Month: May 2024

The 11th Nollywood Week Film Festival kicked off in the French capital, Paris, on Thursday. As its name suggests, this festival is all about Nigerian cinema, but it’s not the only one.

Over a period of four days, the large numbers of visitors will be able to watch productions from countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco, and even the United States.

In total, more than a dozen short and feature-length films are showing, to the delight of African film fans.

Aissata Seck is director of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de l’esclavage (Foundation for the Memory of Slavery) and a big fan of African cinema. She says she has no regrets about making the trip.

“I love it because we get all kinds of stories. And sometimes you have the feeling of finding yourself through your own personal stories,” she says.

“Particularly because, even though I was born in France, I have a dual culture and therefore an African culture, and for me it’s important to see this type of film and to do so with my daughters.”

For Olivier Kissita, himself an actor and director, this kind of festival is necessary in order to promote African cultures.

“There’s strength in numbers. To be taken seriously, you need to be numerous, so I think the idea is to walk as a community, in numbers, to have a better chance of showing the richness and different cultures of the continent and even beyond.”

Beyond that, because culture has the power to overcome differences and break down barriers. Barriers that are often in our heads, as co-founder of the festival, Serge Noukoue, explains.

“In the realities portrayed in the films, whether at Nollywood Week or elsewhere, there are sometimes more similarities than differences,” he says.

“And so what’s important is to be able to recognise ourselves in others and also to be curious, to maintain that curiosity that enables us to take an interest in what’s happening in Nigeria and in Africa in general.”

That, he believes, is an important element that underpins the very creation of Nollywood Week.

The festival opened with the film is “Atiko” by Nigerian director Biodun Stephen. It tells a powerful tale of resilience and willpower. A universal story.

“It’s an African story. Anyone with that skin colour understands this story, whether they speak Yoruba, French, or any other language. If you’re black, you know this story,” says Stephen who attending the opening.

This year’s Nollywood Week also has a special focus on animated films and integrated virtual reality. An industry already estimated to be worth over $100 million in Nigeria alone.

The festival runs until Sunday 5 May.

On Thursday, protesters blocked a bus which was believed to have arrived in Peckam (southern London) to embark asylum-seekers bound for a controversial barge.

The Bibby Stockholm barge, a 222-room, three-storey boat was chartered by the UK government last year. It is currently moored off Dorset one of the UK’s poorest coastline communities.

The demonstrators slashed the tires of the bus before sitting on the road.

The bus that was eventully escorted without its anticipated passengers.

READ ALSO: UK migrant barge sparks debate on asylum seeker treatment

The Home Office, the UK’s interior ministry, has used the Bibby Stockholm barge, to try to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country.

The Conservative government has said hosting asylum seekers in hotels “costs millions of taxpayers money every day” and seeks to cut the expenditures.

Legionella bacteria was found in barge’s water supply last year, prompting the evacuation of migrants and asylum seekers housed there.

Congo is struggling to contain its biggest mpox outbreak, as scientists say a new form of the disease detected in a mining town might spread more easily among people.

A New Phase of Monkeypox Emerges

Since January, Congo has reported more than 4,500 suspected mpox cases and nearly 300 deaths, numbers that have roughly tripled from the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization. Congo recently declared the outbreak across the country a health emergency.

An analysis of patients hospitalized between October and January in Kamituga, eastern Congo, suggests recent genetic mutations in mpox are the result of its continued transmission in humans; it’s happening in a town where people have little contact with the wild animals thought to naturally carry the disease.

“We’re in a new phase of mpox,” said Dr. Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, the lead researcher of the study, who said it will soon be submitted to a journal for publication. Mbala-Kingebeni heads a lab at Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research, which studies the genetics of diseases.

Genetic Mutations Spark Concern

The lesions reported by most patients are milder and on the genitals, Mbala-Kingebeni said, making the disease trickier to diagnose. In previous outbreaks in Africa, lesions were mostly seen on the chest, hands and feet. He also said that the new form seems to have a lower death rate.

In a report on the global mpox situation this week, WHO said the new version of the disease might require a new testing strategy to pick up the mutations.

With experts pointing out that fewer than half of people in Congo with mpox are tested, Mbala-Kingebeni said: “The risk is that unless patients themselves come forward, we will have a silent transmission of the disease and nobody will know.”

