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by Sophie Pons with Algiers, Rabat and Tunis bureaux RABAT, Morocco (AFP) — In Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, workers in informal jobs fear not only the novel coronavirus, but how they will survive emergency measures that have cut off their livelihoods. “We are stuck at home, with no work and no pay,” said Hakim, a 30-year-old father who until last week worked in a bar-restaurant in the Moroccan capital Rabat. His boss told employees he […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Tuesday said it planned to organize financial aid for poor countries, especially in Africa, to help them from becoming future sources of coronavirus contamination. “We will have the opportunity to mobilize a real financial package, of help, to prevent this epidemic from veering towards regions or sub-continents which aren’t contaminated today but could be a risk for us tomorrow,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the National Assembly. Just […]
by Sophie Bouillon and AFP bureaux in Africa LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Equipment shortages, scarce beds, and poorly-paid doctors and nurses: Africa is finding that it has few means to protect itself as a feared coronavirus tsunami looms. Earth’s poorest continent has so far confirmed around 1,800 cases and 57 deaths — a tally that is low compared with Europe, the Middle East, and Asia but is now ratcheting up quickly as testing remains patchy. […]
by Susan NJANJI PRETORIA, South Africa (AFP) — Numerous sub-Saharan countries acted to stem the spread of coronavirus on Monday, with South Africa announcing a soldier-patrolled lockdown and Senegal and Ivory Coast each declaring a state of emergency. The pandemic had been slow to spread in Africa compared to the Middle East and Europe, but in recent days the number of deaths and infections has increased, sparking concerns about the continent’s vulnerability to contagious diseases. […]
by Armel Baily with David Esnault in Abidjan Agence France-Presse OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AFP) —Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first COVID-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organization urged the continent to “prepare for the worst”. “Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that “in other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain […]
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) — Ivory Coast officials on Tuesday burnt three tonnes of scales of the pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on Earth. The scales were seized in raids in 2017 and 2018, following which some 20 people were arrested. Beijing announced a total ban on the sale and consumption of the pangolin after the novel coronavirus outbreak. The scaly mammal — listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) as threatened […]
by Susan NJANJI with African bureaux JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — The coronavirus is spreading fast beyond its China birthplace but sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world’s most vulnerable regions, has so far been almost spared — and experts want to know why. More than 2,760 people worldwide have died of COVID-19 and almost 81,000 infected in over 45 countries. Most of these have been in China, but cases are now rising fast in parts […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Egypt’s health ministry on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in Africa. The sufferer was not Egyptian, the ministry said in a statement, without specifying the nationality. “The ministry has taken preventative measures and is monitoring the patient… who is stable,” said health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed. Egyptian authorities had notified the World Health Organization and the patient been placed in quarantined isolation in hospital. The […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs called on the international community Monday to help East African countries affected by locust swarms, expressing his deep concern over the situation. “There are 13 million people in the affected countries who are severely food insecure now,” said Mark Lowcock during a UN press conference. “Ten million of those people are in the places affected by locusts.” Lowcock, who said he had recently […]
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — African states, including the continent’s biggest economy Nigeria, on Wednesday said they had begun to introduce measures aimed at stopping the spread of the new coronavirus. No verified infection has been reported to date in sub-Saharan Africa, but elsewhere countries have stopped flights to China and airlifted their citizens out of the area where the virus emerged. Nigeria issued a travel advisory advising “all Nigerians and persons intending to travel […]
“Ravenous swarms” of desert locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, already unprecedented in their size and destructive potential, threaten to ravage the entire East Africa subregion, the UN warned Monday. Recent weather in the region has created conditions that favour rapid reproduction of the crop-devouring insects. Left unchecked, their numbers could grow 500 times by June, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. “The speed of the pest’s spread and the […]
by Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali and Emmanuel Parisse Agence France Presse KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir was sentenced Saturday to two years’ detention in a correctional centre for corruption in the first of several cases against the ousted autocrat. The charges stemmed from millions of dollars received by the toppled strongman from Saudi Arabia. Bashir, who was deposed by the army in April after months of mass protests against his […]
