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The Zambian government has declared 21 days of national mourning for that country’s first president Kenneth Kaunda, who died at the age of 97 yesterday at Maina Soko Medical Centre in Lusaka, Zambia. In a statement confirming the nationalist’s demise, Zambia’s Secretary to the Cabinet Simon Miti said entertainment activities would be suspended while the …
The post 21 days of national mourning for Kenneth Kaunda appeared first on The Times Group Malawi.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
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African leaders will open a two-day virtual summit Saturday to discuss the continent's Covid-19 response as well as security issues that have been overlooked during the pandemic.
The most efficient way for Africa to reverse the effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and prepare for any future pandemic is to assert its independence in economic, scientific and political terms, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has suggested.
According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Anyaa-Sowutuom, COVID-19 and its economic fallout had helped to highlight the long-term efforts needed to strengthen the continent's health systems, diversify its economies and broaden domestic revenue sources.
She said \"I wish to state that COVID-19 is another major test of the resolve of the African Union and its member states to advance development on the continent.
Chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, commenting on the statement, asked African leaders to step up efforts to ensure the infection rate on the continent did not spike.
This was because the West was concentrating on itself, and called for the establishment of an African Economic Recovery Programme to help resurrect the continent's economy, which had been hard hit by the pandemic.
The African Development Bank’s board agreed to an independent probe of its president, Akinwumi Adesina, after the U.S. rejected an internal investigation that cleared him of allegations of favoritism.
Africa’s largest multilateral lender decided on the inquiry after several governments backed U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s criticism of a bank-led examination into the allegations, the people said, asking not to be identified because details aren’t public.
The scope and detail of the allegations are serious enough for a further inquiry to ensure the AfDB’s shareholders have confidence in the bank’s leadership, Mnuchin said in the May 22 letter addressed to Niale Kaba, the chairwoman of the bank’s board of governors.
“If there are questions from major shareholders on the appropriateness of an internal process, clearly it’s not harmful if that is put into a different light and looked at from the outside world with fresh eyes,” SP analyst Alexander Ekbom said before the decision of the probe was taken.
U.S. criticism of the bank’s internal processes follows comments by World Bank President David Malpass in February that multilateral lenders including the AfDB tend to provide loans too quickly, and, in the process, add to African nations’ debt problems.
There are now more than over 380,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
According to the latest data by the John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when.
As of May 13, every African country had recorded an infection, the last being Lesotho.
We shall keep updating this list largely sourced from the John Hopkins University tallies, Africa CDC and from official government data.
SUGGESTED READING: Africa’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 mark
Major African stats: June 29 at 7:00 GMT:
\t
\t\tConfirmed cases = 382,190
\t\tActive cases = 189,973
\t\tRecoveries = 182,553
\t\tNumber of deaths = 9,664
Countries in alphabetical order
\t\tAlgeria – 13,273
\t\tAngola – 267
\t\tBenin – 1,149
\t\tBotswana – 92
\t\tBurkina Faso – 959
\t\tBurundi – 170
\t\tCameroon – 12,592
\t\tCape Verde – 1,155
\t\tCentral African Republic – 3,429
\t\tChad – 866
\t\tComoros – 272
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 1,087
\t\tDR Congo – 6,827
\t\tDjibouti – 4,643
\t\tEgypt – 65,188
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 2,001
\t\tEritrea – 191
\t\tEswatini – 781
\t\tEthiopia – 5,689
\t\tGabon – 5,209
\t\t(The) Gambia – 45
\t\tGhana – 16,742
\t\tGuinea – 5,342
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,614
\t\tIvory Coast – 9,101
\t\tKenya – 6,070
\t\tLesotho – 27
\t\tLiberia – 768
\t\tLibya – 762
\t\tMadagascar – 2,078
\t\tMalawi – 1,146
\t\tMali – 2,147
\t\tMauritania – 4,149
\t\tMauritius – 341
\t\tMorocco – 12,052
\t\tMozambique – 859
\t\tNamibia – 183
\t\tNiger – 1,074
\t\tNigeria- 24,567
\t\tRwanda – 900
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 713
\t\tSenegal – 6,586
\t\tSeychelles – 70
\t\tSierra Leone – 1,427
\t\tSomalia – 2,894
\t\tSouth Africa – 138,134
\t\tSouth Sudan – 1,989
\t\tSudan – 9,257
\t\tTanzania – 509
\t\tTogo – 642
\t\tTunisia – 1,169
\t\tUganda – 859
\t\tZambia – 1,557
\t\tZimbabwe – 567
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa II
Zambia's former president Kenneth Kaunda, 97, is being treated for pnuemonia at a military hospital in the capital Lusaka, his office said on Tuesday.
The two Zimbabwean journalists arrested last week as they were investigating the abduction of three opposition party members have been released on bail, a lawyers' association said on Tuesday.
The pair were \"ordered not to interfere with witnesses and continue to reside at the addresses they gave the police until the matter comes to an end\", he said outside the Mbare magistrate's court in the capital.
Chikowore and Takawira were arrested on Friday at a private hospital where they were conducting interviews with an opposition lawmaker and two party officials.
