Author: Online Portal

A rash of killings across Africa has renewed focus on the risks facing those working to expose wrongdoing.
The killings of two journalists in Cameroon and a respected human rights defender in Eswatini, along with the suspicious death of a well-known editor in Rwanda have raised questions about whether justice will be done.
The cases also underscored the dangers of impunity ¬¬¬— with such incidents sending an unsettling message to government critics and the free press.
“There can be no doubt that when journalists are killed with impunity there is a chilling effect. It’s trite, but murder is the ultimate form of censorship,” Angela Quintal, head of the Africa program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA.
“The lack of consequences for those who kill or harm journalists obviously also emboldens others who believe they too can get away with it or allows those who threaten journalists to continue to do so,” she said.
In the case of Martinez Zogo, the Cameroonian journalist was forced into a car, having in vain sought help from a police station during the kidnapping. He was heard shouting “Help me, they want to kill me,” according to reports.
His body was found a few days later, naked and badly mutilated.
The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said that Zogo’s “fingers were cut off, his arms and legs were broken in several places, and a steel rod was rammed into his anus.”
Two weeks later, Ola Bebe, a radio host and priest, was found dead close to his home in the capital.

The killings prompted a U.N. Human Rights spokesperson to call on authorities to “take all necessary measures to create an enabling environment for journalists to work without fear of reprisal.”

The Cameroon cases were not isolated.

On Jan. 21, an outspoken critic of Africa’s last absolute monarchy, Eswatini lawyer and columnist Thulani Maseko, was shot dead through the window of his home.

He had been a constant thorn in the side of the government of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, and had been jailed for more than a year in 2014.

Amnesty International’s Southern Africa spokesperson Robert Shivambu told VOA at the time that Maseko’s death had sent a chilling message to pro-democracy activists and could signify an escalation in attacks against those who are openly seeking political reforms.

On Jan. 18, John Williams Ntwali, editor of Rwanda’s Chronicles newspaper, died when a speeding car hit the motorcycle he was traveling on.

The death of a journalist who had frequently faced threats in relation to his work raised questions among media watchdogs about whether it was really an accident.

Human Rights Watch noted that prior to his death, Ntwali had told a friend that he’d survived a number of “staged incidents” in Kigali, and a fellow Rwandan journalist told VOA that the night before he died, Ntwali had seemed anxious.

All three countries have poor records on RSF’s Press Freedom Index, with Rwanda placing 136, Cameroon 118 and Eswatini 131 out of 180 countries where 1 denotes the best conditions.

Still, authorities in each case have vowed to investigate.

This week, a Rwandan court identified the driver of the vehicle that hit Ntwali as Moise Emmanuel Bagirishya. A court convicted Bagirishya of involuntary manslaughter and fined him $920.

However, the trial was not open to the public and Bagirishya was not present for the sentencing.

CPJ’s Quintal says that the lack of transparency “merely feeds into the suspicions that all is not what it seems.”

“We cannot say for sure that it was indeed an accident until there are more facts and questions answered,” she said.

Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author of a book on Rwanda, Do Not Disturb. The story of a political murder and a regime gone bad, told VOA the country had a track record of political assassination.
“People die in road accidents in Africa every day, but Rwanda isn’t like any other African state,” she said. “This is a country with a track record of extrajudicial killings, mysterious disappearances and arbitrary arrests involving journalists, opposition party members and human rights activists.”

“Crucially, John Williams Ntwali told friends that he was receiving death threats, lived in constant fear, and had been repeatedly ordered to report to police headquarters. In that context, his death is highly suspicious,” Wrong said.

In the case of Maseko, many rights groups have intimated the government could have been connected to the killing. His death came just hours after the king, Mswati III, spoke against activists challenging his rule.

Government officials have angrily denied such claims.

Despite promising a swift investigation, no arrests have yet been made.

Eswatini government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo told VOA that authorities were investigating numerous crimes, and that “no one case is above the other.”

He added that Maseko’s murder “is indeed taken seriously but not in isolation from other cases.”

In Cameroon however, multiple arrests have been made in the killing of Zogo, including Justin Danwe, deputy head of Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Investigations.

Danwe, who confessed to participating in the kidnapping and murder, implicated other senior officials.

VOA sent an email to the Justice Ministry requesting comment but as of publication had not heard back.

More arrests came Monday, as police detained businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga and two of his associates.

In his reporting for Amplitude FM, Zogo had alleged that Belinga was involved in a public embezzlement scheme.

CPJ’s Quintal acknowledged the high-profile arrests as a “welcoming sign,” but she said “as yet, no one has been charged and very little has been made public.”

“There are ‘leaks’ from certain quarters, but there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and misinformation and even disinformation,” she said.

“Given the reality of Cameroon today where there is a power struggle between elites with an ailing President [Paul] Biya who has been in power for 40 years, we are watching to see how things play out and whether there will indeed be justice for Martinez Zogo,” she said.

Source: Voice of America

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Mary Beth, thank you very much, and good morning, good afternoon, good evening.  It’s great to see so many friends and colleagues on the screen today.  Thank you so much for joining the fourth and actually final COVID-19 Global Action Plan Ministerial meeting.

