means we have not been getting paid,” Kisule said. “So, when the government says they are going to wait until they vaccinate more people so as to allow us resume work, will worsen our situation and force us to drop teaching.”
Uganda has concluded the legal requirements with the COVAX facility to acquire 9 million AstraZenca vaccine doses. Additionally, an order of 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been requested from the African Union and a downpayment of $3 million has been made.
Uganda has received 1,725,280 doses of vaccine in the past week from China and Norway. It is still not clear when those vaccines will be distributed.

Source: Voice of America