Accused of not maintaining adequate social distancing between themselves and interviewees, the journalists were arrested by a police officer guarding the hospital and charged with breaching regulations to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Last month a Zimbabwean high court ordered police to desist from arresting, detaining or interfering with the work of journalists providing coverage during the Covid-19 lockdown which began March 30 in the southern African country.
Former president Thabo Mbeki recalled personal anecdotes of late former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda’s generosity and support for the ANC.
West African leaders have met the head of Mali's military junta to press for the return to civilian rule nearly a month after rebel officers seized power.
[allAfrica] Women and girls are hardest hit by social and economic circumstances stemming from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, according to analyses by multiple international organizations. Pre-existing poverty and virus-control restrictions leave millions across sub Saharan Africa without sanitary wear, clean water or medical supplies for children. Closed schools mean larger numbers of girls are forced into early marriage. Yet most women and girls who want protection from unwanted pregnancy, or are too you
Maybe it has been the inability to overcome the truncation of life and verve that fed hope of a better Burkina Faso - a better Africa, largely - but Thomas Sankara continues to be regarded as one of the most worthwhile examples of pro-people leadership more than 30 years after his death. He died a...
The post Why Thomas Sankara was not liked by some of his contemporary African leaders appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first Prime Minister ofNigeria before and after Nigerian independence from Great Britain in 1960.
Born in December of 1912 in Bauchi in Northern Nigeria,Balewas father, Mallam Yakubu, was a minor official in the Native Authority,part of the British colonial administration. Balewa received his primary education in Tafawa Balewa from 1922 to1925. He then attended Bauchi Middle Schoolin Bauchi from 1925 to 1928. Followingthis Balewa attended KatsinaTeachers TrainingCollege from 1928 to 1933where he received his teaching certification. After graduation Balewa returned to Bauchi Middle Schoolas a teacher where he taught English to his pupils.
During the next ten years Balewa rose in the ranks of theteaching staff, qualifying as a Teacher Grade I in Nigeria in 1944. The following year he was admitted to LondonUniversity Institute of Education, receiving his diploma in 1946. Balewa returned to BauchiMiddle School in 1949 as Headmasterand afterwards served briefly as Inspector of Schools in Nigeria.
Abubakar Balewa entered politics after returning to Nigeria. He and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello founded theNorthern Peoples Congress (NPC) to represent the Muslim majority in Northern Nigeria. Balewa was elected to the colonys Northern House of Assembly in 1946where he gave a famous and impassioned speech calling for a radical change inthe Native Administration and its relations with Great Britain. Soon after this speech the British beganrestructuring the Native Authority for self-rule and eventually Nigerianindependence. In 1955 Balewa wasappointed Federal Minister of Works and Transport by Nigerias Colonial Governor, SirJames Wilson Robertson. When Nigeriawas granted self governance in 1957 Balewa became Prime Minister. In January 1960, Balewa was knighted byQueen Elizabeth of GreatBritain.
Following Nigerian independence on October 1, 1960 Balewacontinued in his post as Prime Minister of Nigeria in a power sharingarrangement with Nnamdi Azikiwe, the countrys first
DfID has, in the years of its existence, been key to offering development assistance to countries with high numbers of people living in poverty in the areas of primary education; access to reproductive health care; and the tackling of infant, child, and maternal deaths, and this role substantially aided many developing countries towards the achievement of the erstwhile Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
This announcement, which came barely a month after President Trump threatened to end the United States' relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO), signals a de-prioritisation of foreign aid by the governments of the U.K. and the U.S., and with current global economic realities, this could appear to be the beginning of a trend.
Since World War II, the U.S has been a major source of foreign aid across the world, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, with aid from the U.S. and other high-income countries to Africa averaging $49 billion annually and Africa alone accounting for 20 per cent of U.S. aid.
Across Africa, deaths from HIV have reduced by about 50 per cent, however, if African governments do not start to think strategically about how to domestically raise finances in a climate with fast-dwindling foreign aid, much of the gains of the last decade could be wiped out.
The efficient running of these 30,000 primary healthcare clinics, many of which are decrepit and abandoned, cannot be borne by government alone, and this highlights the urgent need for well-structured public-private partnerships with keen regulatory oversight, to ensure the delivery of quality, accessible and affordable health services, including HIV care and treatment, to the majority of the population.
Realizing that what was happening in the United States would eventually spread to Africa, he began thinking of ways to help frontline health care workers from his home in Lusaka, Zambia.
Using PVC, foam, tape, elastic and staples, Manasyan and a team of volunteers have made more than 16,000 face shields that have been distributed to health care workers throughout the country.
The new goal is to raise $30,000 to make 50,000 face shields to be given to health care workers who are treating patients with COVID-19, collecting swabs and screening them.
While this initiative is helping health care workers, it is also supporting Barefeet Theatre’s efforts in helping children.
To donate and learn more about the Face Shields for Zambia initiative, visit the Face shields for Zambia #LusakaHelps (COVID-19) GoFundMe page
AFRICAN governments have been cheated for decades by Western countries through the assistance given to them under the auspices of aid and loans.
Why do African governments balance their budgets with aid from the developed nations that have lesser natural resources than African governments?