So we created this campaign almost exactly a year ago, with a pandemic disrupting the lives and livelihoods of virtually everyone on our planet.  We came together appreciating that foreign ministries and multilateral institutions have a critical role to play in coordinating and prioritizing this challenge across borders and across bureaucracies, because we know that a pandemic is not just a health crisis – it’s a security crisis; it’s an economic crisis; it’s a humanitarian crisis.  Health security is national security.

We launched the Global Action Plan as an intensive 12-month effort – mobilizing over 33 countries as well as the European Union, the African Union, the World Health Organization – to help lead the world out of the acute phase of COVID-19.  And thanks to the work of so many of you, along with NGOs, the private sector, our health and frontline workers, we’ve made significant headway.

We know the pandemic is not over, but we have reached what the WHO considers a transition point.  While COVID will be with us for the foreseeable future, we have dramatically reduced global deaths and severe illness.  We’ve managed the effects of COVID through increasingly available vaccines and treatments, and we’re figuring out how to apply lessons from this pandemic to enhance health security going forward.

Across all six lines of effort that we laid out a year ago, our progress has been impressive and, in some cases, remarkable.  First and foremost, this group has helped get shots into arms, with nearly 64 percent of people around the world having completed their first two doses.  Greater coordination through GAP has also strengthened supply chains and improved distribution to some of the most remote corners of the world – whether shipping supplies like syringes where they’re desperately needed, or inventing new cold chain storage solutions, as Japan so innovatively did.  We combatted misinformation and disinformation, hosting local information sessions to address misperceptions and help skeptical communities appreciate that vaccines are safe and beneficial.  GAP has also taken steps to support health workers on the frontlines, from providing personal protective equipment to getting those workers vaccinated.

Today, nearly 90 percent of health workers around the world are fully vaccinated, and greater protection for our health workers means that they’re able to better care for others.  We’re also strengthening testing and treatment to ensure that those at the highest risk can get tested as soon as they develop symptoms and rapidly receive medication and care if needed.  That includes partnering with the private sector in places like South Africa to make medical oxygen more affordable.

Finally, we’re working to strengthen global health security.  That means improving our collective early warning systems for detecting diseases, speeding up production and distribution of vaccines, PPE, and tests.  It means negotiating a pandemic accord with other WHO members, as well as boosting financing for preparedness like with the new pandemic fund that the World Bank and the WHO are putting together.  The United States has already pledged $450 million to that fund, and we’ll be looking to other nations, including many of you, for your contributions and your leadership.

Taken together, we’re building a world better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to the next pandemic, and to do so quickly, effectively, and equitably, because an equitable approach is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

Despite all of this progress, we know that real challenges remain.  Too many older and immunocompromised people are not getting vaccines or antiviral treatments, and new variants an unanticipated obstacles could of course set us back.  The world cannot succumb to the cycle of panic and neglect that we saw with Ebola in 2014 and Zika in 2016.  We like to say that this time is different.  Now, we actually have to prove it.

In the long term, we need to institutionalize the role that foreign ministries played in the COVID response and apply it to our continued efforts to strengthen health security.  The pandemic underscored that we have to confront these shared challenges together.  GAP showed that we are capable of doing that.  Now, I think it’s on us to try to maintain the momentum to safeguard the health of our people, to save lives.

As we open today’s discussion, I simply want to say this:  Thank you.  Thank you to all of you for your engagement – and especially the countries that have served as ministerial cohosts: Japan, Bangladesh, Botswana, and Spain.  And now I look forward to hearing from everyone else.  Thanks so much.

Mary Beth, back to you.

Source: US State Department

Although investing in school health and nutrition has a positive effect on children’s academic outcomes, one-third of schools worldwide still do not have access to drinking water and basic sanitation facilities, three UN agencies said in a report published on Wednesday.

It is estimated that some 584 million children have limited or no access to basic drinking water services at school.  

Nearly half live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

A supportive environment

Furthermore, even though practically all countries in the world provide school meals, roughly 73 million of the most vulnerable children still do not benefit from these programmes. 

“Students learn best in safe and healthy schools,” said Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General.

Speaking on behalf of the partners, she urged the international community to support countries in investing in health, nutrition and social protection at school “because children deserve an environment where they can reach their full potential.”

Feeding young minds

School meals alone increase enrolment and attendance rates by nine per cent and eight per cent, respectively, the report revealed.

In places where anaemia and worm infections are prevalent, de-worming and micronutrient supplementation can keep children in school for an additional 2.5 years.

Additionally, students are 50 per cent less likely to skip school when the learning environment is free from violence, and absenteeism is reduced in low-income countries when promoting handwashing, particularly for girls during menstruation, when water, sanitation and hygiene is improved.

Return on investment

The report also addresses other issues such as the promotion of eyecare, mental health and well-being of children, and prevention of school violence.

Measures like these represent a significant return on investment for countries, in addition to improving the lives of children and adolescents, with benefits extending to homes and whole communities.

