Day: March 17, 2022

African health groups have warned that the COVID pandemic has led to a rise in drug and alcohol abuse on the continent, but a gap in data is making it hard to monitor. In South Africa, a Soweto-based nonprofit is scrambling to help youth to stay clean and sober.

Substance abuse — particularly alcohol consumption — has been on the rise in Africa for years, according to the World Health Organization.

The coronavirus pandemic that resulted in job losses and school closures has now amplified the problem.

The Ikageng children’s charity in Soweto says as many as 10 young people contact them daily suffering from addiction. Lydia Motloung, the acting program manager says that “during the lockdowns, they used to go and drink and some they were left in the houses alone, the parents are at work. And they start having the house parties and introduced to the alcohol, end up into crystal meth, which is very common around here, especially with schoolchildren.”

While Ikageng monitors the rise of addiction in the young people they’re helping, Motloung says national statistics on drug and alcohol abuse are sorely lacking.

“We normally get the statistics for COVID, you get the statistics for HIV, but we will never had any statistics for drugs and substance. I think if we can have that plan, the government can have that plan. … And then start funding the organization that are working with drugs and substance so that they fight it as they’re fighting for HIV and AIDS as they’re fighting for COVID,” she noted.

It’s not just South Africa that is lacking data on substance abuse, but the continent as a whole.

Florence Baingana is the African regional advisor on substance abuse for the World Health Organization.

“We may not count the exact numbers in each and every country. We know we have a problem. We also know that the services are inadequate, that one we know for a fact. Very often the alcohol treatment centers in the government facilities are underfunded. But I think if we were to begin by investing resources into building up the services, then we would be able to collect the data,” Baingana expressed.

She says investing in prevention would also be beneficial and less costly than treating addiction later on.

Ikageng’s caregivers like Nomali Monareng look for warning signs among the children they support.

She knows them first-hand, having struggled with addiction herself.

“Sometimes we need to start with parents. Most of children don’t, you don’t know how to talk about their feelings, don’t know how to express. Children need to be, to be taking care in all of their life, in all areas, like talking, having the conversation, even if it’s deep, even if it’s uncomfortable, you need to give the child a chance to talk,” she pointed out.

For those looking to get clean, the organization refers them to support groups that help people transition in and out of rehab.

They’re trying to offer skills training as well, so recoverees can find jobs and a purpose.

Vusi Nzimande is a project manager for the support program called Still We Rise.

“Where you find people idling, they don’t do nothing with their lives. That’s one of those things that causes us because of the mind is playing around. You started thinking too much. You don’t have a job; you don’t have anything to do. And then suddenly you see yourself going back to your old ways,” Nzimande said.

For the young people he’s helped, getting clean has been the first step. But experts say they’ll need opportunities and jobs to give them hope and keep them out of trouble in the long run.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

The Malian government says it will suspend broadcasts of Radio France Internationale and France 24 television in the country. The announcement followed reports by French media and a rights group that the Malian army has committed human rights abuses in recent months.

Mali’s military government issued a statement Thursday that it will “initiate proceedings” to “suspend, until further notice” RFI and France 24 broadcasts in Mali.

The move came after RFI and Human Rights Watch reported on human rights abuse allegations against Mali’s army.

The government said the allegations are false and are part of a “strategy aimed at destabilizing the transition, demoralizing the Malian people, and discrediting the valiant armed forces.”

Human Rights Watch published a report on Tuesday that included alleged witness accounts of executions and other abuses committed by Malian soldiers and, separately, by Islamist extremists.

The report also includes interviews with those who visited the site of a mass grave near Diabaly, Mali. The grave contained the bodies of several victims who were burned with their hands tied behind their backs, videos of which have been circulating on social media in recent weeks.

Locals have accused the army of committing the executions, and say the victims are ethnic Fulani men who were unfairly targeted.

Mali’s army denied claims that they were responsible for executions that occurred near Diabaly.

Mali’s military government, which took power in a 2021 coup, in February suspended the accreditation process for foreign journalists.

Regarding the threatened suspensions, France Médias Monde, the parent company of RFI and France 24, issued a press release Thursday stating that it will “investigate all avenues of appeal to ensure that such a decision is not implemented.”

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

West Africa is beginning to open up to the world again. As COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted, cultural events, like the Intercultural Circus Festival of Abidjan, or RICA, are returning.

At the festival in downtown Abidjan on Wednesday evening, performers did parkour and performed backflips and somersaults, while clowns pulled in members of the audience to participate, to the delight of children and adults alike.

The festival was held last year, but it was much smaller because of the pandemic.

RICA founder Chantal Djedje says COVID-19 made organizing the festival very difficult.

Djedje said, last year, they wanted to keep the festival going, but there were very few companies from the Guinea-Burkina sub-region, and this year the festival has become more colorful because there are nine companies and 57 artists from many different countries.

This year, RICA is hosting acts from Lebhanon, France, Morocco, Guinea, as well as a troupe of acrobats known as Atoufa, from Burkina Faso.

Atoufa’s artistic director, Mahouzou Tanyan, says he faced obstacles becoming a circus performer.

He said it took courage to get involved in circus performance because his parents hate him doing it. Tanyan said, “If I was not here, I would be in the village right now, because they didn’t want me to do this job. But thanks to God, today I have been able to develop my skills to this level.”

Atoufa’s performance reflects the ongoing war in Burkina Faso against armed terrorist groups, said Tanyan.

He said the movements of the performance help them express what it is like to experience war. He said that the war has changed everyone’s lives in Burkina Faso.

The festival, said to be the largest of its kind in West Africa, has helped promote African circus performers internationally, said RICA director Djedje.

“There are many from the continent who have gone on to Cirque du Soleil. And now they want to come back to the continent and create a circus that is much more of their identity, that is linked to African traditions,” Djedje said.

The festival is taking place as West African nations, including Ivory Coast, are dropping mandatory COVID-19 testing for arriving travelers who are fully vaccinated.

 

 

Source: Voice of America