October, 2020 - The African Mirror

Oct

2020

U.N. chief: time for national plans to help fund global COVID-19 vaccine effort

MICHELLE NICHOLS and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it is time for countries to start using money from their national COVID-19 recovery and response plans to help fund the World Health Organization's global vaccine plan. The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator programme and its COVAX facility has so far received $3 billion but needs another $35 billion. It aims to deliver two billion doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of next year, 245 million treatments and 500 million tests. "The ACT-Accelerator provides the only safe and certain way to re-open the global economy as quickly…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone anti-graft body summons ex-president Koroma for questioning

NEWS

UMARU FOFANA SIERRA Leone's anti-corruption body has summoned former President Ernest Bai Koroma for questioning under oath over allegations of graft while in office, it has announced. The summons by the anti-graft commission is the latest move in a campaign by Koroma's successor, President Julius Maada Bio, to call to account the previous administration that Maada Bio says took the country to the brink of economic collapse. His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, speaking at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, 20 January 2020 It concerns alleged wrongdoing in connection with mining, construction and procurement contracts, and…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga can be sent to U.N. court

NEWS

TANGI SALAUN RWANDAN genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga can be handed over to a United Nations tribunal in Tanzania, France's top civil court has ruled, dismissing his lawyers' arguments that he is too frail to be extradited. U.N. prosecutors accuse the former tea and coffee tycoon of bankrolling and importing huge numbers of machetes for ethnic Hutu militias who killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994. Kabuga's arrest in Paris in May ended a manhunt lasting more than two decades. He has denounced the charges, including genocide and incitement to commit…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Namibia fishing auction for COVID-19 cash flops

BUSINESS

NYASHA NYAUNGWA A fisheries auction in Namibia meant to pay for COVID-19 care has flopped, after bidders stumped up barely 1.3% of the $38 million offers accepted, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The government blamed speculators for the failure. In August, the government said it would auction its 60% share of the annual horse mackerel and hake output by the end of October, to raise funds for equipment and medicines. That 60% quota is normally reserved for state-owned company Fishcor, which has been caught up in a corruption scandal. It included 11,000 tonnes of hake, 72,000 tonnes of horse…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Russia to supply Egypt with COVID-19 vaccine in expansion push

COVID-19

RUSSIA has clinched a deal with Egypt to supply it with 25 million doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, as Moscow seeks to take a leading global role in fighting the pandemic. Russia's sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, said on Wednesday it had agreed to supply the vaccine doses to Egypt via Pharco, which it described as one of the country's leading pharmaceutical groups. "The agreement between RDIF and Pharco will help Egypt obtain an efficient and safe vaccine, Sputnik V, for almost 25% of its population," RDIF chief executive Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement. The deal follows earlier…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

‘God chose me’: Congo Ebola survivor finds new purpose

HEALTH

DJAFFAR AL KATANTY FOR Esperance Nyabintu, catching Ebola was a curse and a gift from God. A year ago the virus killed her husband. Most of her neighbours, friends and family abandoned her, such is the social stigma of surviving the disease. Undaunted by the challenge of bringing up 10 children alone, she has become a social worker, supporting other ostracised survivors like herself in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo. The epidemic, the second-largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was identified in 1976, has given her an enduring sense of purpose. "It makes me useful. I tell myself…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Proposal to ease Malawi’s strict abortion laws faces religious opposition

HUMAN RIGHTS

CHARLES PENSULO LAWMAKERS in Malawi are preparing to debate a bill that would ease the country's tight restrictions on abortion, but they face stiff resistance from powerful religious groups. Malawi currently allows abortion only when it is necessary to save a woman's life and has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, in part because so many women resort to dangerous backstreet terminations. Now some lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or where the pregnancy endangers the mother's physical or mental health, to be tabled in parliament…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Congo ‘jobs-for-sex’ expose prompts calls for greater scrutiny of aid workers

NEWS

NELLIE PEYTON VETTING aid workers more closely and giving women more power is critical to tackle sex abuse in humanitarian crises as exposed in a joint investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian, aid experts said on Wednesday. In the expose, 51 women recounted multiple incidents of abuse by mainly foreign aid workers during the 2018-2020 Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many saying men demanded sex to get a job or ended contracts if they refused. At least 30 women said workers from the World Health Organization (WHO) were involved and women also reported…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Good governance is the lynchpin for African progress

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ABDOULIE JANNEH COVID-19 has joined the climate emergency at a time when Africa is facing what Mo Ibrahim calls “a crisis in leadership and governance.” This crisis seems all the worse when we define governance as the delivery of goods and services that citizens legitimately expect their governments to deliver. Citizen’s expectations relate to the promotion and support of human rights and participation, safety and rule of law, socio-economic opportunities and human development. In view of the very mixed progress made so far in meeting these entirely reasonable expectations, the permanent question is how to apply Africa’s abundant wealth in…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Insights into how the US abortion gag rule affects health services in Kenya

HEALTH

BONIFACE USHIE, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center SARA E CASEY, Assistant Professor, Columbia University Medical Center TERRY MCGOVERN, Professor, Columbia University Medical Center THE Mexico City Policy – often referred to as the “Global Gag Rule” – is a US government policy that requires non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are not based in the US and that receive US global health assistance to certify that they will not provide, refer for, counsel on, or advocate for abortion as a method of family planning. The rule also applies to any non-US funding that the organisation may receive. The…