Month: April 2023

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday vowed that general elections expected later this year would be free and fair.

His comments were made during a speech to mark the country’s 43 years of independence from British colonial rule.

Mnangagwa won the country’s disputed 2018 elections that his main rival, Nelson Chamisa, insists were rigged.

The latest polls, due to take place in July or August, are expected to be tense and come at a time when his ruling ZANU-PF party stands accused of cracking down on opposition voices.

It has been in power since leading Zimbabwe to freedom, but both rights organisations and analysts say the country is witnessing a deepening of authoritarian rule.

Human rights group, Amnesty International, on Tuesday described the situation as a rapidly shrinking civic space.

“Freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly have come under increasing attack. Dissenting voices are being criminalised,” said Amnesty’s Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya.

“The authorities have refused to give clearance for some of the main opposition party’s rallies, arresting and convicting peaceful protesters, and using unnecessary and excessive force to stop protests.”

Mnangagwa faces widespread discontent as he struggles to ease entrenched poverty, end chronic power cuts, and crippling unemployment.

Analysts says the 2023 election is unlikely to bring Zimbabweans relief from the economic crisis which has been exacerbated by hyperinflation.

Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, is back in the news after a seven-storey building under construction collapsed on First Avenue, in the Banana Island area of Ikoyi.

The latest incident in the exclusive neighbourhood of some of the wealthiest Nigerians brings to fore what seems to have become an incident common in the southwestern state.

While residents try to figure out why Lagos has continued to be in the news for cases of building collapse, building experts question the role of government agencies in the approval processes for buildings in the state.

A Former President of Nigerian Institute of Building, Kenneth Nduka says the inability of government to prosecute those responsible for building collapses in the country is a factor fueling reoccurrence.

‘Let me integrate backwards, there have been collapses and these collapses have been investigated. I am yet to hear or maybe I am not being so cognizant of what is happening, but I am yet to hear that Mr. X or Mr. Y has been sent to jail because he participated in the development of a building that has collapsed.’ Nduka Said

Nduka while reacting to the collapse of a seven-storey building under construction in Lagos called on the Lagos state government to ensure buildings in the state are constructed under proper guidelines.

‘If you are using material, there is a specification of the type of material you use. If you are going to start a multistorey building, it should be such that there should be geotechnical investigation of the soil.” Nduka says.

Officials of the state government who visited the site of the incident said rescue efforts were in top gear to find whoever was trapped under the rubble.

On Thursday, April 13 a team of Lagos state government officials were on the scene of the incident for an on-the-spot assessment.

Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyitolu, Director General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency says the rescue team swung into action on getting to the site.

‘With our combined effort, we were able to recover seven people alive. Those people that were rescued were treated on the spot and discharged.’ Oke-Osanyitolu said.

‘One was transferred to a private hospital where he is receiving adequate treatment.’ He adds.

Mobolaji Ogunlende, Special Adviser to Lagos Governor on Special Duties and intergovernmental relations gave an update on the rescue effort .

‘Lagos State Emergency Ambulance Services (LASAMBUS) were already on ground by the time I personally got here, they had treated about 7 to 8 minor injuries on getting to the scene. And a few of them we felt needed to go to the hospital have been taken to the hospital.’ Ogunlende said.

When asked of the fatality figure, he said ‘In terms of fatalities which you asked, as of this moment we have not recorded any fatalities. We are here, our equipment is here, what we are trying to do now is to see how we can go through the rubble very quickly to say if and indeed any fatality we can recover.’

According to the Lagos State health authorities, out of the 25 persons rescued by emergency responders, 16 victims who sustained moderate injuries were receiving treatment.

Africanews Correspondent David Agunlouye Tayor reports that the Building Collapse Prevention Guild in Nigeria says Lagos State has recorded 115 building collapses in the last 10 years.

The United Nations warned Friday that it would no longer be able to feed 600,000 refugees in Chad within weeks unless it receives urgent international funding.

The UN’s World Food Programme said Chad was hosting the biggest refugee population in west and central Africa, with the numbers rising due to unrest in neighbouring Sudan.

The WFP said that despite refugees being a priority, it had to reduce its plans to support 455,600 refugees down to only around 270,000 in April.

