April, 2021 - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

Residents flee Mogadishu

ABDI SHEIKH RESIDENTS of Mogadishu have fled some neighbourhoods, fearing fresh clashes between rival factions in Somalia's security forces, in a row about presidential term limits that has fuelled worries the country could return to all-out war. Government forces also raided an independent radio station and confiscated equipment. Forces loyal to the opposition hold parts of the city and the two sides clashed over the weekend, raising fears that al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents could exploit a security vacuum as state forces turn on each other. The unrest is the second bout of violence in Mogadishu over an extension to…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

AU special envoy succumbs to COVID-19

COVID-19

ABDERRAHMANE Benkhalfa, one of Africa’s leading politicians and a special envoy of the African Union has succumbed to COVID-19. Benkhalfa succumbed to COVID-19 on 23 April 2021 in a military hospital in Algiers. He was 71. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the immediate past chairperson of the AU, has expressed deep sadness at the passing of Benkhalfa, a financial expert and former Algerian Minister of Finance. During Ramaphosa’s year-long term as Chairperson of the African Union (AU), the President appointed Benkhalfa as one of five AU COVID-19 Special Envoys to mobilise international financial and other support for the African continental…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana president in self-quarantine

COVID-19

BOTSWANA's president will miss a Southern African regional meeting he had been due to chair to discuss recent attacks on Mozambique after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, prompting him to self-quarantine, his office has said. Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will be attending a summit of a division of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), where they will receive a report on how they can help Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province following Islamic State-linked attacks there. Botswana is the current chair of that division, which is tasked with promoting peace and security in the region. Vice President Slumber…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenyan tour guides take COVID-19 vaccine in hopes of tourism revival

COVID-19

AROUND 250 tour guides from Kenya's famed national parks lined up in downtown Nairobi yesterday to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, as part of a government effort to revive the tourism sector that has been battered by the pandemic. The vaccination drive comes ahead of the annual wildebeest migration across the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The migration typically draws several hundred thousand international visitors but last year drew a far smaller number of local tourists. Kenya's tourism sector lost close to $1 billion in revenue between January and October of last year, when the number of foreign visitors plunged by two…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Congo to lose 1.3-million shots

COVID-19

HEALTH authorities are reallocating around 75% of Democratic Republic of Congo's 1.7 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to other African countries to make sure they're used before they expire, a UNICEF representative has said. Congo received the doses from the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility on March 2, but delayed the rollout after several European countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca shot in response to reports of rare blood clots. The country began its vaccination campaign on April 19, but had administered doses to just 1,265 people out of its population of over 85 million as of Saturday, according to the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Medical supplies flow into India as COVID-19 deaths near 200,000

WORLD

SHILPA JAMKHANDIKAR, RUPAM JAIN and SANJEEV MIGLANI VITAL medical supplies poured into India yesterday as hospitals starved of oxygen supplies and beds turned away coronavirus patients, while a surge in infections pushed the death toll towards 200,000. Supplies from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in Delhi, said Reuters partner ANI, while France is sending oxygen generators able to provide 250 patients with a year's supply of the gas, its embassy said. Even China, locked in a year-long military standoff with India on their disputed Himalayan border, said it was trying to get medical supplies to its…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Climate dividends’ can help cut emissions and poverty, researchers say

ENVIRONMENT

SONIA ELKS HANDING 5% of the money rich nations raise from carbon emissions charges to sub-Saharan Africa would counter the impact of rising prices on the world's poorest people, researchers said on Tuesday. More and more wealthy countries are seeking to impose emissions charges on companies, but doing so risks pushing up the price of essential goods, which hits the poor hardest, said a study published in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers said that risk could be mitigated by handing the proceeds to households in the form of "climate dividends" and donating 5% to the poorest countries. "You can create…