Day: October 20, 2022

The World Health Organization warns Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has stagnated, putting the continent’s 1.2 billion people at higher risk for this ever-evolving virus.

New numbers from the WHO show a significant decline in new vaccinations, with immunization rates dropping by more than half between July and September.

At this rate, WHO officials say most countries in Africa will miss the global goal of vaccinating 70 percent of their populations by the end of the year.

Despite this setback, WHO says modest progress is being made towards vaccinating high-risk population groups, particularly the elderly. In other good news, the agency reports over the past 12 weeks, Africa has recorded the lowest case numbers since the start of the pandemic, adding that deaths remain low across the region.

WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, says in many ways, Africa is a victim of its own success.

“It is important to note that vaccine supply is no longer problematic; countries are now receiving about double the number of doses per 100 people than at the end of last year…Unfortunately, as vaccines have helped avert serious COVID-19 illness, hospitalization and death, people are less fearful, and so also less willing to get vaccinated,” said Moeti.

Several African countries have defied the statistics and racked up vaccination

successes. WHO reports Liberia now has joined Mauritius and Seychelles in reaching more than 70 percent coverage and Rwanda is on target to join them soon.

Liberia’s Health Minister, Wilhelmina Jallah, explains how her country achieved this milestone.

“The magic bullet was decentralization, making sure each county ran their own vaccination campaign and the participation of all the health care workers and the vaccinators and the support from all of the partners…And making sure that the vaccines were available. That is key to success,” said Jallah.

Aurelia Nguyen is special adviser to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance. She says GAVI so far has supplied 670 million doses to Africa. She says vaccines will continue to be sent to Africa for as long as the pandemic continues and poses a threat.

“We have enough doses to go around. We are especially determined to make sure the vulnerable groups are protected. And so elderly health care workers, primary series but also boosters,” Nguyen said. “And this is the only way that we are going to be able to ensure that lives are saved and that the health systems hold strong if we have a new variant or a surge.”

More than 250,000 people in Africa have lost their lives to COVID-19. WHO officials say high vaccination coverage in populations reduces the spread of the virus, helps prevent new variants from emerging and saves lives.

Source: Voice of America

KAFR EL-SHEIKH, Egypt– Bathed in the warm sun and pleasant breezes of the Mediterranean, cotton bolls bloomed on the research farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station, in Kafr El-Sheikh in the Nile Delta region of northern Egypt.

A dozen cotton pickers were hard at work, removing the bolls from the plants and putting them into bags. On the side of the field, huge burlap sacks of cotton piled up like a small hill.

Two varieties of cotton were grown on the research farm, Giza 97, one of the most cultivated cotton varieties in Egypt, and Giza 93, one of the best cotton varieties in the world.

This year’s harvest on the farm will provide Egyptian agrotechnicians with the information to further improve the breeding and cultivation of the two cotton varieties.

Salah Saber, leader of the cotton seed breeding team at the research farm, said that, agrotechnicians’ hard efforts have made a significant contribution to the production of top-quality cotton, on which Egypt takes great pride.

“We have succeeded in breaking the negative correlation between the cotton yield and quality, and managed to get both at the same time,” he said.

He explained that a feddan (0.42 hectare) of cotton, which used to produce about seven to eight kantars (45.02 kilos) of seed cotton, now produces about 12 to 13 kantars.

Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), reported that the export of Egyptian cotton in the previous cotton season, which started in Sept, 2020 and ended in Aug, 2021, reached 1.7 million kantars.

The CAPMAS data also showed, cotton production in the country reached 2.3 million kantars in the 2020/2021 season, a 31-percent increase over the 2019/2020 season.

Saber said that, the boom in cotton production is driven by both Egypt’s plans to expand the cultivation of the cash crop and improve cotton breeding and cultivating technologies.

Egypt’s agrotechnicians have been seeking to create cotton varieties that satisfy the demands of farmers, those of merchants, in terms of the quantity of lint produced, and those of the global market, in terms of quality, staple length, fiber strength and softness, Saber added.

Samar Salem, a cotton picker, said that, she was happy to work in the farm, whose research will bring benefits to the country’s cotton industry and improve the living condition of millions of Egyptian farmers.

Source: Nam News Network

About 50 people were killed and nearly 300 injured in violence that broke out in Chad on Thursday as hundreds took to the streets to demand a quicker transition to democratic rule.

Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo, who gave the death toll at a news conference, said the government was still compiling casualties from what he described as an armed insurrection.

But human rights groups said that unarmed civilians were massacred as security forces brutally cracked down on demonstrations in the capital, N’Djamena, and several other cities.

The vast, military-run Central African nation has been in crisis since the April 2021 death of President Idriss Deby, who ruled with an iron fist for three decades.

His son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power in the immediate aftermath and initially promised an 18-month transition to elections, but on October 1 he announced they would be pushed back by two years.