“We have already done a drastic targeting to ensure that the poorest among the poor will be assisted,” WFP’s Chad country director Pierre Honnorat told reporters in Geneva via video-link from the capital N’Djamena.

However, “we have absolutely no funding from May onwards for the refugees and displaced people. It’s really catastrophic.”

WFP wants $142.7 million for the next six months to feed all crisis-affected populations in Chad, including refugees, the 380,000 internally displaced, and other Chadians who have been hit by extreme weather in recent years.

“If no further funding is received, food assistance will come to a 100 percent halt in May 2023 for both refugees and internally displaced,” the agency said in a statement.

Chad is facing its fourth consecutive year of very high severe food insecurity.

The country suffered the worst lean season in a decade last year, plus the most devastating floods in 30 years. WFP said there were 1.9 million people in Chad who are food insecure.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said it was looking to raise $172.5 million to provide protection and relief assistance to one million forcibly displaced people and their hosts in Chad.

“That is just 15 percent funded so we desperately need money for that country,” UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters.

He said the agency was encouraging Nigeria and Chad to look at voluntary returns of refugees.

“The numbers envisaged might be relatively modest but we think this is an important signal in terms of finding solutions for the displaced in Chad but also for the region.”

A new malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University has been given the green light by Ghanaian authorities for use in that country, a first for the much-hyped vaccine, according to a statement released Thursday.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Oxford University scientists and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, “has been approved for use in children aged 5-36 months, the age group most at risk of death from malaria,” according to the University statement.

“It is hoped that this crucial first step will enable the vaccine to help Ghanaian and African children effectively fight malaria,” it said.

Malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, killed 627,000 people – mostly African children – in 2020 alone.

In September 2022, Oxford researchers had already expressed hope for the vaccine.

The approval in Ghana “marks the culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research at Oxford, with the design and availability of a highly effective vaccine that can be delivered on an adequate scale to the countries that need it most,” Oxford vaccine specialist Adrian Hill, head of the R21/Matrix-M program, said Thursday.

It is “a low-dose vaccine that can be manufactured on a large scale and at a modest cost, which would provide hundreds of millions of doses to African countries with a high malaria burden,” he added.

The vaccine contains Matrix-M adjuvant, a vaccine ingredient patented by Novavax and also used in the U.S. biotechnology company’s Covid vaccine.

In 2021, another vaccine, produced by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, became the first malaria vaccine to be recommended for widespread use by the World Health Organization (WHO). But research has shown that the effectiveness of GSK’s vaccine was about 60% and declined significantly over time, even with a booster dose.

According to a study published in 2021, Oxford’s R21/Matrix-M vaccine was 77% effective in preventing malaria. This was the first time a vaccine exceeded the WHO efficacy target of 75%.

Thirty-two Kenyan herders have been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court martial in Uganda after pleading guilty to illegal possession of weapons, a military source told Africanewsguru tv on Thursday.

The 32 men, arrested on Saturday and tried in Moroto, an area in northeastern Uganda bordering Kenya, were found “guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition,” said Brigadier General Joseph Balikuddembe , stationed in Moroto.

According to this officer, the 32 herders from Turkana county in northern Kenya were arrested after intense firefights. Some 31 rifles and 762 cartridges were recovered in a joint operation by security forces and intelligence services, he said.

Armed clashes are frequent in this region where the porous borders of Uganda, South Sudan, and Kenya are located, in particular for the control of livestock which is becoming increasingly rare due to a historic drought that affects East Africa.

Sudan’s military on Thursday (Apr.13) warned of potential clashes with the country’s powerful paramilitary force, which it said deployed troops in the capital and other cities.

In a statement, the military said the buildup of the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country had come without “approval or coordination” with the Armed Forces’ leadership.

It said the RSF measures “have stirred up panic and fear among people, exacerbated security risks and increased tensions between regular forces.”

The military said it has attempted to “find peaceful solutions to such violations” to prevent “an armed conflict” with the RSF.

The military’s statement came as the RSF deployed troops in the northern province on the border with Egypt. Local media reported that the paramilitary force had attempted to build a military base there.

The opposition between the Chairman of the Sudanese ruling junta General Al Burhan and his deputy who leads the Rapid Support Forces Gen. Dagalo has brought the transition to civilians to a standstill.