For example, every $1 invested in school feeding programmes generates $9 in returns, according to the report, while school programmes that address mental health can potentially deliver a return of nearly $22.

A lesson from Malawi

UNESCO spoke to Wezzie Kacheche, who teaches life skills education, also known as comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), at a secondary school in northern Malawi.

Students there increasingly dropout of school due to early and unintended pregnancy, early marriage, and drug and substance abuse.

Ms. Kaleche provides her students with appropriate information about health and sexuality, helping them to “demystify adolescence” at a time where young people get most of their information online or from their peers.

“One of the girls in my class was on the verge of dropping out of school due to her risky sexual activity and drinking habits,” she recalled. “Upon watching a video about sexually transmitted infections during my class, she came to me to seek more information privately.”

Unequal and insufficient

Currently, 90 per cent of countries globally invest in school and nutrition programmes, and more than 100 nations organise school vaccination drives, said UNESCO, pointing to some of the good news in the report. 

One in two primary school children receives school meals and nearly every country includes education for health and well-being in its curriculum.

Unfortunately, investments are unequal from region to region, and are often insufficient compared to the needs. The report advocates for stronger commitment from governments and support from the international community. 

Globally, investment stands at only $2 billion annually whereas some $210 billion is needed in low- and lower middle-income countries alone.

Key interventions are needed, the partners said, including provision of school meals, vaccinations, de-worming, psychosocial support, and safe and inclusive learning environments that promote health and well-being.

Source: United Nations

Calling for a swift crackdown on infant formula corporations’ exploitative marketing tactics, a leading World Health Organization (WHO) scientist said, in a paper published on Wednesday, that nursing mothers need urgent support.

“This new research highlights the vast economic and political power of the big formula milk companies, as well as serious public policy failures that prevent millions of women from breastfeeding their children,” said Nigel Rollins, one of the authors of a series on the $55 billion-a-year industry and their marketing “playbooks”, published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

“Actions are needed across different areas of society to better support mothers to breastfeed for as long as they want, alongside efforts to tackle exploitative formula milk marketing once and for all,” he added.

650 million lack ‘maternity protection’

The three-paper series recommends much greater support for breastfeeding within healthcare and social protection systems, including guaranteeing sufficient paid maternity leave.

Currently, around 650 million women lack adequate maternity protections, the papers noted.

Written by a group of doctors and scientists, the series examines how formula marketing tactics undermine breastfeeding and target parents, health professionals and politicians, and how feeding practices, women’s rights and health outcomes, are determined by power imbalances and political and economic structures.

“Breastfeeding is not the sole responsibility of women and requires collective societal approaches that take gender inequities into consideration,” the authors wrote. Indeed, reviews from 2016 to 2021 and country-based case studies indicate that breastfeeding practices can be improved rapidly through multi-level and multi-component interventions.

Dairy lobbyists’ misleading claims

The World Health Assembly has already addressed the decades-long challenge of questionable marketing practices among infant formula producers. In 1981, it developed the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, following an investigative report on Nestle’s targeted marketing in low and middle-income countries in the 1970s.

The new series stated that misleading marketing claims and strategic lobbying from the dairy and formula milk industries add to the challenges parents face.

Such claims as suggesting that formula alleviates fussiness, can help with colic, and prolongs nighttime sleep, are only increasing parents’ anxiety, the papers stated.

Linda Richter, of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and series co-author, said the formula milk industry uses “poor science” to suggest, with little supporting evidence, that their products are “solutions to common infant health and developmental challenges”.

This marketing technique “clearly violates the 1981 Code, which says labels should not idealize the use of formula to sell more product,” she added.

Breastfeeding’s immense benefits

WHO recommends exclusively breastfeeding infants for at least six months. The practice provides immense benefits to babies and young children, from reducing infection risks to lowering rates of obesity and chronic diseases later in life.

However, globally, only around half of newborns are put to the breast within the first hour of life.

Corporations exploit lack of support

At a time when less than half of newborns are breastfed, as per WHO guidelines, the series explains how the industry’s marketing exploits the lack of support for the practice by governments and society.

The tactics also misuse gender politics to sell its products, framing breastfeeding advocacy as a “moralistic judgment” while presenting milk formula as a “convenient and empowering solution” for working mothers, the authors found.

Politicizing breastmilk

Drawing attention to the power of the milk formula industry to influence national political decisions, the series stated that the companies also interfere with international regulatory processes. For instance, the dairy and formula milk industries have established a network of unaccountable trade associations that lobby against policy measures to protect breastfeeding or control the quality of infant formula.

In the face of those pressures on parents, the series’ authors made several recommendations; among them was a need for broader actions across workplaces, healthcare, governments, and communities, to effectively support women who want to breastfeed. They also called for formal recognition of the contribution of women’s unpaid care work to national development.

Set of recommendations

Series co-author Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, of the Yale School of Public Health, highlighted other critical steps.

“Given the immense benefits of breastfeeding to their families and national development, women who wish to breastfeed need to be much better supported so that they can meet their breastfeeding goals,” he said.

“A large expansion in health professional training on breastfeeding, as well as statutory paid maternity leave and other protections are vital.”

Source: United Nations