Opposition and civil society groups called for the protests on Thursday, which would have marked the end of an initially agreed-upon 18-month transition period. The government banned them, citing security reasons.

But demonstrators showed up early in the morning, barricaded roads and torched the party headquarters of the new prime minister.

“What happened today is an armed popular uprising to seize power by force, and those responsible for this violence will face justice,” said Kebzabo, an opponent of Deby’s regime who was named prime minister of a new “unity government” last week.

“The demonstrators had firearms and they are considered rebels. The security forces responded only in self-defense,” Kebzabo said.

The International Federation for Human Rights and its partner organizations in Chad said the protests were violently repressed by security forces and that cases of live gunfire, torture and arbitrary arrests had been reported.

Amnesty International researcher Abdoulaye Diarra said security forces used live rounds on protesters, based on witness accounts and analysis of photos and video from the day.

Chadian journalist Oredje Narcisse, who had worked with Reuters in the past, was among the dead, his brother said.

Other confirmed victims included a policeman who was fatally wounded in clashes, a 28-year-old protester who was shot in the neck, and Chadian musician Ray’s Kim, who died in a hospital.

“It’s clear that an impartial investigation is needed to determine if protesters resorted to looting and violence and if security forces unlawfully resorted to lethal force across the country,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Riots have been intermittent in Chad since Deby seized power last year, but Thursday’s appeared to be the bloodiest.

The government declared a state of emergency and a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., although the president had already declared a state of emergency on Wednesday because of catastrophic floods.

“I firmly condemn the repression of demonstrations that led to deaths in Chad,” African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, who is a former prime minister of Chad, tweeted, calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

“We are concerned about the violence in the context of demonstrations in Chad today, which has reportedly led to the loss of lives and injuries,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

He called on authorities to ensure the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly for all Chadians, and for all parties to refrain from excessive use of force and violence.

Source: Voice of America

The British Defense Ministry says it is seeking to ensure retired members of the British Royal Air Force who were recruited via a South African company to train pilots in China’s People’s Liberation Army are fully aware of the risk of prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

China has been recruiting former British military pilots to train their own personnel, Britain’s defense ministry said in a statement this week, warning that it “erodes the UK’s defense advantage” and that steps are being taken to stop it.

The Ministry’s Defense Intelligence Service issued a rare “threat alert” on Tuesday and its officials said that British pilots who transfer expertise to the Chinese military – possibly even teaching them how to defeat Western helicopters and warplanes – could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

Many of the 30 pilots believed to be involved were lured to work in China with the promise of lucrative salaries, officials said. Pilots from other allied nations have also been targeted.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey spoke to Sky News about Britain’s concerns.

“There is no secret in their attempt to gain access to our secrets, and the recruitment of our pilots in order to understand the capability of our air force is clearly a concern to us,” he said.

Multiple media outlets reported an unnamed Western official as saying many of the pilots were being recruited through the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a private company in a remote, semidesert area in the Western Cape, which allegedly was acting as a headhunter for the Chinese.

The company has a long history of involvement with China, saying on its website that it provides training to cadets from various Chinese airlines, as part of a deal with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate. The website also says the company has experience with several aircraft used by the People’s Liberation Army.

Thomas Newdick, a writer specializing in air warfare at The Warzone, an American defense website, told VOA the company had made no secret of its relations with the Chinese on the commercial side.

“They have broader relationships with Chinese aviation industry, including parts of the industry that are responsible for military aviation as well, so it’s not a huge leap to imagine they may also have connections with the People’s Liberation Army as well,” he said.

Darren Olivier, director at the African Defense Review, said the aviation center has been operating openly for a number of years.

“With the caveat that we don’t have specific detail on what type of training the company’s been providing, what’s been revealed so far does indeed seem legal,” he said.

Tensions rising

However, he said, what made it controversial was that this kind of training would dramatically help accelerate China’s military aircraft programs. It comes as geopolitical tensions between China and the West are on the rise, he noted.

A receptionist at the academy told VOA on Wednesday that she was aware of the controversy surrounding the company and would pass on a request for comment. Multiple emails then went unanswered.

However, the academy’s president, Jean Rossouw, told Business Insider South Africa that no laws had been broken and the company did not deal with any client projects that could include classified information. He said the company had never recruited pilots directly from the British military, but that they were all retired pilots already working as contractors in the Middle East.

Jasmine Opperman, a South African security consultant, said there are many former army personnel in South Africa who provided training or acted as private military recruiters. But she said the reports about the flight academy were concerning.

“The problem for South Africa is you have a registered South African company responsible for training now acting as a go-between for two foreign entities,” she said.

In his speech to the Communist Party Congress in Beijing this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of security and the need to grow the country’s military – the world’s second largest after that of the United States. He also reiterated that China reserved the right to use force, if necessary, regarding Taiwan.

Source: Voice of America