African governments have always attributed their failures to colonialism or sanctions whereas all such conditions took place decades ago and could have easily been averted and or could prompt them to strategise and come up with new ways of life.
The best African countries have managed to achieve towards that line is to have assembly points for forein car manufacturers — Japanese and German cars.
Why should individual African countries prefer trading with China or Europe when there is an abundance of markets within the continent of Africa and among African countries?
LGBT+ people existed freely in Africa before colonialism brought discrimination to the continent
The discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex in Africa has resulted in many of us being stripped of our dignity, with limited access to sexual and reproductive health services.
But a study published January of this year analysing regional enforceable treaties, from the \"African Charter on Human and People's Rights\" adopted in 1981 to \"Agenda 2063; The Africa We Want\", found none of them explicitly forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
Not specifically stating that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression is forbidden allows more room for the fostering hate against LGBT+ people.
In April 2015 the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights gave a South African NGO called the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) observer status, the first openly LGBT+ organisation to be granted this.
When African states, allies and human rights defenders choose to be silent over the fact that we are denied protection from discrimination, our access to fundamental services like decent sanitation and hygiene, healthcare, and subsequently our right to dignity and life, are limited.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to cancel interest-free debt owed by \"relevant\" African countries as part of Beijing's move to help the continent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a speech to a group of African leaders Wednesday, Mr Xi indicated that he will work with other international lenders to cushion African countries most affected by the novel coronavirus to enable them ride out the crisis.
Mr Xi spoke directly to African leaders via video link for the first time since the virus broke out.
\"Within the FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) framework, China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020,\" Xi told his audience, among them South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta and Senegal's Macky Sall, as well as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
\"For those African countries that are hardest hit by the coronavirus and are under heavy financial stress, China will work with the global community to give them greater support, by such means as further extending the period of debt suspension, to help them tide over the current difficulty,\" he added.
Analysis - The main task will be delivering an effective new structure that tackles internal dysfunction at the commission.
President Lazarus Chakwera says Zambia’s former President Kenneth Kaunda was a great statesman who championed the spirit of togetherness. Chakwera posted a condolence message on his Facebook page following Kaunda’s death. Kaunda died yesterday aged 97 after an episode of sickness at the Maina Soko Medical Centre in Lusaka. Chakwera said Kaunda’s life is intertwined […]
The post Chakwera pays tribute to former Zambian president Kaunda appeared first on Malawi 24.
The devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Africa's economy has shown that the continent can ill-afford a further delay in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), panelists in a web conference on Africa's economic recovery, post-COVID-19, said on Monday.
\"With the COVID-19 crisis, Africa must see the positive message that there comes a time when every groups of people should begin to fend for themselves and be independent and integrate the continent better in terms of trade and investment among ourselves as well as promote growth and development as a people, without always looking out for bailouts from outsiders,\" he said.
'ACFTA as the way'
Mr Oramah said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed so many weaknesses across Africa, ranging from lack of basic infrastructure to appropriate economic policies to help drive growth and manage the crisis of current magnitude.
He said \"massive hunger is looming if nothing is done before the end of the pandemic,\" adding that \"if governments in Africa allow hunger to take over from COVID-19, the continent would likely see political problems, since hungry people would start agitating.\"
On developing opportunities for more global support against COVID-19, Mr Maurer said the current crisis has provided an excellent opportunity to address the high incidence of extreme poverty in Africa, which has constrained investment.
[Tunis Afrique Presse] Tunis/Tunisia -- President Kais Saied announced on Tuesday during the summit of African economies in Paris, France, Tunisia's support to international calls to lift patents on vaccines against COVID-19.
Zambians feel the economic impact of the pandemic as the President unveils a recovery plan.
[The Conversation Africa] Kenneth Kaunda, the former president of Zambia, who has died in hospital in the capital, Lusaka, at the age of 97, was the last of the giants of 20th century African nationalism. He was also one of the few to depart with his reputation still intact. But perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, the standing of the man who ruled over Zambia for 27 years is clouded with ambiguity.
As Africa battles COVID-19 experts believe the pandemic will have an impact on elections and democracy in various African countries.
He is joining us from Washington D.C. United States of America where he has been able to co-ordinate, organize and advise international election observation missions in almost all African countries working alongside heads of state and government, ministers, elected officials and civic leaders.
But in countries that are committed to democratic governance I am sure that the leaders, elected officials, political party leaders and civic leaders would find ways to work with their respective election commissions so that there could be inclusive processes that will have everyone giving their input in how elections and other political processes could be managed through this period of COVID-19.
I will say that in the past two decades, we have seen a number of African leaders who have come forward to be proponents of democratic governance and who have made efforts to make sure that political power can change hands through the ballot box and that elections can be organised in a meaningful way that give voice to citizens.
But the test is going to be to see how African governments can take measures to soften the economic blow of the pandemic and how they can also work with other stakeholders to make sure that there is economic relief for the companies that will create jobs, for the private sector that will create jobs that young people still find opportunities in the post
COVID period and that countries can be stabilised in a way that will allow them to bounce back both economically and politically as well.