Mbala-Kingebeni said most people were infected via sex, with about a third of mpox cases found in sex workers. It was not until the 2022 global emergency of mpox that scientists established the disease was spread via sex, with most cases in gay or bisexual men. In November, WHO confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in Congo for the first time.

Vaccination Challenges in Congo

There are two kinds, or clades, of mpox, which is related to smallpox and endemic to central and west Africa. Clade 1 is more severe and can kill up to 10% of people infected. Clade 2 triggered the 2022 outbreak; more than 99% of people infected survived.

Mbala-Kingebeni and colleagues said they have identified a new form of clade 1 that may be responsible for more than 240 cases and at least three deaths in Kamituga, a region with a significant transient population traveling elsewhere in Africa and beyond.

Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University who is not connected to the research, said the new mutations are concerning.

“This suggests the virus is adapting to spread efficiently in humans and could cause some pretty consequential outbreaks,” she said.

Echoes of HIV Concerns

Although the mpox epidemics in the West were contained with the help of vaccines and treatments, barely any have been available in Congo. Congo’s minister of health has authorized the use of vaccines in high-risk provinces, said Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo’s Monkeypox Response Committee. He said officials are in talks with donor countries like Japan to help buy the shots.

“Once a sufficient quantity of vaccines is available … vaccination will be implemented as part of the response,” Kacita Osako said.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, an mpox expert at Niger Delta University, said the new research is an unsettling reminder of an earlier — but different — outbreak.

“The notable spread among sex workers is reminiscent of the early stages of HIV,” he said, explaining that prejudices attached to treating sexually transmitted infections and the reluctance of people with mpox to come forward were worrying.

WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said last week that despite the ongoing spread of mpox in Africa and elsewhere, “there has not been a single donor dollar invested.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel had made “very important” compromises in ceasefire efforts and that it was now up to the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, to get the deal done.

He was speaking after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the last leg of his seventh trip to the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted last October

“The hostage deal that’s on the table would produce an immediate ceasefire, get the hostages home, alleviate the suffering of Palestinian people in Gaza, and also give us something to build on for the future to get to durable peace and security,” he said.

The US top diplomat said Israel had demonstrated its “desire and willingness to get this agreement and get it done” and that the ball was now in Hamas’ court.

“Hamas has to decide whether it will take this deal and actually advance the situation for the people that it purports to care about in Gaza. There is no time for delay. There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there. They should take it,” Blinken said.

The militant group said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

Talks in Egypt appear to be stalling with disagreements over Hamas’ demand that a ceasefire include an end to the war and full withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.

Netanyahu has pledged that Israel will invade the southern city of Rafah, Hamas’ last stronghold, with or without a deal.

Blinken said Washington remains opposed to the operation until Israel finds a way to protect civilians in the city.

An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are seeking shelter in Rafah, most of them people displaced by the war in other parts of the territory.

The United Nations on Tuesday warned that an Israeli assault on the city was imminent and that a ground operation there would be “nothing short of a tragedy beyond words”.

Kenya’s President William Ruto on Thursday appointed Maj Gen Fatuma Gaiti Ahmed as the first female commander of the air force.

This move follows the tragic helicopter crash last month, which claimed the lives of the military chief and others, prompting the need for new leadership.

Alongside Maj Gen Ahmed, other leaders were appointed, including a new head of the armed forces. Gen Charles Kahariri was promoted to fill the vacant position left by the late military chief.

Maj Gen Ahmed’s journey to this prestigious role has shattered gender barriers throughout her career, becoming the first woman to achieve the ranks of brigadier and major general in a military leadership dominated by men.

Her military career began in 1983 when she joined the Women Service Corps, a separate entity from the main military services, focusing on support duties such as administration, logistics, medical, and communication. With the disbandment of the unit in 1999, women were integrated into the main military services, opening up more opportunities for them to excel.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, during Maj Gen Ahmed’s promotion to major general in 2018, emphasized her role as a positive role model for women in the country. He encouraged her to prove that there are no limits for women in any profession.

Maj Gen Ahmed’s determination to succeed despite discouragement from some family members reflects her resilience and commitment to making a difference. Inspired by her uncle’s military career, she embraced the values of discipline and hard work that shaped her life from an early age.

Her rise through the ranks serves as a testament to the progress towards gender equality in the armed forces, setting an inspiring example for women across the nation.